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A review by shandyt
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
4.0
4.25 stars.
I'm not sure what my expectations were when I started this book, but by a few hours in, they'd all been blown out the water. It's definitely more sci-fi than fantasy, more The Westing Game than The Hunger Games. The author is a former writer of Homestuck fanfiction (some of which I'd read), and that definitely comes through in the cleverness and irreverence of the prose. I love the author's penchant for inventing words as the need arises, as well as Gideon's internal narration--her endless use of adjectives like dismal, dreary, horrible, abominable, etc., is a hilarious touch. Every character is distinctive, and almost all of them are surprisingly lovable. The description of the environments is engrossing, and the action intense. The mystery itself is a little thin, a little underexplained, but the plot mostly holds up (if you don't look too hard). Not what I was expecting, yes, but certainly a treat.
I'm not sure what my expectations were when I started this book, but by a few hours in, they'd all been blown out the water. It's definitely more sci-fi than fantasy, more The Westing Game than The Hunger Games. The author is a former writer of Homestuck fanfiction (some of which I'd read), and that definitely comes through in the cleverness and irreverence of the prose. I love the author's penchant for inventing words as the need arises, as well as Gideon's internal narration--her endless use of adjectives like dismal, dreary, horrible, abominable, etc., is a hilarious touch. Every character is distinctive, and almost all of them are surprisingly lovable. The description of the environments is engrossing, and the action intense. The mystery itself is a little thin, a little underexplained, but the plot mostly holds up (if you don't look too hard). Not what I was expecting, yes, but certainly a treat.