Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

153 reviews

orlagal's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

idun_aurora's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Honestly, when my friend sold this book to me as "lesbian necromancers in space", I already knew it was going to my list of Best Books Ever. I was not disappointed! I laughed, I cried, both at the same time. The language is snappy and sassy, and the characters are well-written to the point they feel more real than some real-life people. Will definitely read again, and again.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

storykath's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Gotta say, I was very confused a lot of the time. I appreciated that there was no clunky exposition sections, but I did feel thrown into the deep end in terms of the universe and magic system and everything. As such, I didn't always fully understand why everything happened the way it happened (especially towards the end) but overall I could still appreciate what was going on.

Gideon was a fantastic narrator, funny and flawed and truly unique. She's chaotic and hilarious!

This book took me a while to get through, and I think that's partly due to my brain being picky about reading, but also partly because of how gory and tense things got in the story. I couldn't always stomach it for multiple chapters at a time. Between the injuries and the sometimes-dense plot, this was a book I had to tackle in smallish chunks. That being said, I'm starting the sequel right away so I don't forget any important plot points.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Genocide, Self harm, Terminal illness, Vomit, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Minor: Excrement, Medical content, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

askjeaves's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I wanted to love this book. But the writing was so dense, and many of the characters were hard to relate to--either terrible people, or good people who were doing terrible things, or just kind of irritating. My favorite characters were relegated to the sidelines and didn't get much time to develop. The romantic relationship that I think I as a queer reader was supposed to be invested in was fraught with manipulation and was ultimately very unhealthy. 

The premise was ultimately very cool, even if some of the book's cooler worldbuilding and lore were obscured by purple prose and needlessly clinical vocabulary. Knowing that the second book is told from the perspective of Harrow (who is particularly pretentious and manipulative) and is supposedly even more confusing at times means I probably won't continue the series.

Also, holy body horror batman! A lot of the visual descriptions reminded me of Annihilation. You've been warned. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Blood

Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Suicide and Vomit

beingsimba's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Cursing, and Vomit

carodonahue's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

annapox's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Self harm, Blood, Grief, and Cannibalism

Minor: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Infertility, Slavery, Suicide, Excrement, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and War

mayannecosplay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Absolutely masterful storytelling by Tamsyn Muir. This book is unlike anything I've ever read. Her writing is so sharp, witty, absurdly gory and gritty and just makes you laugh out loud in sheer incredulity. The characters she creates are so flawed and real that you will unwittingly form strong connections to them when you least expect it. The plot unravels in such a way that makes you scream for joy and despair. And so many queer characters, the absence of homophobia in this world being so refreshing! Just a bunch of disaster lesbians and their gay panic.

This is my second read of Gideon The Ninth (my first time as an audiobook) and the narrator made this experience SO FUN! I loved Moira Quirk's voices and intonations for each character, especially Harrow's posh and haughty accent and Palamedes' rough northern UK accent. Discovering and noticing all the little details that I missed on my first read was such a joy and re-reading plot twists still feel like a punch to the gut. I am absolutely hooked on this series and will still be thinking about it weeks later. 1000/10 would recommend looking for fan art and memes made by the Locked Tomb fandom to recover from the loss of finishing this book and its sequel and while waiting for the third to come out in fall 2022.

For the love of God, the King Undying, please check trigger warnings before reading this book, it's a graphic horror story about necromancers in a haunted and murderous mansion.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Suicide, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Child death and Vomit

spilledink's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really enjoyed this book! I finished it in two days, and it was very effective in creating emotional responses and attachment to its characters.

Gideon is definitely the best part of this book for me. She is definitely one of my favourite protagonists in any book, and I love her as a character. She is never frustrating in a way that makes her unlikeable, and her humour is a very welcome respite from many of the heavier, darker aspects of this book.

One thing I struggled with in this book was the sheer number of characters. There are nine houses, each with at least two prominent characters. That is already 18 at least moderately important characters to keep track of, never mind all the other characters that aren't directly related to the plot. The guide at the beginning was definitely useful, but I still found it a little difficult to keep track sometimes, especially in the scenes that were heavy on inter-house politics and that sort of thing.

The mystery element of this book is masterfully executed. It raises many questions, but utilises pace well in order to provide answers in a satisfying and intriguing way, without revealing the full picture at any point. I am a little iffy on some of the plot twists, but I will probably be rereading this book to see if the foreshadowing is just subtle and I wasn't good at picking up on it, or if they did indeed come a little out of nowhere.

I will admit that the relationship between the two main characters did not compel me at all.

Considering all the torture and abuse Gideon suffers and has been suffering since birth at the hands of Harrow herself as well as under her orders and instruction, I couldn't really buy into them getting closer. It is ambiguous as to whether it's romantic or just really closely platonic, but either way I could not get on board with it at all. I am talking some really awful stuff that Gideon suffers, here. As well as how completely cruel Harrow is to her at the beginning of the book. Maybe I'm just soft or biased or something. But seriously. Harrow does not deserve Gideon, I dislike her character, and I don't appreciate the execution of Gideon forgiving her for all of that torture, emotional and physical, just because Harrow is kind of sort of growing as a person. TL;DR: I didn't like the pool scene, and I articulated this badly.

Each character in this book, despite how many there are, is distinct. This is an impressive feat. I could say something about every character in this book, and there's like 25. Seriously good writing.

I've been having a bad reading streak with books recently, but this one was like a breath of fresh air.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Death, Gore, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit

prettyfunctional's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Slavery, Suicide, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Confinement, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit