Reading a Locked Tomb book is the equivalent of trying to understand an intricate chess game, while Muir gaslights you by saying there was no chess game, it was a football match all along. -31/07/21

I am sobbing like an idiot, this book was everything I wanted.
Nona the Ninth was a very different book from the previous two books in the series, it's a slow burn, and instead of the typical action necromancy setting, we have a more civilian/domestic approach to the story. That does not make it any less of a story, rather it makes it all the more tender and fragile. I still find Harrow to be my favorite installment yet, but Nona features my favorite character in the series yet, Nona! Yes, I know Gideon is almost everyone's favorite, but after finishing this book, I found myself deeply attached to Nona. Not to mention Camilla and Palamedes, for whom I would die a thousand fiery deaths. Move over Griddlehark, these two are now my fav necro-cav pair (i'm sorry okay).

On the whole, I did find that Nona was a lot less confusing than the last two books, probably because Harrow gave us so much information and backstory about John, and the Lyctors and Blood of Eden. Like most of the Locked Tomb books, Nona does have a rather slow start before all hell starts to break loose. I for one loved the slow domestic parts, it gave us a glimpse of the people affected by the war, it also gave us a lot more nuance to Blood of Eden, where things aren't as straight as Commander Wake would want us to think. It also had the vibes of a bridge book, unlike Harrow, Nona is obviously a middle book that builds up the climax for Alecto.

There's a lot of biblical imagery, it's literal Bible fanfiction. It was fun to see what led to the Nine Houses and Blood of Eden, as well as the fact that John's villain origin story was basically just capitalism which, fair enough.

The cast for Nona is also probably my favorite so far. Nona, Camilla, Palamedes, and Pyrrah are an adorable family and while I loved them as much as Nona did, the secondary cast of characters including Noodle the dog, Hot Sauce, Honesty, and the Angel were all delightful characters that I had a lot of fun reading about. Another thing about this book is how unapologetically and unassumingly queer it is. Muir took the gender binary and smashed it with a two-hander

where IS Gideon's two-hander though?? It's mentioned at the end that Gideon is carrying a rapier, so is it back with John? or is it the sword with Alecto?

. The majority of the characters are genderqueer and it is expressed without any big fanfare, which is something that makes it feel rather normal. And also something that SHOULD be normal about the book about swapping souls and bodies.

I won't mention any big spoilers here, but I think if I hadn't reread, highlighted, and annotated the shit out of Gideon and Harrow I probably would have been a lot more lost about what was going on.

Definitely lived up to the hype, Nona the Ninth is a book about love and the transient and fleeting moments between the people you care about that end up becoming the most important thing in the world. It is a tender and heartwrenching/warming story featuring my favorite protagonist yet. Yes, Ianthe is as terrible as ever, yes, you will have to wait a bit for Griddlehark, and yes, Noodle the dog gets loads of pats.
I am so excited for all hell to break loose in Alecto the Ninth; bring it on apocalypse barbie!