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A review by archaicrobin
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
adventurous
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Unpopular opinion here but this was a mess. There are too many characters, too many plot points that in my opinion don’t really make sense, too many names for one person, and way too much left unknown and unexplained.
Gideon and Harrowhark are sent to a supposedly haunted planet to compete in some tournament to be a Lyctor. If you’re a Lyctor you’re a big deal I guess, and there are 9 houses all of them pretentious and none of them memorable.
What is a lyctor? I don’t know, it’s not explained until you get to the end of the book where the glossary is. Which was one of my main issues here. If you need a glossary to explain the entire world and what is happening and how things work, your word building sucks. I was lost and confused this entire book and kept hoping for things to be explained but they really aren’t.
Also putting the glossary at THE END is pointless, if I’d known there was a glossary at the end I could have used it instead of trudging through 400 plus pages confused, bored, and angry.
Along with the confusing world the plot was confusing as well. Is this a competition? Is this a mystery? Is this an action novel? Is this a shitty romance? I still don’t know. The plot was weak and I guessed the twist less than halfway through it was obvious. Along with the plot the book was WAY too long!! 400 plus pages for what?? If you take out all the immature humor and pointless dialogue scenes, this would be way shorter.
Another issue I had was the “romance” there is no romance. There is no “gothic lesbian ghost hunt” which we are promised in the synopsis. There are no ghosts, there are no real romantic feelings and when they show up it again makes no sense and frankly is the most toxic bullshit. Also the skeletons are lame, they just dust the not haunted mansion and bring people dinner.
So obviously I really wasn’t impressed and had a ton of issues so why two stars? The writing was decent, the first few chapters were interesting and I wasn’t completely miserable while reading this (at least for the first half). Would I continue this series? Absolutely not.
I’d recommend this for people who have the humor of an 11 year old that enjoys “your mom” jokes and toxic relationships with little background and swords.
Gideon and Harrowhark are sent to a supposedly haunted planet to compete in some tournament to be a Lyctor. If you’re a Lyctor you’re a big deal I guess, and there are 9 houses all of them pretentious and none of them memorable.
What is a lyctor? I don’t know, it’s not explained until you get to the end of the book where the glossary is. Which was one of my main issues here. If you need a glossary to explain the entire world and what is happening and how things work, your word building sucks. I was lost and confused this entire book and kept hoping for things to be explained but they really aren’t.
Also putting the glossary at THE END is pointless, if I’d known there was a glossary at the end I could have used it instead of trudging through 400 plus pages confused, bored, and angry.
Along with the confusing world the plot was confusing as well. Is this a competition? Is this a mystery? Is this an action novel? Is this a shitty romance? I still don’t know. The plot was weak and I guessed the twist less than halfway through it was obvious. Along with the plot the book was WAY too long!! 400 plus pages for what?? If you take out all the immature humor and pointless dialogue scenes, this would be way shorter.
Another issue I had was the “romance” there is no romance. There is no “gothic lesbian ghost hunt” which we are promised in the synopsis. There are no ghosts, there are no real romantic feelings and when they show up it again makes no sense and frankly is the most toxic bullshit. Also the skeletons are lame, they just dust the not haunted mansion and bring people dinner.
So obviously I really wasn’t impressed and had a ton of issues so why two stars? The writing was decent, the first few chapters were interesting and I wasn’t completely miserable while reading this (at least for the first half). Would I continue this series? Absolutely not.
I’d recommend this for people who have the humor of an 11 year old that enjoys “your mom” jokes and toxic relationships with little background and swords.