A review by thereadinghammock
Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

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

4.25

Much like Gideon, I finished this book with more questions than I started with. They were mostly different questions then the one I started with, but questions nonetheless.

Harrow was a most unreliable narrator, by her own admission most of the time, and the hardest part was not knowing why she didn't trust herself, whether for her own protection AND plot device, or just as a plot device. This was also the first time I've read second person POV outside of a romance novel. It took a bit of getting used to, as it often does for me, and because we kept switching in and out of the second and third person narratives.

As I expect from all the Locked Tomb books, Harrow is heavy with world and lore building, but only occasionally felt bogged down by it. I felt myself zoning out a bit in longer Harrow 2nd POV chapters, mostly because Harrow herself is such a pill most of the time and she was a bit draining for me as a reader. But I am dreadfully interested in the massive left turn that Nona is going to take us!

Piecing together the signals that the nine houses are actually our solar system over the course of Harrow felt truly mind blowing at the time. Little hints that, at first, you write off as fun nods to pop culture as a reader turn into "oh no... these characters actually know meme culture." And then you start realizing that John/God might just be an elder millennial and you start to panic because you, too, are an elder millennial and also know the left pizza none beef meme...
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