Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1) in ✨Bookmarked✨

Jul 06, 2023 Sharon rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, paranormal, creature-feature, i-probably-told-you-to-read-this, lgbt-primary, unhinged-women, dead-moms-club, boo-it-s-a-ghost, sci-fi, bechdel-yea

**muffled, incoherent screaming**

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Jul 26, 2020 giulia ✿ rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019-release, must-read-authors, adult, lgbtq, paranormal, toptbrpriority-2025, less-than-500-pages, read-in-2020, sci-fi, mysterythrillerhorror

“I must no longer accept,' she said slowly, 'being a stranger to you.”
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Dec 31, 2022 Johanna rated it liked it

I love complex characters and characters in this book definitely were that xD But at the same time this book had way too many characters, and they had long names and even nick names. That was really overwhelming.

I loved the atmosphere but hated the writing style. I have always hated writing that's only purpose is desperately trying to be so strange that it makes it "unique".

I think the plot was decent but the writing style made it feel more confusing than it otherwise would have been. ...more

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Feb 08, 2023 akacya ❦ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audience-adult, genre-fantasy, buddy-reads, format-audiobook

2023 reads: 51/350

gideon is ready to move on from her life of servitude. but her childhood nemesis, harrowhark, needs gideon’s help to become immortal.

i’m so glad this book lived up to the hype surrounding it for me. honestly i didn’t know what exactly to expect in terms of plot but i think that made for a good reading experience. the reveals were so shocking and i truly had a fun time reading this! i can’t wait to read the next one!

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Apr 21, 2024 charlene ✿ rated it it was ok

Shelves: high-fantasy, 2-stars, sci-fi, sis-can-fight, audiobook, library-book, murder-mystery, space, 2019-release, mystery

2 stars
★★☆☆☆

I find myself confused. I am unsure at what has me stumped but I feel... confounded.
Perhaps its the fact that since this book was released in 2019, it was lauded and awarded with praise and placed on many pedestals and best books lists.

Perhaps it's because when this book is pitched by book reviewers, they all recite similar things, with similar layers of excitement and love.
What I thought I knew was three things;
- This was lesbian
- This was a locked room mystery
- This was necr

2 stars
★★☆☆☆

I find myself confused. I am unsure at what has me stumped but I feel... confounded.
Perhaps its the fact that since this book was released in 2019, it was lauded and awarded with praise and placed on many pedestals and best books lists.

Perhaps it's because when this book is pitched by book reviewers, they all recite similar things, with similar layers of excitement and love.
What I thought I knew was three things;
- This was lesbian
- This was a locked room mystery
- This was necromancers in space

These things may be true in an abstract way, but they are not necessarily true.

1. This was gay (particularly of the lesbian vareity)
I am truely baffled that this at reviews I see of this book. One states the girl gets the girl at the end.... huh???? What???? did we read the same book? No one gets anyone at the end. There is barely a glimpse of a romance in this book. Sure there are flimsy crushes, and most are between women, but that does not mean this is a book were the girl gets the girl at the end. The plot focuses on other things so far beyond romance that I felt mislead into believing that there was a big heaping lesbian love story in the middle of this. All I left was the ashes of two people who hated each other and kind of respected each other at the end (I get into that later, but tldr: I hated that they became amicable at the end, and came to an understanding, and forgiveness because, and I say this with no peace, and only pure unindulterd hatred, fuck Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House, and may she die via being punted into the sun).

Lesbians existing - yes.
Lesbian love story - myth.

2. This was locked room mystery
Locked room mysteries have evolved with time, no longer simply people being stuck in a small room, that is locked. The trope has expanded and stretched to its limited, some including the isolation setting, some like this book including that it is an entire building.
Perhaps I misunderstood what others meant, but I what was definitely re-iterated was that they were all stuck in a the same place, and they all had to figure a mystery out, and also people were dropping like flies while they were doing that.

Competition - yes
Puzzles - yes (however, they are not for us, the reader, to understand or figure out, as the puzzles are of necromancy science)
Locked room mystery - not really, sure they are locked in but solving the puzzles wont get you out, nor solve the murders. I do think it is And Then There Were None type scenario and people are solving puzzles.

2. This was necromancers in space
Sure.
Well... the necromancers were there yes. Gideon isn't one so those reviews saying lesbian necromancers in space are factually incorrect. Gideon is queer, in space and swings a sword but is very much not a necromancer.
My main bone to pick on this one is the space aspect. This book is barely in space. Everything leans so heavily within the fantasy realm that I forgot multiple times that this was also meant to be partly sci-fi. I like when fantasy and science fiction merge and are explored but this felt less a merge, and more an entirely of a fantasy book with sci-fi bits stuck on in post.

In space - technically, sure.
Necromancers - some yes, but Gideon is not one.

However, what I find was the most grievous offence was Harrowhark and the shackles she had chained and abused Gideon with.
Harrowhark is not a good person.
Okay, fine. So what?
Well, this book acts like despite Harrowhark's actions, Gideon should (and does) forgive her, and forge some unshakeable bond with, via friendship or some hinted at romance, I don't really know or really care. What I find inexplicable is that other reviewers see this abuse, this dysfunctional relationship, call it messy and imperfect and yet still simper and yearn. HUH????

When buidling up such a toxic relationship, an enemies-to(-maybe)-lovers arc, a redemption arc is thrown in there. The hard and taxing work is making this redemption arc, this evolution of character believable. It has to be painful, it has to be vulnerable and it has to be convincing. Harrowhark's evolution never felt very painful, was only slightly vulnerable, and at no point was I convinced.

Gideon was childish but loveable. She was honourable, she was brave and she was weighed down but the abuse, and lack of love, support and nurturing someone should get. She was a seventeen year old who was continually hammered by life, and still felt hope, still felt joy in cracking puns and swinging her big longsword. Her aspirations was simply to live an actual full life outside her indentured servitude, to see planets, to make friends and fight in wars. She wanted more, and she deserved more.

Harrowhark and her family held Gideon's life in their hands, they owned her, they stole her childhood, any form of joy and happiness and at the beginning you see them once again steal two more things from Gideon that nearly made me DNF. They stole her escape out of this abusive house, and they stole her future outside of it.

Yes, there are interesting themes of duty and loyalty, the extremes of life and death, and what it means when you try to stretch all of themes to their breaking point. There are themes of destiny, of responsibility, guilt, honour, godhood and purpose bigger than oneself. Gideon grappled with all these themes and so did Harrowhark.
Unfortunately, all these big, grand themes pale in my dislike of Gideon's situation, Harrowhark's role in it and their unearned reconciliation.

I am shocked at the ending. I am angry about the "resolution" between Harrowhark and Gideon. I feel lied too, cheated and now just plain angry. Fuck Harrowhark and fuck this book.

Other dislikes
- Questionable world-building
- Action scenes were kind of boring, too scientific and lacked clarity
- Too many people and too many houses, too many heirs and their cavaliers.
- Book was somehow too long but not enough details

I will say the audiobook was great. If I didn't have that, I would have DNF'ed way earlier.

Would I recommend this book??
No.

Will I re-read this book?
No.

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Mar 04, 2020 Kimi rated it really liked it

Shelves: 4-stars

This is the first time reading work from this author and I have to say this book is complex. I took soooo long reading this book because of the slow world building, keeping up with all the characters, houses, nicknames for all the characters and not getting the plot of the story until 75% into the book. When I finally got toward the end of the book is when it got interesting and I was able to knock it out. I will say if you are going to read this please be patient and give it a chance. If you're ...more

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