After reading Harrow the Ninth and seeing just how unlike Gideon the Ninth was, I expected this to be completely different from those as well, and it definitely was.

This book kept me enthralled but at the time time, I just couldn't stop feeling that the whole book was just a means to an end. I know it's part of a series so that's kind of the point, but a lot of me was just waiting to get to through the five days. But also this book added a lot to the world building, and I loved getting to know these characters more, and I'm sure we got introduced to some who will be making an impact in Alecto.

The gang was cute and served their purpose but I felt like we spent too much time with them.

Probably at least two of these stars are just for Camilla and Palamedes. Life is too short and love is too long.

Gideon was kind of an asshole, which was a little disappointing after waiting so long to see her or Harrow, but it works I think. I am hoping she's just being a dick as a combo of feeling like she's lost Harrow after sacrificing herself for her (and thinking Harrow didn't even want her), and probably has her soul imperfectly bound to her body since John is a turd with his own agenda.

Regardless of all that, I couldn't put this book down, until the end, when I hesitated to finish because I knew I'd be leaving with more questions than answers and probably a couple tragedies. I love it and also didn't like it (in a good way?) Not sure.

Probably gonna re-read the entire last day of the book as that part was extremely confusing, but I find that to be the fun part.

This is the second time I've read Harrow the Ninth and honestly, I loved it more. This book is possibly the closest thing that's captured the experience of being inside one of your own weird-ass dreams. Confusing, hard to follow, weird processing of time; we are introduced to so many things we are expected to already understand while also not knowing what's actually truly happening. And even when I think I know what's not true I still have to question if it really is. I realized how much I forgot or didn't even catch the first time around, and still found myself jumping back to re-read entire paragraphs to make sure I thought I knew what was going on. I loved that about it, but could easily see people hating it. I feel like that might be the only ways to feel about this kind of delivery of story.

In Gideon the Ninth, I really did not care for Harrow at all until the end of the story - I think to the point I was surprised that it felt like their relationship was becoming something deeper. Harrow the Ninth got me to adore Harrow, that girl is so fucked up. I hate to say it explains how shitty she was growing up, because nothing really excuses that, but, I understood her more after this book. I probably found her a little uncomfortably relatable. She's a self-loathing little shit who doesn't know how to handle her feelings, feels like her existence is a crime, feels guilty she's too selfish to not exist, and absolutely will not submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known. There's literally a chapter where she laments never getting to say goodbye, and when she gets to say goodbye to someone a few pages later she has the audacity to say, "I'm poor with thanks and worse at goodbyes. Therefore, I won't bother with them."

Speaking of shitty characters to love - I loved Ianthe. I couldn't help it.

I think I actually have to go back again one more time and read the last few chapters before going into Nona the Ninth, as I'm still not quite sure I remember or understand where our characters are standing (literally, physically, spiritually, etc.)

One of my favorite parts of this as a reread is realizing the reason we spend so much time in second person point of view  - I don't think I fully realized until it was told to us that this was meant to be Gideon's narration in my first read. But this time it was so fun to catch all the little Gideon moments - the little bits of sass, her annoyance at Harrow not knowing the word pommel, describing Ianthe in very unflattering terms, and most especially the acknowledgement of sex jokes that weren't made when they were just calling for it.

I think the main thing I should have said was, "You sawed open your skill rather than be beholden to someone. You turned your brain into soup to escape anything less than 100 percent freedom. You put me in a box and buried me rather than give up your own goddamned agenda.

Harrowhark, I gave you my whole life and you didn't even want it.

When I ask for slow burn, this is what I mean. Gideon and Harrow are literally sharing a body, convinced the other hates them, feeling inadequate, literally can't communicate, loving despite "knowing" it won't be returned...the angst. That's my shit. I honestly don't think I care if this relationship is romantic or platonic or perpetually contentious. I just want them to be in it.

Having the story set up as it was - through Harrow's literal brain damage - has me fully still confused on what's "real" and what's not. And through this we get the satisfaction of Harrow realizing the connection between Ortus the Ninth/Ortus the First and her replacement of Gideon in her brain, which is something that would have been obvious from the start otherwise. And then it's still not what we fully expect anyway.

PS - I loved getting to know Abigail Pent more. I loved that Ortus, a character I never expected to make a return, and who I spent most of the book thinking was a figment of Harrow's psyche, got to have a redemption arc. Fearful, Ortus had proved enormously stubborn; it was inevitable that he would be even worse in bravery.

Originally rated 4.75 but now it can have a 5 because this series just has me going feral, sorry.

I'm reading this book for the second time, because I remember how confused I was during Harrow the Ninth and being glad I jumped right into it after reading Gideon the Ninth. So now that Nona the Ninth is out, I figured it was in my best interest to do a reread first.

My first time around, I apparently gave this a 4.75. Can't recall what I docked the .25 stars for but what the heck, this time I'm giving it the full 5 stars. I think this was still really fun as a re-read. I couldn't have told you the plot again off the top of my head, but began to remember pieces as I read with, a good mix of stuff I had forgotten and stuff that made more sense this time around.

I'm really hit or miss with the kind of wacky sense of humor that can be used like this, but in The Locked Tomb series I think it's a bullseye for me. The cadence between serious, extremely morbid and silly happens perfectly in my opinion and keeps the book from being really, the darkest shit ever.

I think I skimmed the fight scenes the first time around, a combo of how grotesque the whole thing could be and also just finding it harder to follow, and I don't think I missed out much there, but I did try to follow along more this time.

I still love Gideon and Harrows whole relationship. It is supremely fucked up, so when they finally give each other an inch of anything, I love it. Gideon in general being grossed out every time Harrow is slightly nice is hilarious to me.

My absolute favorite factor is how we get introduced to Gideon, Harrow and the Ninth House, and you have your typical picking up of the universe. So I just accept, "okay, this place has no light, they hang out with bones and dirt, everyone paints their face like a skull, they're all just major creeps and goths and that's how people are." Then when we actually make it to the First, it's like, "ah yes. Actually this is not the norm and they are actual weirdos with the full on reputation of being weirdos. Between that and everyone assuming Gideon is a scary badass because of her vow of silence, when she's actually a completely goofy badass. I just love that.

I didn't read any of the additional material to the series the first time around, but I think I will this time, and I'm very excited to re-read Harrow the Ninth.

previous review (very sparse lol):
dark funny mysterious medium-paced

 4.75 ⭐️

I'm not normally super into horror books, but I decided to go all spooky this month to get in the mood for Halloween. I was more into horror in general as a book/movie genre as a kid and teen however so I wasn't exactly just dipping my toes in. My overall feeling about this book was that I appreciated the atmosphere that was created and I'll always love a good creepy feel with some iconography; in general it checked all the creepy boxes for me, but without that I would have found this book kind of forgettable. I suppose that is mostly the point of this genre, and the mood was definitely there which was my main reason for reading the book - I got what I was looking for so I still give this a pretty good rating.

The plot itself felt pretty predictable to me, but with horror I think it's hard to really throw in surprises. You consume enough horror media and you're trained to expect the worst possible outcome, I guess. Maybe I'm just jaded. The ending actually pulled it more together for me, that's my kinda ending, even in horror.

I did spend most of this book wondering if Francis was sincere or not. I didn't hate this, because the wondering makes it fun in this genre, we're going to wonder if we can trust anything that's happening. The problem was I didn't actually feel as if there was much actual chemistry between him and Noemí which left me feeling uncommitted whether he was on her side or would betray her. The only time I felt attached to their relationship was at the very end, because that was a cute moment.

The scenes with Virgil in the dreams-but-not-dreams felt both horrifying/uncomfortable (adding to the mood) and unnecessary. I think I just get tired of the sexual violence aspect in horror that always seems to get applied when there are female characters involved. It wasn't badly done, but I also could have gone without it.

This book gave me what I was looking for - an overall informative history of Halloween - which by common sense alone I know is a strange and shifting holiday that seems to maybe be based of of one thing, maybe another. It wasn't a super thrilling read by any means, but it was informative and touched on a lot of things I didn't know and things I remember from the past. It can feel a bit repetitive, as with each chapter or topic we are resetting to "the beginning" of the timeline, but this did help me lock down certain moods and traditions of the holiday. I think if it had stuck to a completely linear timeline, I would have gotten bored with it, as my interest always was picking up as we got closer to modern times.

I've loved Halloween for as long as I can remember, and every year I get a little sad wondering if Halloween will ever go back to "the way it used to be," but if anything I guess I have to accept my childhood Halloween was different than kids before me, and different for the ones after. This book highlights just how much and how rapidly Halloween changed over time and within regions. So I guess I will just accept "my" Halloween is a thing of the past, remember it with love, and embrace Halloween in all the ways it continues to transform.

i have to accept that i probably just couldn’t enjoy this after having so recently read Into the Raging Sea by Rachel Slade. if i had read this first it probably would have worked well for me, but it’s just hard to go back from a shipwreck story that was able to have so many details included. 

I've been reading enough in-depth nonfiction books about American history, and with each one I read I continue to be impressed with the quantity of cruel and atrocious acts we've committed in our short history as a country - and how much of it we don't learn about in our school system. I am no longer surprised at the information, though. We have a cruel, horrible history as the creation and continual development of our country.

There is a denial factor attached to a lot of our history, that those things were a long time ago and we are good now. (They weren't really that long ago; we are not very good still.) As of reading this book in 2022 it has been only 101 years since the Osage Murders 'officially' started. When we learn about massacres of Native Americans during colonial settlement and manifest destiny and all that propaganda, we were taught that it was a part of our past, but of course the past is in the past (but obviously a detrimental factor in building this great country).

When we get to a time in history where we've hit full capitalism oil drilling and cars driving around, it becomes obvious that just because it is no longer "acceptable" to kill Native Americans, it doesn't mean we have stopped, just changed the laws and rules and look the other way when it benefits white people.  Considering this is essentially how the FBI was formed, it's interesting how it isn't something I ever heard about in school or American history classes. The necessity for a federal investigative agency being that the local law was corrupt, complicit or at best, indifferent to the murdering of Native Americans highlights that our treatment of non-white people continues to be a core of our country well into modern times.

The main parts of the book string together the history of an Osage family - Mollie Burkhart and her sisters, as well as other select Osage people, and the syndicate of townspeople ruthlessly killing people, with one man as the mastermind. At the end, the author shares additional discoveries in the mystery - there's actually more to it. There are more mysterious deaths, murders, and acquirement of land and fortunes than what was tied to one criminal. In reality, the deaths started before this official "Reign of Terror," and continued after the mystery was solved - because it was not just one leader with a collection of people full of greed and hate that would kill the Osage to steal from them. Multiple guardians, family members, white spouses attained land rights after mysterious, coincidentally high amounts of deaths. Murder was not an unreasonable solution for multiple people.

The striking part is, when the author then reaches back to the living family members and Osage nation members to share these findings, it is not really news to them. They have known or suspected all along the abhorrent crimes against the Osage and those that tried to help them. It is just more of the history we have tried or succeeded in burying.

Tempted to rate this a little lower, but I did still solidly enjoy it. With the way the first book ended, I was not surprised at how dark this story became, but it did take longer than I hoped for Nirrim and Sid to reunite. When reading the first book, I didn't even know this series was spinoff to another by the author, but in this book it felt a little more like I was missing a piece somewhere. I didn't hate what was happening, but looking back, I realize just how many "refresher" moments there were for people who read the other books. I definitely didn't get that feeling with the first book. This time it felt like I was getting an unnecessary amount of backstory for Sid's family, but makes sense now that I know they are characters from the original series.

I did kind of love evil Nirrim. She went from one extreme to another - from loving too much and being naive to being straight up cruel. I enjoyed the nods to her becoming more and more like Raven or the Lord Protector, or anyone in general that she originally was against. Even if you start out the 'good guy' you can still become a big asshole. At the end that old Nirrim could never come back, because Nirrim would always have to live with the consequences of her actions, even what she did when she did not have her compassion, and I was worried they would try to shrug that off.

Overall the ending felt a little rushed, which called even more attention to all the backstory of Sid's family, but at least she did get some character growth from that. But I do wish it had just focused on getting back to Nirrim and "fixing" her instead.

This is just one of those fantasy books that hit the right spot for me personally. I could see people finding Nirrim to be annoying/naive/whatever but I love a protagonist that is hopeful even to an  fault. I cheered when she came to terms with her relationship to her mother-figure Raven and how bad it was, and her guilt-ridden attachment to whats-his-face and instead embraced when she wanted. Sid was a fun character and I loved her little moments of angst and apprehension that Nirrim couldn't actually be into her, but when we only get one point of view I'm usually just not gonna feel super attached to anyone else, I think.

This is the first book in a while that actually made me want to jump right into the sequel. I was so excited to see the consequences of Nirrim's choices.

I actually didn't even realize this was a spin-off duology until I went to take out the second book from the library, but honestly don't really find the original story to be very appealing to me. I'm fine with that. I'm glad I was able to enjoy this book without having to commit to others first!

This book was heartbreaking. The writing style felt a little juvenile at first, but then I realized it went with the first person, present-tense telling of her childhood. I felt like we went through the entirety of her relationship with her mom, from adoration to questioning to realization. 

I saw in an interview that she said writing this book and going to therapy about all of this has helped her move through it, and still allow her to grieve her mom as well instead of just hating what she did to her, which I found to be such a striking comment. I hope Jenette McCurdy can be okay.