Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

129 reviews

gygaxis's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death

vael's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, and Toxic friendship

angorarabbit's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? Yes

4.25

TLDR: Confusing at first the end pays off your hard work. 

 

I was totally confused by the time I was 30% in so I went back to the dramatic personae at the beginning of the book and wrote brief descriptions which helped a lot. Ms Muir has taken the rule to tell not show so what you know about this world is what Gideon knows and deems worthy to think about. Which makes sense, I wouldn’t bother describing how trees grow in my everyday life. There are several appendices that would have been very helpful to read before instead of after. They do not contain any spoilers so perhaps they are in the front in other editions. 

 

Besides my confusion this was a well written book. The world is intriguing and the characters are interesting and for the most part developed. Gideon is a fresh voice in a fantasy world full of heroes saving damsels. Harrowhawk has surprising depth that doesn’t appear until you are past the 50% mark. The plot is complex with surprising twists, the ending is satisfying. I do think the final boss fight was a little to long, but the action was well described. I am looking forward to reading Harrow the Ninth.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement

Minor: Sexual content

toastyghosty13's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Absolute chaos. Lesbian necromancers in space exploring a haunted gothic mansion is the quote on the front and it is correct and yet it is so much more. Think Agatha Christie "And Then There Were None". The humor is unexpected and unprecedented (I implore you to read the naming choice section at the end of the book too) and the characters are unique and psychotic.

The beginning is super confusing with all of the names of people and places thrown at you very quickly, but it is worth it! About 20%-30% of the way through it clicked for me.

I immediately bought the other books in both ebook and physical copy format as soon as I finished. The ending was giving

Bloodborne ascending and fear the old gods and I am OBSESSED

.

For the Ninth.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Death, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

cicuma's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, and Grief

Minor: Abandonment

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

I don't know what happened to my original review but this time was a re-read and I still loved every moment of it.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Ableism, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Infertility, Mental illness, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

cuteasamuntin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Blood, and Death of parent

Minor: Child death, Confinement, Genocide, Infertility, Mental illness, Medical content, Cannibalism, and Religious bigotry

thesunthesunthesunthesun's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Had a lot of fun with this one! Loved the

murder

mystery escape room plot of this book. And I liked having Gideon's view on everything that happened.

Few too many contemporary earth memes for my taste, considering that this is like, the space future. But that can be overlooked.
All in all I had fun!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

jess_always_reading's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I'm still recovering from the

emotional damage

of that ending so this isn't going to be my best work. 

Muir's world-building is very interesting in that she has clearly worked hard to create a detailed world with internal consistency ...but she doesn't see fit to share that with us. I spent a good three quarters of the book very confused and honestly struggled to continue in parts (confusing, very descriptive heavy, one character disappears for days leaving the other wandering around confused herself). Then the ending hit me like a punch to the face. 

If you can get through about 350 pages, all the action and exposition happens in the last 80 pages or so. 

Super dark, very graphic gory. 
Some pretty incredible fight scenes and one liners. 

5/10 would recommend 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Self harm, and Murder

lunarkris's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Suicide, Xenophobia, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Eating disorder, Incest, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, War, and Classism