This is a book that took me months to read because Libby *said* I had one day left but then took it from me. With HALF AN HOUR LEFT. (I’m not bitter, really lol). Anyways, this is NOT a book you want to put on hold part way through for months, so really I ended up listening to the last quarter of the book twice. 

I almost DNF’d this book (seems to be a trend, I did the same with Gideon), because it is just so weird to start out with. You feel like you picked up the wrong book, compared with GIdeon, and I didn’t like it. I couldn’t tell if I’d just WILDLY misremembered something, or misunderstood the book all together. But instead of dropping it, I googled what other people thought, and found an NPR article titled “ Whatever You're Expecting, 'Harrow The Ninth' Is Not That Kind Of Book“ that saved Harrow the Ninth for me. It validated my feelings when the author wrote: “I loved Gideon. Loved everything about it. It was just so much of a book — so strange, so full, so lush, so double-bats*** crazy and so unerringly cool — that I didn't think anything could top it. And Harrow the Ninth, second in the series, doesn't. Because it is not that kind of book.” But then continues to sell the book anyways. If you loved Gideon, don’t expect to love Harrow-- right away at least. Its such a different beast (literally?). 

So should you read Harrow if you liked Gideon? Yes, absolutely. If you're like me and thought Gideon rather enjoyable but not super enthralling, I’d probably still say yes, but wait until its convenient. That’s what I’ll be doing with the upcoming third book, Nona the Ninth. Overall it was a weird, dark, depressing book, but still ultimately an enjoyable one with one heck of a cliffhanger.