Nona the Ninth

Well, I wasn't expecting this book to be a Cam/Pal love story, but wow is it beautiful. I absolutely sobbed during the Birth of Paul and most of the rest of their scenes towards the end. They're the picture of what Lyctorhood should have been from the start.

Nona was a bit trickier to follow, given Nona's general lack of understanding of...anything, but her narrative voice is delightful and full of childlike wonder. The way she describes certain things made me appreciate the little things in new ways. There are some Big Events happening behind the scenes, but Nona is blissfully unaware of most of them, even when she's witnessing them with her own eyes, and so the reader has to really read between the lines to follow the overarching conflict as it builds to the end. It's interesting from our perspective to see certain characters that we think we know portrayed in a completely new light. It's not clear how much time has passed since the end of Harrow the Ninth, but things have progressed in unexpected and yet completely expected ways. I'm really looking forward to the final (hopefully) installment in this series and finally getting some John-damned answers.