Review by hex_meghead - Gideon the Ninth

hex_meghead 's review for:

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

4.0

adventurous dark tense slow-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: Complicated

The first half of the book was a very difficult read for me, it was incredibly slow and I didn't like how the worldbuilding was presented. There were also too many character names to remember (it didn't help that all of them had several different names/titles that were used interchangeably) and though the narrator did a fantastic job differentiating their voices, I only started to remember and recognize side characters

once half of the cast was dead

.
Despite my numerous gripes with the book, I have to give it four stars simply due to the fact that it's persistently been on my mind ever since I finished reading it. The last few hours of the book were fantastic and Harrow has to be one of my favorite characters ever. Even if I felt that the romance was kind of rushed and Gideon and Harrow went from

"Hey, I actually kind of like you" to "You are the only thing I care about in this world and I would literally die for you"

WAY too fast for me to find it believable, I was rooting for them.
I loved Gideon and Harrow as characters and how they got to be unapologetic badass bitches who seriously hated each other. A lot of stories advertise themselves as enemies to lovers but this is the first book I read where I felt that was actually accurate. I wish there were more female characters like this!

Content Warnings