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A review by ashwaar
Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
'This is all there is to love? Simply by being in your life, I have added indelibly to its weight?'
Thoughts I wrote in my notes when reading this book: This book is controlling my life, and I love it. All I want to do is burrow into the sofa and absorb into it. I already know that after finishing, I’ll want to start again like I’m reading it for the first time.
So yeah, I loved this book. I’ve loved all of the Locked Tomb series, and Nona the Ninth is the completely unexpected, wonderful addition we didn’t know we needed. Tamsyn Muir has such a sharp, gorgeous way of writing, and you’re immediately drawn into the narrative and invested in the story. The concept behind these books is so original, fresh, and exciting. I can’t stop talking about it.
After the two previous books, Gideon the Ninth and 2021’s Harrow the Ninth, you would naturally expect a third and final book to round out what we thought would be a trilogy. But then Muir throws in Nona like a delightful little spanner in the works, and suddenly you realise how necessary and just how delightful and funny and dark and sad and bittersweet this interlude is. It allows us to focus on characters we hadn’t seen in Harrow the Ninth, gives context to and humanises Blood of Eden and the other side of this conflict, and provides us with God’s villainous origin story.
Although I was a little lost at times, especially figuring out where Harrow ends and Nona starts, I didn’t really mind. Muir doesn’t pander to the reader with lots of exposition - she trusts you to figure it out. It's the sort of writing that I love, where sometimes you have no idea what's going on, but you don’t mind because you’re so swept up in the story and characters. Even when I put the book down, I still kept on thinking about it and tugging on the threads of the storytelling that are kept dangling for us.
This book is gorgeous and delightful and funny and so so sad. You will love Nona to pieces, and Palamedes and Camilla and all of the other characters that Nona adores so much. It's just an absolutely bat-shit crazy book, and I can’t express my love for it enough. It’s wild, surprising, heart-wrenching and very very special.
Thoughts I wrote in my notes when reading this book: This book is controlling my life, and I love it. All I want to do is burrow into the sofa and absorb into it. I already know that after finishing, I’ll want to start again like I’m reading it for the first time.
So yeah, I loved this book. I’ve loved all of the Locked Tomb series, and Nona the Ninth is the completely unexpected, wonderful addition we didn’t know we needed. Tamsyn Muir has such a sharp, gorgeous way of writing, and you’re immediately drawn into the narrative and invested in the story. The concept behind these books is so original, fresh, and exciting. I can’t stop talking about it.
After the two previous books, Gideon the Ninth and 2021’s Harrow the Ninth, you would naturally expect a third and final book to round out what we thought would be a trilogy. But then Muir throws in Nona like a delightful little spanner in the works, and suddenly you realise how necessary and just how delightful and funny and dark and sad and bittersweet this interlude is. It allows us to focus on characters we hadn’t seen in Harrow the Ninth, gives context to and humanises Blood of Eden and the other side of this conflict, and provides us with God’s villainous origin story.
Although I was a little lost at times, especially figuring out where Harrow ends and Nona starts, I didn’t really mind. Muir doesn’t pander to the reader with lots of exposition - she trusts you to figure it out. It's the sort of writing that I love, where sometimes you have no idea what's going on, but you don’t mind because you’re so swept up in the story and characters. Even when I put the book down, I still kept on thinking about it and tugging on the threads of the storytelling that are kept dangling for us.
This book is gorgeous and delightful and funny and so so sad. You will love Nona to pieces, and Palamedes and Camilla and all of the other characters that Nona adores so much. It's just an absolutely bat-shit crazy book, and I can’t express my love for it enough. It’s wild, surprising, heart-wrenching and very very special.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, and War
Moderate: Drug use