Review by vaxis - Harrow the Ninth

vaxis 's review for:

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

5.0

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I'd heard a lot of talk about how book two is jarring, confusing, and that it takes too long to make sense. Honestly, it's not that bad. Make sure you remember who characters are, and it's fine. It's a mystery, so nothing is supposed to make sense at every step, or even for a while.

The narrative switches between third person limited, usually during a flashback, and second person. Normally I really dislike second person; this is handled as though someone is narrating Harrow's actions and responses to her. It's not a narrative trying to get you to imagine yourself as the character, but someone explaining what is going on to someone who is having some memory difficulties.

The other thing I heard is that this is a book that gaslights you, and that is largely due to a lot of contradictory information that differs from Gideon and is clarified later. Spoiler explainer:

Harrow altered her own memories to forget what actually happened in book one, and regains true memories before the end of the book.

Content Warnings