Book Review: Harrow the Ninth
SURPRISE EXTRA REVIEW! Well, I’m sure nobody is surprised that my Harrow the Ninth review is coming right after Gideon, actually. So let’s dive right in, shall we?
Now a Lyctor in service to the God Undying, Harrow is conscripted into a war that’s been going on for thousands of years. But the Lyctor process didn’t quite work for her; she doesn’t heal as she should, and that’s far from the only issue. There’s definitely something wrong with Harrow’s head. She knows she’s hallucinating the Body, the corpse entombed on the Ninth House. But what else is she hallucinating? Oh, and Gideon? Who’s that? Harrow’s cavalier was Ortus.
Before we go any further, there are SPOILERS here, for Gideon and for Harrow. It’s more or less impossible to review this book without spoiling something, so leave now or skim to the star review if you don’t want the spoilers.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
So. This book is wildly different from Gideon the Ninth, but in the best way possible. Gideon was a murder mystery; Harrow is a mindfuck with an unreliable narrator who isn’t sure just how unreliable she is, an book where you’re never sure what’s actually happening, what’s real and what’s not. And while the major theme of Gideon was Gideon and Harrow’s repairing relationship, Harrow’s main theme is grief and trauma. Gideon is gone, lost to the Lyctoral transformation, and it has left Harrow entirely unhinged. So unhinged, that she’s hallucinating the Body entombed on the Ninth House and can’t even hear Gideon’s name without her mind overwriting it to Ortus, who she thinks was her cavalier.
The book is told in two parts: the present, where Harrow is a broken Lyctor-in-training preparing to fight a war for her God Undying, and an alternate past, where Harrow and her cavalier Ortus travel to the First House and experience an alternate version of Gideon’s events. Muir has even put them in different tenses: the alternate past is in third person, while the present is in second. That’s a controversial choice at the best of times; people just don’t like second person. But a good author can pull it off, and Muir manages it. There’s a honest-to-Necrolord reason for it, and you can see the masterful hints in the second person narration of who is actually speaking. Remember how I raved about how masterful Muir is about voice? Yeah. The voice will tell you who’s speaking.
The timelines also converge in some fascinating and strange ways, especially as we come to realize that the alternate events of Gideon are actually happening, that Harrow is creating a weird pocket in the River and has actually summoned the ghosts of the dead back to her unintentionally.
Meanwhile, you know. There’s a war going on.
The greater worldbuilding that was missing in Gideon is finally here. We learn about the war, about what caused it, about what the God Undying (aka John) and his Lyctors are fighting, and sheesh. Turns out, killing planets is a thing, and planets leave behind really badass ghosts that become absolute nightmares if not dealt with. Oh, AND there are people outside the Nine Houses who have been conquered by the Emperor, and many of them are NOT HAPPY that they’ve become rebels (and surprise surprise, they got to Cytherea). We also learn more about the science behind necromancy, since we’re now in or around Harrow’s head and she is just reaching unparalleled heights of necromantic bullshit.
Oh and there’s new characters to enjoy. We actually meet the Necrolord Prime / God Undying / John here, and he’s fatherly and kind and oddly normal…until he isn’t. His powers are distinctly different from the Lyctors’ powers, and part of the book’s slow unraveling of mysteries reveals his history and just who lies sleeping on the Ninth House. The Lyctors are a weird bunch as well. Ianthe is still here, still catty, and very in love with Harrow (though she’d never admit it). But the big adds are Mercymorn, Augustine, and NOT ORTUS. None of them seems to be 100% sane, but I suppose that’s to be expected given how long they’ve been alive. They are complex creatures, with motivations that run multiple layers deep, and the climax is just…well, a mindfuck.
And to be 100% clear, Gideon is not dead and gone, kiddos. Nope, and she’s about to learn some world-shattering information about herself.
Harrow the Ninth’s pacing isn’t slow, but the book is weird. The actual plot is a lot of tense waiting for a big breathless conclusion, but the real mystery is WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON WITH HARROW. Plus, you know, a few smaller mysteries mixed in for good measure, like who (or what) is entombed on the Ninth House, or the ticking timer on God’s assassination (introduced at the book’s beginning and left dangling), or the flash-forward prologue, which sees Harrow return from the River with a sword in her back and possibly dead.
Anyway, the ending is just bonkers. A ton of new information gets dropped, choices with consequences are made, and…I’m honestly not sure what will become of Gideon and Harrow. The ending is very nebulous.
Guess we’ll just have to wait for Alecto the Ninth. I’m not sure I can. Seriously though folks, these books are genius, and you should get on this wild necromancy spaceship with me.
Grade: 5/5 stars
Memorable Quote:
“She should have loathed what he was saying to the very depths of her soul. She was Harrowhark Nonagesimus. She was the Reverend Daughter. She was beyond pity, beyond the tenderness of a member of her congregation rendering her down into a neglected child. The problem was that she had never been a child; she and Gideon had become women before their time, and watched each other’s childhood crumble away like so much dust. But there was a part of her soul that wanted to hear it - wanted to hear it from Ortus’s lips more, even, than from the lips of God. He had been there. He had witnessed.”
