A review by unsuccessfulbookclub
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I’m going to attempt to tell you what this book is actually about in an effort to get you to read it. It is unique and so funny and now I can’t stop thinking about what it would have been like to be the publisher or editor who read this book the first time? 🤯 I understand the shrug emojis that come from Locked Tomb fans when asked what this series is about though, I really do. It’s hard to boil it down. Additionally, this is a book that makes you feel things and lots of that comes from experiencing the text itself (however you do that!!! Listening counts!!). Muir’s narrative voice is impossible to put into a blurb, but if the little outline below sounds interesting just know that Tamsyn takes this and makes it SO MUCH BETTER.

Gideon the Ninth is a creepy mystery set in a crumbling palace on a planet other than Earth. Gideon Nav, the main character, is an orphan/outcast who gets roped into attending a universe-wide contest as cavalier (warrior/bodyguard) with her necromancer (death magician), Harrowhark Nonagesimus, whom she hates. I mean they hate each other, for many reasons which are revealed throughout the course of the book. The cast of this book includes at least two people from each of eight houses (planets) in this universe plus some odd “staff” in the crumbling palace. The contest/mystery is basically learning how to become immortal but doing so by solving a series of puzzles. And then there are some murders. Okay, lots of murders.

This book is gruesome. It is violent. It is absolutely hilarious. There are reanimated skeletons everywhere, jokes from The Office and totally bananas banter. There are mysterious notes and threads hanging in the story just waiting to be pulled. There are SO MANY characters but you know them all by the end of the book (maybe?).

At its core, it feels like reading a detailed adventure/puzzle game similar to the feeling of playing Zelda: Breath of the Wild, just darker and with more emotions and way more laughs.
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