Radical AU fanfics. Bone soup. Lobotomies. These are the immediate thoughts my mind races towards when thinking of “Harrow the Ninth”, the second book in Tamsyn Muir’s The Locked Tomb series and sequel to “Gideon the Ninth. The narrative is a tangled mess of incomplete memories, fragile identities, and cosmic power. While Tamsyn Muir weaves a complex web, it can be easy for readers to lose themselves while navigating the 3 worlds that exist within HtN: The River, Harrowhark’s perspective, and reality.
The story centers around Harrowhark Nonagesimus. Gone is the wacky and snarky narration of Gideon (farewell Griddle, my tragic donut!), replaced with the shattered and unreliable narration of Harrow. Our favorite bone-nun both enthralls and disorients us as not much initially makes sense in the story. We later find that there are Reasons (TM) for this that will make you want to read the book again. Trust me when I tell you that one can only read HtN a second time once. The story completely changes on the second read and is much better for it.
HtN serves as a masterful continuation of the Locked Tomb series, blending dark humor, psychological depth, and sharp storytelling. Tamsyn Muir crafts a narrative that is both otherworldly and extremely relatable. It pulls you in, demanding your full attention and rewards you for it.
If you want to find yourself fully immersed in a story and say “wtf? WTF!?” many times, this one’s for you.
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