A review by littlebutton
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

dark mysterious
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This one was hard to rate. It sucked me in—I stayed up until about 2AM finishing it and really couldn’t put it down. But the ending really did not sit well with me. I think my opinion on it would vary wildly based on how it’s handled in the second book, but I haven’t been able to talk to anyone to ask about that. I will say, it would’ve helped me a lot to have a trigger warning on this book for abuse, and that the victim hasn’t disentangled herself from her abuser. 

Basically, it really bothered me that Gideon sacrificed herself for Harrow at the end, after their dynamic has been established as super abusive for a very long time. I think it was really well done, but as someone with a history of family abuse, it set my teeth on edge. If the next book deals with that sacrifice and their dynamic in a critical way, then I think I would probably really enjoy it. Otherwise, I think it would just be even more upsetting for me personally.
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