Reviews with content warning for Cursing - Gideon la Nona

Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Gideon la Nona by Tamsyn Muir

230 reviews

clovetra's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

welcome gideon the ninth, you are now one of my elite employees (/ref).

i am broken. i am shattered. i am changed.

i am but a simple lesbian.

i’ve been sitting here for an hour contemplating how to rate this. on one hand, the concepts were so frustrating to comprehend, and it was to the point where after every chapter i was consulting a guide because i wasn’t sure i was actually grasping what was going on, which made all 479 pages incredibly frustrating. on the other hand, this book is all i could think about. usually to fall asleep i employ a video essay of something that’s my special interest — recently only until dawn has been scratching that itch. but my body was craving a gideon the ninth video essay. all i could think about was this book.

needless to say, i can overlook how annoying this book was to read at times simply for the grip it had on me.

i love griddle. what an insane fuckjng nickname. i adore her, her inner monologue, her relationships, her reactions, her one liners, everything.

i would die for the sixth, and harrowhark baby im coming for you in the next series hold on for me.

the plot was fucking insane. who decides “yeah the book i’m writing is about sapphics in space who are necromancers and also there’s a lowkey murder mystery plot with some romantic undertones and high fantasy oh and yeah did you forget we’re in space. and necromancers.” like ?????? i want what muir was having when conjuring up the idea of the locked tomb. absolutely batshit insane. and i wouldn’t have it any other way.

i don’t really know what i was expecting from the plot but im very pleasantly surprised by what it ended up being! even more surprised as i got a semi-big spoiler and yet it really didn’t spoil shit for me! like the spoiler did hold a lot of weight in the plot but because so much happens in this story it was so easy to focus on the other reveals happening simultaneously.

the fight scenes were a bit hard to follow especially when the necros are involved, and the trials were so fucking confusing to my mind. but honestly i was so invested in the characters, mainly the ninth & the sixth, that i can’t put this book any lower than 5-stars.

i’m gonna go stare at griddlehark fan art for the next 3 hours sobbing. also this book gave me such a big fucking headache oh my god reading my neuroscience textbooks is easier.

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aurabora's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I listened to the audiobook version of this book, so when it started with the list of dramatis personae, I immediately had to stop and look up a written version to follow along and figure out what I was in for! (Luckily there are many wiki-type pages out there.) Once I did that, I had no issue delving into the world and its story.

It doesn't really take off until all the houses have arrived at Canaan House, but then the story morphs into an interesting puzzle box/locked room mystery. I was not expecting an "And Then There Were None" type of intrigue in this fantasy novel, but it was a pleasant surprise! I'm not sure I 100% followed all of the logical jumps the characters made as they figured out the puzzles, but I was able to follow all of the plot points no problem. There's a lot of intrigue and unanswered questions about the world that I'm itching to learn more about, so I will absolutely be continuing on with the series.

Surprisingly, I found the book to be a joyful reading experience, so that's primarily why I'm rating it 5 stars. Horror and necromancers are not normally my thing, and I've read plenty of grimdark novels that, while good, were harder to get through. However, this does not qualify as horror at all, so I was safe there. There were just a few more mentions of skeletal features and viscera than I would normally seek out, but not so many as to put me off. After each listening session, I found myself in a better mood and eager to find more time to continue on!

Gideon's voice was so strong throughout, and I thought that the audiobook narrator did an excellent job in capturing it while differentiating all the other characters' voices. It first caught me off guard that Gideon does use so much "modern" language (like "that's what she said" jokes), but I guess who's to say that language doesn't belong in this world? Once I got over that initial anachronistic feeling, I thoroughly enjoyed the humor.

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corsetedfeminist's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Look, I don’t cry often.
I don’t remember the last time I cried over a book.
I sobbed during the entire last battle and the Epilogue, and then I spent probably 20 minutes just staring at the ceiling.
This book is now firmly one of my favorite books ever, and it deserves 1,000 stars.
Gideon, my dear, sweet himbo. She has exactly three brains cells, and they are: Horny™️, Sword™️, and Harrow™️. The interaction between those brain cells throughout the book is perfect. Creating a crass, sarcastic character and then giving her a vow of silence for half the book so everyone assumes she’s so mysterious and internally she’s just grumbling at Harrow the entire time was perfect. Everyone’s disappointment when she did speak was perfect. Her protective fire- towards Harrow, towards the Fourth house, towards Dulcinea- was perfect in combination with her constant attempt to convince herself that she hates Harrow.
Harrowhark, my fierce, traumatized baby. I love a deeply morally grey character, but Harrow…. Her commitment to The Ninth House (and her personal aesthetic and mystery) and the weight of literally centuries of expectations is perfectly balanced with her slowly giving in to being vulnerable and soft with Gideon.
Their relationship gave me life, and then it just destroyed me. The theatrical hatred on both sides, and the barbed comments back and forth (Gideon’s nicknames. How am I to be normal!?!?) are firmly the best part of the first 2/3 of the book, and the heartbreaking loyalty and sacrifice of the last chapters are what made me cry over this book. It has so many little comments back and forth that just tore me to bits. (I cannot be normal about Gideon quoting the section from the book of Ruth that is commonly used in wedding vows. I just can’t.)
The rest of the plot, beyond these two, is extremely well done- I kept getting absolutely floored by plot twists, and then not having time to recover before something else happened. By the end I genuinely had no idea what was happening anymore except that I would die and/or kill for Gideon and Harrow.
It is quite literally perfect, and I’m starting Harrow the Ninth today so I can cry over space lesbians once again.

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keiwald's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Sloooow start, but picks up to the point where it's a sprint to the finish line.

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krisalexcole's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-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? No

5.0

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cicuma's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Who knew necromancy could be so diverse! The pace is weird tho: although it is never boring as it is always happening something, you don't really get information about what is happening exacly and it sometimes feels like the story is not progressing. And than it starts progressing and the secrets don't stop being revealed. So in the end waiting is worth it and the story was fun for me to read.

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