The Locked Tomb Trilogy

[lunabee34]

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is splendid and glorious, and I loved every single second of it.

I can't really talk about how much I adore this book without spoilers, so I will say only that I am very happy with where the story goes in this second book and really looking forward to what might happen in the third.



View all my reviews



I love this book so much. I knew Gideon wasn't dead! Hurrah!

I also really, really love getting to see all the characters from the first book again. Abigail Pent is a marvel.

I'm not quite sure I understand exactly what's going on. I think I understand what's made up and what's not, but I'm unsure about the Harrow is insane part. I get that most of that stems from her tinkering with her brain to erase Gideon. But I'm unclear. Is the whole Harrow hallucinates and hears things and whatever a thing that actually happens back to her childhood or a manifestation of her brain surgery? And what about The Body? Has Harrow been seeing her all along, or does The Body just manifest after she does the brain surgery?

I guess The Body is Alecto. I'm not sure what to think about her since Augustine and Mercy think she's evil.

I'm also guessing that what is going to happen is that Harrow has somehow woken up in a new body and that Gideon will get to keep hers. Or wait. The first book said that Gideon's body was missing, so maybe it's been preserved and everyone will get back into their right suits eventually.

I hate that Mercy and Augustine die. :(

Totally not surprised that God is a bad guy.

Really, really looking forward to the conclusion.

Comments

spoilery speculation

[ursula]

My bet is that Harrow has woken up in Alecto's body, and Gideon and Alecto are now sharing.

Re: spoilery speculation

[kore]

This is where I get confused. Was Alecto the Body? No, she's someone different. And God has her eyes, so did they just swap eyes or was Alecto controlling him all along?

Re: spoilery speculation

[ursula]

Alecto is the Body and also God's cavalier. Necromancers always have their cavaliers' eyes. If she was controlling his body, it would swap BACK to his original eyes.

Re: spoilery speculation

[kore]

I get it, so she is A.I./ Alecto/the Body, and Cytherea the First's body/Wake/the Sleeper is Gideon's mother. And Gideon was made to open the Locked Tomb so John could die, but Harrow opened it instead.

I think.

Re: spoilery speculation

[gloss]

This is my reading of it, yes, fwiw. (Though I think it's "A.L.", playing on the Annabel Lee stuff).

Re: spoilery speculation

[kore]

RIGHT, I read some riffing on how that could be "artificial life/intelligence" and that stuck, lol.

I was pretty surprised to see Annabel Lee! My theory is that all the literary references and memes are directly connected to stuff in the book, since a lot of other references (like the Biblical ones) are carefully thought out.

Re: spoilery speculation

[lunabee34]

Yeah, I'm interested to see if the third book makes some attempt to connect the world of the trilogy with our world given those reerences.

Re: spoilery speculation

[kore]

I've seen a lot of speculation that the Nine planets are our solar system (and maybe the Ninth is Pluto, which would be the not-a-planet meme, lol), although there are different theories about how they might match up. The one at the very end of Harrow sounds a lot like Earth, maybe. I saw a great idea that since John has all the Earth cultural references, maybe Gideon is blaspheming with the memes.

Re: spoilery speculation

[lunabee34]

Oh, I really like that explanation for the 9 planets. I love the idea of the books being in a future or multiverse Earth.

Re: spoilery speculation

[lunabee34]

That's my reading as well.

Re: spoilery speculation

[lunabee34]

Oh that could be really interesting. I can't wait to find out!

[havocthecat]

Anyone who lures people into immortality which therefore causes them to be attractive to undead planet ghosts and then sends people off to kill entire planets for practice on killing said mega undead planet ghosts is, by definition, A Bad Guy.

And that's just the start of it, I think. The Emperor is a nice old dude, except for the part where he's also a really charismatic supervillain.

[lunabee34]

Oh yeah. He has charisma out the wazoo to go along with his megalomania. LOL

I am sincerely hoping that the third book will give more of his origin story and what exactly happened and all that jazz. I suspect it will.

[kore]

I LOVED THIS BOOK, SFM. I loved Gideon, but mainly for Gideon, but this book was so meta and talk about unreliable narrators and it really is a long exploration of grief and trauma and memory, with none left beef. I adored it.

Is the whole Harrow hallucinates and hears things and whatever a thing that actually happens back to her childhood or a manifestation of her brain surgery? And what about The Body? Has Harrow been seeing her all along, or does The Body just manifest after she does the brain surgery?

I had to look up some wikis when I first read it, lol, but I think when Harrow opened the tomb of the Body/Undying One (where God's death is?), she could do it because she had fought with Gideon, and had God's DNA under her nails. That is why he was so certain she couldn't open it. Then The Body literally haunts her for the rest of her life, which is why Gideon tells Ianthe they have no chance with her (sob). I don't think Harrow hallucinates other than that.

[lunabee34]

Oh, oh, oh!!!!!! I get it now based on this comment and the one you made upthread. You are so right about why she was able to open the tomb. And I bet that not long after seeing Gideon's eyes, those wheel are going to start turning in God's eyes as well.

Yeah, I think I'm going to take all the parts where she has Ortus confirm things for her and thinks she hears voices as a child and etc as part of the brain surgery making a ruse for her to cover Gideon, but I'm going to take the part about her hallucinating the body as real from the time she broke in the tomb.

[kore]

I think I'm going to take all the parts where she has Ortus confirm things for her and thinks she hears voices as a child and etc as part of the brain surgery making a ruse for her to cover Gideon

I think that's right! And when she sees Gideon the First her brain keeps shorting that out, too. I really liked that, it was a nice clue.

but I'm going to take the part about her hallucinating the body as real from the time she broke in the tomb.

Which means poor Harrow has been living with The Body since she was a TINY CHILD. OMFG poor Harrow. (I over-identify with Harrow so much, lol.) And I think the Sleeper is also in her head? The whole thing with the sword, and then when the sword goes into Cytherea the First's body that's how Sleeper/Wake gets out. Plus Gideon in her head. Harrow is super-haunted.

[lunabee34]

I think you're right.

Poor Harrow.

*pets her*

[gloss]

I think Wake/The Sleeper is in the sword, thus haunting Harrow. (Maybe that's what you meant; now I'm suddenly doubting myself, sorry.)

[lunabee34]

Yeah, I think that must be it. She's in the sword, and that's why it feels so hateful to Harrow. But then she gets out of the sword and possesses Cytherea's body.

[gloss]

Hurray! I'm so glad the book worked for you!

I think Harrow had some mental illness and/or haunting issues before the brain surgery, yeah. I'm not sure how much is MI and how much is the Body, however.

The first book said that Gideon's body was missing
But Mercy says something about having examined "your" body and it sounds like she's talking about Gideon -- this is when she's surprised by the eye thing. So John may have lied in the first book about Gideon's body being missing.

In conclusion: BARI Star! :DDDDDDDD

[lunabee34]

What's MI? *blanking*

I said upthread to kore that I think all the stuff about Ortus confirming stuff for her, etc., is part of the brain surgery ruse, but I think she has been seeing the body since she opened the tomb.

Oh goodness. I want Gideon and Harrow to be in their own bodies by the end of this, I think. LOL Although if Gideon ends up in Alecto's body that would kind of be Harrow's best day ever, yes?

Okay, even I got that meme. That was honestly the only time I noticed a meme along with the one that's Wake's name (but I didn't get that one, so *shrugs*).

[kore]

I want Gideon and Harrow to be in their own bodies by the end of this, I think. LOL Although if Gideon ends up in Alecto's body that would kind of be Harrow's best day ever, yes?

I kind of want them to be eternally swapped, LOL -- Gideon was so annoyed at being so short and with arms that weren't buff! Gideon-in-Alecto would be wild. I thiiink Alecto is the one reviving her at the very end? (In Harrow's body)

[lunabee34]

I don't know. The end is so ambiguous to me; I'd believe just about any answer for who's who in that ending vignette (well, except Camilla, since she gets named LOL).

I cannot wait to see how this ends.

[gloss]

MI=mental illness

Although if Gideon ends up in Alecto's body that would kind of be Harrow's best day ever, yes?
hehehehehe omg. It would make Gideon SO ANGSTY, too! "Does she like me or my body??"

[lunabee34]

Ah, yes. *headdesk* Of course. :)

INORITE? It would make her so mad that it would be unknowable.

[gloss]

Wake's name fascinates me! Especially because it was slightly changed between review copies and actual publication, according to this comment.

[lunabee34]

Oh that's very interesting!

[kore]

I might have SCREECHED at the barista AU fic. Just maybe.