Gideon hates her life of servitude in the Ninth House. When house heir, necromancer, and Gideon's nemesis Harrowhark drags her along on a journey to the First House, Gideon is still trying to think of ways to kill Harrow. But when the trip turns out to be a battle of puzzles between each House's necromancers for immortality, and necromancers and cavaliers begin dying, Gideon snaps into action.

Apologies for the worst summary of all time there, because how can you describe this book?! CLUE, but with reanimated bones, is the best I can do. And it's EXCELLENT. Muir throws us into this universe with no exposition, and readers are left to figure out the House structure as we go along. It's a little confusing at first, especially trying to track who belongs to which house - I made good use of the list of characters at the beginning of the book. Regardless, I was immediately swept into the action.

Gideon's sarcastic wit and Harrow's intensity make them a hate-to-love for the ages. Each person from the other eight houses felt real and distinct - no small feat for the number of characters in this book. And the fight scenes! I was on the edge of my seat, especially for the final battle. (AND! AND! That ending! How very dare you! Give me the sequel now!)

I do have to note this, though. Unless I missed it, every character was explicitly white. Pale skin, glowing hair, the works. I thought it was a big missed opportunity. You've got reanimated corpses and mind-controlled skeletons and a whole hierarchy of types of magical specialties...but every person in the solar system is white?