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A review by forestfloor
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
dark
funny
mysterious
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? Yes
4.5
I loved this! I think the concept is original and it's really strongly executed. I found the balance between humour and creepiness worked really well. The creepiness itself was excellent, I think this is a great example of body horror done right. I found that even though most of the characters were described very negatively they were still lovable, which was great.
My main drawbacks are that the story doesn't do much (any) handholding about the world building - I like that we avoid big exposition dumps but it does mean that you end up with that high fantasy thing of needing to get a third of the way into the book before you get the hang of who's who and how the world works. Additionally, I still have questions!! This is a series so I can't be too mad about every element of mystery not being wrapped up until I see how they're addressed in later books, but I do think some pretty key plot points go unexplained.
My main drawbacks are that the story doesn't do much (any) handholding about the world building - I like that we avoid big exposition dumps but it does mean that you end up with that high fantasy thing of needing to get a third of the way into the book before you get the hang of who's who and how the world works. Additionally, I still have questions!! This is a series so I can't be too mad about every element of mystery not being wrapped up until I see how they're addressed in later books, but I do think some pretty key plot points go unexplained.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Suicide, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Genocide