A review by keen
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book throws you into the body of Gideon as you try to unravel the strange universe created by Tamsyn Muir. It can be difficult to figure out what's going on, but commentary from Gideon helped relieve me by letting me know she doesn't know what's going on either. Sometimes it can feel like you're a third wheel in a conversation that has no regards for you or how much context you have. It gives you the chance to take a moment and try to look deeper at hints sprinkled about the book before the answer is given. But not all answers are revealed. I'm excited to see what more Harrow the Ninth has in store for me.

I also found the narration delightful. I'm used to book with serious narrators, but Gideon manages to go from serious to fun very quickly. Several times I wondered how people considered this a horror book before a situation forces Gideon to focus on the situation at hand. And when there's horror, it's horrifying. The descriptions painted a vivid picture in my head. No wonder there's so much fanart of this book. On the downside, some of the words and terminology went over my head and forced me to use a dictionary frequently. Luckily, that didn't stop me from enjoying the story.

Also, I'm very happy Gideon and Harrow didn't get together at the end. My shipping brain says it would've been cute, but overall, the way they grew up together and the way Harrow treated Gideon for so long makes the idea of a healthy relationship between the two seem unbelievable and very discomforting.
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