Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

99 reviews

bellebeaumont95's review

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Chronic illness, Slavery, Blood, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Cannibalism, Confinement, Gore, Terminal illness, and Violence

bookmark3brodi's review

adventurous 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? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, and War

ratatouilllie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Grief, Body horror, Death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture, Cursing, Blood, Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death of parent, Murder, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Medical content, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Vomit, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

madzie's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.75

 Epic. Muir flawlessly weaves intertwines genres of fantasy, science fiction, and horror to create something truly unique. She hits every genre on the head. The plot is well-structured and offers some unique twists and turns. The mystery that runs throughout the book becomes enthralling and pulls you in for every minute. In the end, everything perfectly fits to create a truly epic story perfect for any fantasy lover (or emo). Overall, the worldbuilding is interesting and inventive. Some questions were left unanswered, but they did not distract from the overall enjoyment of the world. 

The characters are fun and quirky, allowing them to jump off the page. All the main characters feel like real people and operate around each other with interesting dynamics that permit the exploration of themes. Particularly, Harrow and Gideon feel like old friends to the reader, and watching them interact is pure gold. I feel like I could follow them anywhere. However, side characters often get lost in the shuffle, even becoming confusingly mixed up due to a lack of development and leading me to care little for their ultimate endings.

However, Muir’s tale is mostly weighed down by some writing choices. Her style is very dense, and while this works alright throughout most of the novel when it comes to action scenes, it is a haul to get through as the sentence structure makes everything else drag behind. 

Muir’s true talent shines through with her use of themes, which are expertly explored. Interestingly, Muir uses queer themes without making queerphobia a part of her novel, offering a perspective I have never seen before but certainly enjoy. Muir allows her characters to be unapologetically (and more importantly without explanation) queer yet flawlessly incorporates themes of queerness throughout the novel, allowing us to use fantasy for its true purpose to explore our world in a removed setting. Further, Muir asks us to question human drive and how our actions result from it. Through Muir’s light-handed writing, readers ponder our interactions with others, religion, control, and emotions, working together to demonstrate how horrifyingly we can treat each other when our insecurities are left unchecked.

In the end, the popularity of this novel is highly understandable. The characters, plot, and themes work together wonderfully with only a few setbacks leaving it shy of five stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Blood, Death, Body horror, Murder, Chronic illness, and Child death

Moderate: Bullying, Grief, Cancer, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Suicide, Abandonment, and Death of parent

regalpotato's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

My favourite book. I've reread it (and listened to the audiobook) numerous times. The writing is easy to read but still fantastic prose. The characters are all deeply flawed but you can't help but adore them. There's a lot of queerness, and enemies to reluctant allies, to much deeper than lovers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Death, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Body horror, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: War and Suicide

o_preston_o's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Grief, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death of parent, Infertility, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Blood, War, Torture, Slavery, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Body horror, and Classism

abiofpellinor's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted 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? It's complicated

5.0

Fucking perfection

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Toxic friendship, Chronic illness, and Murder

jessewriting's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Murder, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, and Body horror

lunaviolet's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

Witty and endearing, this was a good read. However, it was hard to get through the first half until the plot started to pick up about halfway through. It was also kinda hard to keep track of who was who since most of the characters were introduced all at once. I wouldn’t recommend going to the naming guide in the back of the book for help, though, since I spoiled a pretty major thing for myself when I did that. 
Once you get to the end, you’ll be glad to have stuck it out. I got pretty attached to the characters and their relationships.
If you’re looking for a lesbian romance, this is not the book. Yes, I guess, there are technically wlw interactions, but I personally wouldn’t count this as a wlw book, more like a book where the characters happen to be wlw. They could have easily been switched out for any gender and nothing would have changed with the plot so do with that what you will. Not to mention that the romance is… It was more of an interesting relationship dynamic to explore than the typical romance you would expect in modern books. Very enjoyable either way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Gore, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Emotional abuse

Minor: Cancer, Death of parent, Suicide, and Chronic illness

harrimyers's review against another edition

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? Yes

5.0

i Love this book. i love it. i love it so so so so so so so much. the ending has devastated me. i am broken. what the fuck what the fuck i anticipated not a single plot point. not one. what the fuck

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Murder, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Body horror, Colonisation, Child death, Abandonment, Chronic illness, Blood, Confinement, Violence, Terminal illness, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Death, and Death of parent