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Ever since I discovered Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth, I have hesitated to read it for the sheer fact that it could only be a book that I loved or that I hated. It looked so tailored to my own personal tastes that if it did not deliver, it would have actively made me kind of angry about the wasted potential. But fortunately, this book was everything I hoped it would be and more. Funny and brutal, it was absolutely wild from start to finish, but in the best possible way. I laughed and I gasped and were I capable of expressing normal human emotions, I probably would have cried.
To start off, the review on the cover describes it as “lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space,” and I mean, what’s not to love about that? More specifically, it centers on Gideon Nav, a skilled swordswoman and ward of the Ninth House who has already tried to escape numerous times. After yet another foiled attempt, she agrees to pose as a cavalier to Harrowhark Nonagesimus — the heir to the Ninth House and a necromancer who has made Gideon’s life hell since childhood — in order to help Harrow survive a trial that could end with her ascension to immortality serving the Emperor.
Between the necromancers and the cavaliers, this book does have a fair few characters to keep track of, but they are so distinct that it does not take long to learn who is who. And though they are many, I loved every single character in this book — as a character if not necessarily as a person. The morals are, after all, somewhat questionable at times. In particular, I have never understood the appeal of the damaged-asshole-hot-guy trope, but I have officially been won over by damaged-asshole-hot-girl Harrow (and, in all honesty, every other woman in this book).
On that note, Gideon Nav is one of my favorite protagonists I have ever had the pleasure to read about. Her narration is amazing, and her dialogue is hilarious (I think I could have read this book in half the time if I didn’t stop every five lines to read aloud every funny thing Gideon said or thought), but she’s also so much more than that. She surprised me constantly, though I always felt like I understood why she did what she did. Chaotic as she is, there is such specificity to her that she felt like a real person from the very first page.
Really, that is true in just about every aspect of this book. I have heard that this book is confusing, and while I will admit that I don’t think I ever quite grasped all of the fundamentals of necromancy, I also don’t think that was to the book’s detriment. Because we receive this book through Gideon’s perspective and because she understands necromancy in this world about as well as we do, I was able to follow along easily and trust that if she did not understand, I did not need to either. Anything I did need to know would be revealed eventually, but whatever questions I was left with, the author did have an answer.
The thing about this book is it’s so out-there that it very easily could have been a mess, weird for the sake of being weird, but everything about it is so specific that it always felt completely intentional. Even at its most wild, everything fit together perfectly in a way I can’t quite describe. I would trust Tamsyn Muir with my life (or at least my next read!).
