Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

58 reviews

valpuri's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Violence, Terminal illness, Murder, Medical content, Gore, Death of parent, Cursing, Body horror, and Blood

Moderate: Abandonment, Cancer, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

aleesquer's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Murder, Terminal illness, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Cannibalism and Infertility

relin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Medical content, Murder, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, and Mental illness

Moderate: Cursing, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Minor: Cannibalism, Eating disorder, and Physical abuse

Due to how necromancers work in this world, there is a lot of detailed descriptions of death, blood, and gore. Sometimes the blood/flesh of other people, most frequently their own in order to interact with bones and spirits. There is one description of a character that tied power to an eating disorder, but mentioned in passing. Medical trauma, terminal illness and cancer go together in one character

though mainly used to demonstrate how difficult it is to kill her.

All onscreen violence is either fighting skeletons/raised dead, sword fighting/melee, or a combination of both (and training montages). All the children in one house die

so that they could guarantee having a pregnancy with a necromancer.

kaylamoran's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

It was an extremely slow start, I considered DNFing it.  But once I got into it it was so worth it!
I love Gideon's sense of humor, I wish more book characters had a sarcastic wit like her.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Vomit, Violence, and Terminal illness

Minor: Toxic relationship, Slavery, and Religious bigotry

thatbookishfamily's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cancer, Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Murder, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, and Vomit

ha1yan's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

Gideon the Ninth is earth-shaking, genre-bending, universe-breaking, and House-destroying. This book is the start of a book series for the ages. Tamsyn Muir's world is at the intersection of sci-fi, fantasy, and visceral horror to build a uniquely brutal and rich story. The characters steal the show! Gideon is one of the most compelling protagonists I've ever read. It opened my eyes to see a lesbian character be physically strong, loud, and unapologetic about her interest in women. Every day is GLH (Gideon Loving Hours)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Blood, Gore, Murder, Suicide, Violence, Chronic illness, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Cancer, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Child death

plumpaperbacks's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

I’ve heard so many good things about Gideon the Ninth around the internet and was excited to finally see what the hype was all about.

Right away, I was drawn in by the unique world-building and protagonist herself. Gideon is snarky and hilarious, truly a well-developed, stand-out character. As the story progressed, Harrow grew on me as well. I loved the dynamic between the two girls—from enemies to reluctant allies to unexpected friends. The banter? Pure. Gold.

I was a bit disappointed that no romance blossomed between the two, as I thought that was going to happen. I’d seen people call the story enemies to lovers, but lovers, they were not. Ultimately this didn’t make or break the book for me, but if you’re also expecting a sapphic love story, you might want to adjust those expectations a bit.

I was also disappointed by the lack of deeper world-building. The concept of necromancers in space is unique and quite intriguing, but Muir doesn’t build much upon that. I know the story is set in a solar system of nine Houses on nine planets, ruled by some sort of immortal emperor, with each House specializing in a different type of necromancy. Beyond that, I couldn’t tell you anything, really. Gideon and Harrow come from the Ninth House—though Gideon was only raised there, whereas Harrow is the born heir—and the story takes place in the First House.

Additionally, I had many questions while I read, unrelated to the plot itself, that weren’t answered. How did Gideon, at eighteen, not know what a shower was? Sure, the scene where she discovered it by getting blasted with water was comical, but it doesn’t make sense. Do people in the Ninth House not shower? How do they get clean? It’s a small detail, yes, but it caught my attention and I can’t help but focus on what it might mean.

Many of my questions were related to the side characters, the members of the other Houses, Second through Eighth. I couldn’t tell you what kind of necromancy each specialized in; the only one I know is that the Ninth’s specialty was bones. It took half the book for me to figure out who was who and be able to recall them all in a timely manner. Hardly any of them had distinguishable traits, and most only appeared to either aid or oppose the protagonists.

Moving past that, the story is divided into five acts. I was intrigued from the start, but not truly invested until things started going wrong around the start of act three. I believe the middle chunk of the book is the best because of the character and relationship development, as well as the constant suspense. Once I got past the second half of act four, though, things seemed to drag on unnecessarily. There was more and more fighting, and I became less and less interested. The last hundred pages probably could’ve been shortened by about thirty.

And can I just say, I’m really, really not happy with the ending? ‘Cause I’m not. I don’t know why Muir made the decisions they did. Even with the slower pacing, I’d decided on a four star rating, but act five, short though it was, was enough to make me lower my rating by another half star. It also significantly lessened my interest in the sequel.

I know I’ve been quite critical throughout this review, but I did enjoy some aspects of Gideon the Ninth. Both protagonists were complex and entertaining, and Gideon was especially entertaining. Her narration truly made the book more memorable. I just seriously wish that Muir had spent more time developing the rest of the characters and world they created. If the ending was changed, I’d be okay with that too. I’m still planning to read the sequel, but my expectations are much, much lower than they were for this book.

Representation:

• two lesbian protagonists

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Self harm, Slavery, Physical abuse, Murder, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse

Moderate: Child death, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Bullying, Cannibalism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Religious bigotry, and Suicidal thoughts

aplatt's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

On the cover is a quote describing the story and it just says “Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space.” This is absolutely correct, but it left out that they have swords. 

The author shows an incredible and unique use of showing a story through a flawed characters perspective. For the majority of the book you have no clue what is happening or what anyone is doing because Gideon Nav is doesn’t really care to observe it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Child death, Violence, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Emotional abuse, and Death