A review by just_one_more_paige
Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

 
Ever since Gideon the Ninth was published with the description "sapphic necromancers in space," I have been hardcore sold on this series. It didn't hurt that Gideon was also great. And then Harrow the Ninth, which...I've never in my life been more lost while reading a book, and yet I loved it too? So of course I bought Nona as soon as it came out. I'd heard it was a bit different, vibes-wise, from the first two, but people seemed to be enjoying it and were happy with the set-up it gave for the fourth installation. And I'm here to throw my agreement in with that crowd - very different, still great, and oh my goodness am I ready for the "all hell" set to be unleashed in Alecto the Ninth. 
 
 Nona woke up in a body that isn't hers only six months ago. She's still working on the finer points of motor control and learning the world around her. A world that is kind of falling apart. The city she's in is under siege - there's a dangerous blue sphere hanging in the sky, daily violence everywhere, the threat of zombies, and the conflict between Blood of Eden and the Emperor Undying always present. But Nona is pretty happy with the life she has. She loves living with Pyrrha and Camilla and Palamedes (the latter two on and off, as they're sharing a body right now), even if they force her to eat breakfast every morning. She loves being a teacher's assistant and spending time with her friends in school. And she is really looking forward to her upcoming birthday, the guests and the presents and all the things a "normal" kid wants. However, Nona's potential as a weapon means that many forces are coming for her (to use or destroy her, depending) and the past she cannot remember is starting to catch back up. Plus, there's the nightly dreams she has about a red-headed woman with a skull-painted face. 
 
Y'all I started reading this one and for perhaps the first time in this series I thought: I'm following this! I actually wrote "I might have a grasp on what’s happening...we'll see if it holds." Spoiler alert: it did not hold. Haha. But as with the rest of this series, that did not in any way stop me from enjoying the ride. From what I can tell, this story picks up after the events of the first two, as certain characters who had died are currently still dead, or reanimated (that necromancy stuff really puts a wrench in the permanence of dead), or sharing bodies, or in some other state of "not normal life." I've basically decided that the theoretical necromancy aspects of this series are beyond what my brain feel comfortable processing and I'm going to stick "I just trust that necromancy is complicated and I don’t get it but people keep…being rebirthed?…and that’s just what it is." It's allowing me to enjoy the story without getting mired down in the details. 
 
So in the "present-day" part of the story, we get Nona. And oh my goodness, I really did love her. She is so appealingly genuine, in a sweet naive way but not cloyingly so, which is honestly a super-fine line to walk. Her interactions with her friends at school, as well as Pyrrha and Camilla/Palamedes, are weird enough to fit the series' vibe, but provide some dark levity to the otherwise really intense and, frankly, confusing story.   
 
And then there are Nona's dreams. In these dreams, that she mostly doesn't remember, the reader gets their first glimpses into "the world before the Locked Tomb and the Nine Houses." These are sort of like flashbacks, where John Gaius (the person who became the first necromancer and Emperor Undying) basically narrates how he got to where he is currently (where the reader was introduced to the story with Gideon and Harrow). I was very excited to finally get some world-building backstory, whic did help me solidify (a bit) my understanding of the saga overall. I also definitely enjoyed reading John's voice, self-centered and condescending though it may be, for its sarcastic and satirical commentary on the (for us readers, actual current-day) social/political/environmental climate of the world. A note here: whoa, this aspect of the novel took a turn that I know is some kind of commentary on or blasphemy against or sacrilege of the Catholic Church, and I recognize it, but I just can’t pinpoint exactly how. It was so clear, and yet so opaque, simultaneously and all I can say is that the feeling that that's what Nuir was doing was strong, but exactly how she was accomplishing it was beyond me. 
 
As the flashback narrative unfolds to where it meets Nona's story in the "present," we are brought back to the physical Ninth House, cold and dreary and death-and-bone-filled, and the literal locked tomb...which (not really a spoiler because the countdown to this happening is in every chapter title throughout the rest of the novel), said tomb is unlocked!! And now that I have a *smidge* of understanding on who is in that tomb and how it got to that state, I am super excited for the next book, Alecto the Ninth, to find out more about how they're (clearly, deeply) tied into the origin story of this series, as well as to experience to promised "all hell" that they're be bringing now that they're awakened. Plus, of course, I am hoping for the Nona/Harrow and Gideon/"redacted body sharing persona" relationship to rekindle with all the snarky, gothic, sapphic vibes they started with. That's just for personal enjoyment honestly, and not at all related to the unraveling plot-based drama.  
 
So, while I thought for a second I was finally getting my head around this series, I have finished in the same "this story is amazing, but  metaphorical/ephemeral beyond my grasp" place that I started. I honestly do not understand how something feels so just-out-of-reach, (which should be frustrating) and yet I love it so much! What a fantastic otherworldly continuation of this super dark, super mystifying, series. Very hype for Alecto! 
 
“I could never stop you from loving anything. I don't have the right. Nobody has the right to tell you who to love or who not to love, and equally nobody's obliged to love you. If you were forced into loving them, it wouldn’t be love…” 
 
“It felt so easy to be good when you were happy.” 
 
“…I still can’t believe they wouldn’t give me the time of day and they were scared of me. It's not fair. Either you're the evil wizard and everyone wants to know what you think, or you're the good wizard and nobody cares. It wasn't fair. That wasn't how it was meant to work.” 
 
“Nona fell with hers and suffered the incredibly disagreeable experience of two big, dead people landing very hard on top of her, and in no way becoming less heavy or less dead.”  (I mean that is quality writing - and a great example of the overall tone.) 
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