Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

203 reviews

queensplay's review

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.75

Synopsis of my review: 

An amazing read. The beginning was hard to get into, but once you understood, you could easily read the book. The plot twists? Love. The mystery, kind of horror, elements where totally there. 
Gideon is the best character, fight me. She's just so funny, and bright I love it. 
Harrow and Gideons' nicknames for each other 😍
Loved it. Would recommend. 


Full Review: 

Oh damn. Oh damn. Oh damn (and that's three Oh damns). 

First off - Amazing book. At times, it could be pretty slow, as it was more of a mystery, but it has enough action and medium paced scenes to make up for the slow parts. It was hard getting into, also, for me, and confusing (which is why it's a 4.5), but as I got through the book, it got a lot easier to understand and read. 

Gideon is by far my most favourite character. She was so funny, and really brightened up every room she went into. Her humour was top-notch. Harrow should give her a big hug - her backstory and her self-worth needs it. 

I love love love Gideon and Harrow as they go through the series. They've come so far from where they started 🥹

Harrow also needs a big hug (which she good, thank god). The way they raised her, why she was born, was horrible. She deserves so much more. 

Am I the only one who though Colum deserved better? He deserves better then Silas. Honestly, Silas didn't even seem to acknowledge how Colum was feeling, he was so self-centered, with all his big talk about the greater good. Towards the end, I began to like Colum so much more - if someone would think about what their house represents, they would think of him. How he stood for what he believed in, and how he honoured his word.

The ending hurt.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Cancer, Blood, and Grief

Minor: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Cannibalism, and Suicide attempt

bhard07's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, and War

d12inspiration's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This was fantastic. I'm fresh off finishing the book so it's hard to articulate the ways that I loved it, but know that the love is there.

Time for spoilers!:

God, I REALLY hope that the people who went missing at the end of this book make a mean comeback in HTN. I love Camilla SO much, and I'm very curious to see a post-Canaan Coronabeth now that Ianthe has ascended to Lyctorhood.

Regarding the marketing of this book:

I think it the way this book is often pitched might lean a little too much into the "lesbian enemies to lovers" thing. And I get it, it's an easy way to communicate a major development in your story. But just so readers know, this burn is SLOW. Like, it takes almost the entire book slow. And I love that! But in the age of BookTok and its frank obsession with "spiciness" and slapping generalized labels on anything published, just know that this love is not the speed at which a BookTok recommendation may go, nor will it go as far. They don't even kiss. But it's deliberate, it's complicated, and it's REAL. These lesbians hate each other for extremely sound reasons, and the means by which they overcome that hatred is well-paced and SLOW. Just so excited lesbians like myself know exactly how the roadmap is looking.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, and Grief

Minor: Abandonment

creatrixisis's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

ceridwen33's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Grief

jelliclejules's review against another edition

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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Chronic illness, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, Grief, and Cannibalism

Minor: Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Genocide, Infertility, Miscarriage, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and War

booktamerghc's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Suicide, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer and Grief

corsetedfeminist's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Infertility, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

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