Gideon the Ninth

Okay, I will preface this by saying that this was a highly anticipated read of mine and FINALLY I WASN'T DISAPPOINTED.

I heard about this book last year from many many people and I was always at the cusp of reading it, but took me a little to get to it, but I am finally here, and I'm happy to be a locked tomb girlie.

Nonetheless, some things were not what I expected.

A lot is said by this being a challenging book, and a book that will blow your mind with its mystery and I really ought to say: lower your expectations a little bit, not because this is a bad book, but because expectation is the mother of disappointment.

Gideon the Ninth can be a difficult book because Tamsyn Muir's writing here is purposefully dense and sometimes a little clunky. Many many words, sentences, and wordplays are sculpted to be hard on compression in a way that sometimes felt the book was telling me a lot without really saying anything. That is a big problem at the beginning of the book, its first 150 pages aren't earned for how wordy it is, if you are reading this without reading the book, I tell you PUSH THROUGH IT ITS WORTH IT. I could have done with a different way to tell the story, but Tamsyn is a good storyteller and this was the way she wanted to tell her story and I am happy I didn't give up. That is the extent of “difficulty” this book contains.

I've seen lots of people struggling with names, I didn't. I have a pretty good memory and once I learned their names I didn't struggle to recall, nor did I think Gideon was bad at naming the characters because plenty of context clues were given to me.

I also saw lots of people surprised by the twists, and I will say that I didn't predict the big fight at the end, or the “metamorphosis” the characters go through but everything else I guessed correctly. I figured the big bad at 48% of the book and it was hilarious because some friends tried to throw me off and I was like, nope I trust no beach. I also managed not to get spoiled which was a feat.

My favorite parts were the character development of Harrow and Gideon, Tamsyn managed to build a great story with loveable characters that you can relate to and love and suffer for, and if you know anything about me, know this: I am a plot princess that is also character-focused and Tamsyn did all of this for me. I also love murder mysteries and puzzle pieces and I adore following the clues and piecing everything together, and being right at the end about some things made this even more rewarding.

I love Gideon's silliness and golden retriever personality, my girl is a sunshine and she's so lovely and I only ever want to see her smile forever. But I knew I was going to love Gideon, I loved her from the premises of the book alone.

The real surprise was loving Harrow as fiercely and protectively as I do now. The Reverend's Daughter was my favorite character in this book, and from her first appearance, I couldn't do anything other than be in awe of her power, intelligence, fast thinking, and capableness. Harrow is my kind of character because she's not only the smartest person in the room she's also the girl with a huge heart hidden in her sleeve and I cannot deal with those types, I am easy pickings for a character with a tragic background that is powerful and good despite that. I cannot wait to get to her book.

All in all, this is a solid 4.5 stars and I'm a fan of Tamsyn's work now.