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A review by darlingfarthings
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
5.0
Pretty damn good. Big love for the linguistic flair (though my vocabulary felt severely inadequate), the humour, and the characters, who even when flat were at least cool and likeable. I had a lot of fun with this one. I actually enjoyed the fact that no Vocab was explained and we just had to learn on the go.
I think for me the issue was that it felt as if Gideon was constantly behind everyone else in terms of where the plot etc was going, which in itself would be fine, except even people like Harrow are also behind. Behind Ianthe, to be specific. And Ianthe is behind nerdy Sex Pal man (amazing joke tbh). So it turns out that we’re like 4 spaces behind at all times. This wasn’t too great because some of the twists and turns in the plot felt quite unearned to some extent. Especially with Ianthe, who just felt like she was someone we were meant to see as intimidating and intelligent without much proof before surprise surprise she ended up being a complete genius. I suppose to some extent the soul transfer was set up but eh. Additionally, why didn’t the villain simply kill everyone immediately? I’m also not sure of what the time period is exactly to some extent. Like, electronics are gone. Cool. But sunglasses are still around. Cool. But then also swords are being used. and it’s like. I just don’t know what kind of aesthetic to envision the cast in? My mind immediately jumped to the medieval especially with the very abandoned castle esque setting and the swords but it’s difficult to tell sometimes.
I really liked it though. Could have given it 5 stars honestly if not for my minor gripes.
I think for me the issue was that it felt as if Gideon was constantly behind everyone else in terms of where the plot etc was going, which in itself would be fine, except even people like Harrow are also behind. Behind Ianthe, to be specific. And Ianthe is behind nerdy Sex Pal man (amazing joke tbh). So it turns out that we’re like 4 spaces behind at all times. This wasn’t too great because some of the twists and turns in the plot felt quite unearned to some extent. Especially with Ianthe, who just felt like she was someone we were meant to see as intimidating and intelligent without much proof before surprise surprise she ended up being a complete genius. I suppose to some extent the soul transfer was set up but eh. Additionally, why didn’t the villain simply kill everyone immediately? I’m also not sure of what the time period is exactly to some extent. Like, electronics are gone. Cool. But sunglasses are still around. Cool. But then also swords are being used. and it’s like. I just don’t know what kind of aesthetic to envision the cast in? My mind immediately jumped to the medieval especially with the very abandoned castle esque setting and the swords but it’s difficult to tell sometimes.
I really liked it though. Could have given it 5 stars honestly if not for my minor gripes.