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A review by caryndi
Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I was so rooting for Tamsyn Muir to improve as a writer, and she has! Harrow felt tighter than Gideon and, despite its structure, I was able to follow it a lot better. Might be because we didn't have nine houses' worth of characters to deal with, but it's still not a straightforward story.
To me, writing a book in second-person is asking your readers to buy in right away, because if you fail it's gonna be awful. It did not fail, but all the same, I was glad we went back and forth between narrators so it wasn't all second person. Besides, Harrow was a delightful narrator. Despite the back-and-forth, the story also felt cohesive--no bumpy/abrupt emotional arcs like in Gideon. There were some unanswered questions I assume will be addressed in Book 3; it's clear Muir has taken the time to set up elements for the last book so I do hope all of them come together nicely.
I had fewer complaints about the writing in this book, though there were a couple of meme references that I found ill-fitting. I'm not sure if people who aren't Extremely Online (and especially on Twitter) will catch them, but that's the kind of thing that throws me out of the story--a reference to something that is very much now (or a few years ago) when we live in a non-necromantic society.
Overall it was hella fun, and if you were kinda iffy after the end of Gideon, I urge you to give Harrow a try.
Recommend If you've already read Gideon the Ninth, yes! If you haven't, read my review of that one first because I had a lot more issues with it than I did with Harrow.
To me, writing a book in second-person is asking your readers to buy in right away, because if you fail it's gonna be awful. It did not fail, but all the same, I was glad we went back and forth between narrators so it wasn't all second person. Besides, Harrow was a delightful narrator. Despite the back-and-forth, the story also felt cohesive--no bumpy/abrupt emotional arcs like in Gideon. There were some unanswered questions I assume will be addressed in Book 3; it's clear Muir has taken the time to set up elements for the last book so I do hope all of them come together nicely.
I had fewer complaints about the writing in this book, though there were a couple of meme references that I found ill-fitting. I'm not sure if people who aren't Extremely Online (and especially on Twitter) will catch them, but that's the kind of thing that throws me out of the story--a reference to something that is very much now (or a few years ago) when we live in a non-necromantic society.
Overall it was hella fun, and if you were kinda iffy after the end of Gideon, I urge you to give Harrow a try.
Recommend If you've already read Gideon the Ninth, yes! If you haven't, read my review of that one first because I had a lot more issues with it than I did with Harrow.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Minor: Gun violence and Suicide