A review by greymalkin
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

adventurous dark funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Took me a while to get into the rhythms of this book.  I liked it overall but the start was a bit rough.  The mix of high gothic atmosphere with modern language and slang was confusing.   I didn't know why Gideon was the only one who spoke that way- where did she learn it from?  Did she publish the dirty magazines or did she get subscriptions delivered (both of which raise even more questions).  

The action was great though, so once things got rolling and it was clear where the mystery was headed toward, the book got a lot more enjoyable for me.

Interesting world building, but some of the in-book knowledge felt inconsistent.  It was a little frustrating that what characters could do or know or even their speaking styles, depended on what was convenient for the scene.  

I was a little disappointed that it turned into a "10 Little Indians" story, not because it's a bad structure but because then I knew that most of the characters would end up dead by the end and I really liked some of them.  I'm also sad that the more interesting ones (to me) went first.  Oh well. 

I did really like Harrow's arc. 


The typos (in the kindle version) were a little jarring (such as spots where they referred to necromancer when they clearly meant cavalier or the other way around).

But overall I liked the book.   Definitely a case of a strong ending rescuing a confused start.
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