A review by bruisedtigers
Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I'm very torn on this book. While reading, you know something strange has happened; you know things aren't quite right. However, it takes so long for the reasons behind that to become clear, and as a result I kept turning pages more out of frustration than curiosity. It felt like reading one long, complicated riddle, and the answers weren't satisfying enough to make up for it -- especially since new questions just pop up to replace the old ones. I don't think this needed to be quite so long to get across the point it was trying to make. The narrative takes its time, and the payoff didn't compensate for the ordeal of getting that far. 

Maybe it suffers from being in the middle of a series, and maybe it would be nicer on a re-read, but I've finished feeling unsatisfied. Love for the characters redeems this for me. I will likely still read the next in the series, but compared to the first, it's unfortunately disappointing. 
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