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A review by storyorc
Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
challenging
emotional
funny
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Before I criticise, let it be known that I have spent hours pacing and muttering about The Locked Tomb series. Muir consistently makes such violently lovable characters that close to 800 pages of frustration across two books has not made me any less desperate to find out what they do to each other next. It's just a question of how long we have to wait to get to 'next'.
Nona is the swift return of everything I was relieved to be done with by the end of Harrow. Nona somehow understands and does even less! Muir excels at creating the impression of depth and mystery by having her in-the-know characters banter about secrets and events centuries old but at some point it starts to feel like listening to a radio play in a language you dropped after school. And Nona didn't even get to blindly enact a creative murder plan withsoup . Any time she starts doing something interesting, - tearing through Blood of Eden, arguing with a Resurrection Beast - she blacks out and we screech to a halt for the next Jod confessional.
If you enjoy slice-of-life and have the patience to just go with the flow as you read, you will adore this book and I envy that. I, however, got to learn that it is possible to comprehend an audiobook at more than x2 speed. Here are a list of things that I believe could have been cut/condensed:
Nona is the swift return of everything I was relieved to be done with by the end of Harrow. Nona somehow understands and does even less! Muir excels at creating the impression of depth and mystery by having her in-the-know characters banter about secrets and events centuries old but at some point it starts to feel like listening to a radio play in a language you dropped after school. And Nona didn't even get to blindly enact a creative murder plan with
If you enjoy slice-of-life and have the patience to just go with the flow as you read, you will adore this book and I envy that. I, however, got to learn that it is possible to comprehend an audiobook at more than x2 speed. Here are a list of things that I believe could have been cut/condensed:
- 80% of Nona's school life and friends
- The Book of John (Mercymorn is the light of my life but unless Alecto hinges on all the
bovine details of exactly how John and friends fucked up , this should have been an optional novella) - Most Blood of Eden content (The Houses are the fascinating part of this world; I would prefer BOE as a rebellion within, only started by the
trillionaires , that ignites into Cohort vs Sixth + Third civil war. Would be easier to care about beloved characters' homes than a random new planet.) - Captain Judith Deuteros. I'm with Ianthe on this one. (
Honestly, did the Resurrection Beast do anything except keep the interesting necromancers away from the plot ? ) Devils (zero idea why spirits are possesing/attacking the Ninth)
If these were the Hobbit movies, I'd be looking for the fan cut that makes Harrow & Nona into one film*. That said, Nona's old identity reveal, and the final sentence, had me jumping out of the chair. I'm cautiously optimistic that we have survived the mysteries and in for an operatic treat of an ending. To anyone about to DNF, you do not want to miss the last 20 or so pages (50 if you love the Sixth). Jump there if you have to.
Can't end without shouting out the star newcomer, Pyrrah Dve and the continued heartbreaking excellent of whatever the hell Camilla and Palamedes have going there. I can't even think about them for too long without going a little insane.
*My pitch for this cut, brought to you by the aforementioned pacing and muttering:
2. Strip out Harrow's fake memory chapters. Instead have the novel alternate between the traumatic ruins of Harrow & Gideon's lyctorhood and Palamedes & Camilla fighting to achieve Greater Lysis, as seen through Nona's eyes. (Would require some shifts like hiding Nona while Harrow helps with Palamedes' skull, and maybe saving Kiriona for the final book. Hard to say without Alecto.)
3. When Mercymorn stabs Harrow, that's the end of her narration for the book. Her little fake-memory bubble universe becomes the (short - for real this time) prologue to Alecto so that we can end up with all the same players back in the game for the finalé.