It costs you nothing to be kind. That’s perhaps what’s at the core of Tamsyn Muir’s third entry in the Locked Tomb series, Nona the Ninth.
Where Gideon was all sword fights and sass, and Harrow was longing and unreliable narration, Nona is a tender, deceptively quiet story about a girl who wants nothing more than a birthday party, a dog, and for everyone she loves to be okay.
The narrative takes place roughly six months after the events of HtN and from the start, it’s abundantly clear that Nona isn’t just another viewpoint character. Continuing the heavy religious themes carried in the first two entries, Nona is a Christ-like figure, radiating love and joy.
However that’s not the only viewpoint we get in this book. Interspersed with the scenes we see of the ever-evolving Nona, we get the backstory of John, yet another unreliable narrator, whose flashbacks pull back the curtain on the self-proclaimed God. Like all of the best villains, he of course thinks himself the hero. (Did you know cows have best friends?)
While the narrative may start slowly, it’s escalating action thrusts the narrative forward at a breakneck pace, as the forces working outside of Nona’s orbit (see what I did there?) quickly converge around her, shattering the gentle rhythm of the story. It’s a testament to Muir’s writing that you can see the trauma coming the whole time and still gasp when it lands.
If you like big plot reveals, surprise twists, and and queer genderfuckery, give Nona the Ninth a read.
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