Nona the Ninth

Knowing this book was a surprise in the planning of this series, I went into it unsure of how it would fit into the idea that this was supposed to be a trilogy. But now having finished it, I can't imagine going into the next book without knowing the information of this one.

Tamsyn is a master of sentence crafting. The poetic emotion dripping from the words had me lost between grief and love, pulling my heart in every direction. Even the scenes that would be info dumping by any other author are beautifully strung together leaving me on edge for the next paragraph. The way the characters are body swapping / sharing, with zero weirdness of wondering who is who is masterful. I am in awe of how each personality is crafted. The meanings woven show more into the lines even when Nona is in the dark on the past. Ugh. It's pure magic and makes me weak just contemplating how amazing Tamsyn is. Seriously going to be one of the greatest of our time.

Nona is nothing like Giedion and Harrow, but at the same time it is every thing like the previous two books. I adored and wanted more of every aspect of this story. I loved getting a view of 'what if' these ultimate badasses were living all domestic for a bit. It's whimsical with a touch of gothic thriller written in.

The first part of the book takes you on a fairy tale ride into Nona's child like mind, while the last part of the book is back to necromancy goodness and on with the series plotline. It's shocking and left me wishing I had waited to read it because now I'm just dreaming of the fourth books release and wow.

Also, let's just take a minute to talk about how well Tamsyn builds characters. The fluidness of writing in every time of personality, gender and make up of each person no matter how small they are to the plot is so fantastic. The description and world build made me feel like I walked the streets along side Nona. I could rave about this book forever.

If you enjoy series with multiple strings, many POVs and hidden meanings, deeply complex plots with twists you'll probably miss the first read through you're going to love The Locked Tomb.

Also, how can anyone resist the charm of lesbian necromancers? show less

"Life is too short and love is too long."

Be prepared to toss out everything you think you knew and get ready for the strange and delightful ride that is Nona the Ninth, book three in Tamsyn Muir's Locked Tomb series. As a fan of the series I really should be used to this by now and yet it still caught me off guard at just how different this book was to what's come before. I absolutely loved it. I love Nona and Nona loves me.

This is a slow burn story yet it never seemed to drag for me. The first half of the book deals with the day to day life of Nona and her family (eating breakfast, going to school, etc.) as the mystery of Nona and what's really going on begins to unfold. Plus the mystery of Camilla and Palamedes. Oh and the mystery of show more Pyrrah. Did I mention there's a lot of mysteries? I probably left some out of the list. This set up lets us see what's going on in the universe outside of the Nine Houses. It is disturbing. The idyllic moments don't last as the second half of the book explodes, almost literally, and the action starts. Then it becomes a frantic race to answer the question of Nona before it's too late. I had a hard time putting the book down I was so engaged.

It's also a book of reveals. We are given John's origin story, which includes the background of the original Lyctors, told brilliantly using biblical imagery and references. Apparently those bible verse codes are an alphanumeric cypher which gives you a cool teaser for Alecto by the end in addition to the actual bible verses having relevance to that which is revealed. Thanks so much to my buddy read pal Iain for pointing this out! We also learn more about the Blood of Eden organization and what they're fighting for.

The cast of Nona is brilliant. Nona is such a joy to read with her sweet innocence and quirks. I just wanted to hug her and be her friend. Camilla and Palamedes have cemented their position as my favorite necro/cav pair with their devotion to each other and Nona. The kids at the school and the dog Noodle are fun. Pyrrah is a tough nut to crack but even she won a small piece of my heart. I loved spending time getting to know everyone.

In the end, this is all one big set up for events to come in Alecto. I hope we get to see some flashes of Nona in the final book. Her sweet innocence was so refreshing in this dark and strange universe. show less

I love Tamsyn Muir's The Locked Tomb series; I really do. It's the only series where I read each book and honestly have no idea what is happening until the end. I call it the banana-pants-batshit-crazy series because that is how each book reads. My husband once asked me what the series was about, and I couldn't answer him because even now, after reading and listening to each book more than once, I still am not entirely sure. However, as much as I love the series as a whole and enjoyed NONA THE NINTH, I am getting a little tired of reading each book without a clue.

I really DID enjoy NONA THE NINTH. She is the exact opposite of Alecto and simply adorable. She is all rainbows and puppy dogs compared to pretty much every other character we show more have met so far. And her world is far gentler than any we have yet seen. Sure, Nona is a bit of a teenage brat, but she is a teenager and entitled to her instability in that regard. That makes her the most normal character in the entire series. Plus, we get a reprieve from bones and death magic.

I say all this knowing there is one more book in the series to come, still pending as I type this one year after finishing NONA. Will I have to reread the first three books once again? Yes. Yes, I will. Will I enjoy it? That is another yes. Reading NONA THE NINTH again will not be a hardship. I look forward to reacquainting myself with Nona's bouncy adorableness as I work to refresh my memory on what the ef is even happening in this series. show less

After the first two volumes, it's safe to say that the cautious reader will be aware that this volume is no less likely to yank the ground out from under them than the second was, but, cruelly, upsettingly, Muir does the worst thing possible: create her most utterly lovable character yet, and make sure it is understood that she is doomed to either die or change utterly as a result of the complex workings of necromancy, God's court politics and a galactic civil war. Life and death, gender and identity, are all grist to the mill in the rearrangement of the skeleton of the series into a newer, more tragic, but also incredibly exciting and suspenseful and often hilariously funny configuration. It does not end with the same crescendo of show more violence and chaos as the first two did, probably because it's one half of a longer volume, but it definitely leaves you with a whole new strange and awful puzzle and wanting more. All-time great audiobook reader, too. show less

Do you have a confusion kink? Do you love stories that specifically hide the ball to leave you constantly frustrated? Do you enjoy vast amounts of useless detail about ordinary activities that have no bearing on the plot? Do you relish spending the huge majority of a novel asking, ‘what is the actual point of this book existing?’

I mean, of course you do. You’re reading a third book in this series, right? Sadly, I somehow managed to forget about the frustration and only remembered the good parts of the previous books, so I finally grabbed this one for the ‘queer, fun, necromancy in space!’ That was my mistake and I own it.

Do you have a confusion kink? Do you love stories that specifically hide the ball to leave you constantly frustrated? Do you enjoy vast amounts of useless detail about ordinary activities that have no bearing on the plot? Do you relish spending the huge majority of a novel asking, ‘what is the actual point of this book existing?’

I mean, of course you do. You’re reading a third book in this series, right? Sadly, I somehow managed to forget about the frustration and only remembered the good parts of the previous books, so I finally grabbed this one for the ‘queer, fun, necromancy in space!’ That was my mistake and I own it.

After pre-ordering and eagerly awaiting [b:Nona the Ninth|58662507|Nona the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #3)|Tamsyn Muir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1643298298l/58662507._SY75_.jpg|92285474] for months, I had to wait five weeks after the release date for my copy to arrive. Supply chain problems were to blame. Enragingly enough, these issues afflicted all the UK independent online bookshops I know of but not the Bezos empire. When Nona finally arrived I fell upon her immediately. Re-reading [b:Harrow the Ninth|39325105|Harrow the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #2)|Tamsyn Muir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1602323622l/39325105._SY75_.jpg|60943273] and [b:As Yet show more Unsent|58662978|As Yet Unsent (The Locked Tomb, #2.5)|Tamsyn Muir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1654793588l/58662978._SX50_.jpg|92286520] turned out to be an excellent decision. As before, Tamsyn Muir gleefully disorientates the reader by slinging them into a new setting, genre, and point of view. I was once again astounded by her effrontery and enchanted by the truly peerless Locked Tomb experience.

The primary mystery of the book is who the hell Nona is. She lives in Harrow's body and shares a flat with Camilla, Palamedes, and Pyrrha. The three of them are trying to ascertain whether Nona is amnesiac Gideon or a fusion of Gideon and Harrow. I was always sceptical of the latter, as I did not see how the fusion of two people with absolutely zero chill could turn out like Nona. Then again, Alecto didn't show much sign of it either. Nona is of course a very different narrator to Gideon or Harrow. She is concerned with her friends, her volunteer job at a school, and cute dogs rather than necromancy, sword fighting, and space wars. I loved the scenes of her daily life on an overcrowded, unstable, and dangerous resettlement planet, as they were both charming and built a lot of tension. Nona's emotional openness is a wonderful contrast to literally everybody else in the series.

I was surprised by how much I came to care about Camilla and Palamedes. They didn't make a huge impression on me in previous books, but are one of several reasons I'm now impatient to re-read [b:Gideon the Ninth|42036538|Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1)|Tamsyn Muir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1546870952l/42036538._SY75_.jpg|60943229]. Their relationship while sharing Camilla's body is touching and tragi-comic; their metamorphosis into Paul is an arresting twist. I was amused by Ianthe's reaction to Paul. Also seen anew via Nona's eyes are Coronabeth (who she sweetly calls Crown) and Judith, who has become possessed by... something. A resurrection beast, perhaps? She's referred to as a 'thrall', which has an ominous ring. Coronabeth and Ianthe's reunion is suitably overwrought, while Nona stands awkwardly in the background disguised as Harrow. After an initial period of ostensibly domestic shenanigans, Nona's narrative accelerates rapidly in the final third; a similar pattern to [b:Harrow the Ninth|39325105|Harrow the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #2)|Tamsyn Muir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1602323622l/39325105._SY75_.jpg|60943273].

Also akin to the previous book, there's another narrative mixed in. This time, it's God (or Jod) recounting how he destroyed the world and started a necromantic space empire. He appears to direct this recollection at Harrow (or is it?) while they are inside his memories and/or the River (?). His tone is of self-justification verging upon self-pity and his story full of terrifying and farcical details. It turns out he nuked the Earth out of rage at the perfidy of billionaires, who fucked off into space to escape environmental collapse. While I very much understand that rage, I don't think nuclear obliteration was a constructive response. I appreciated this backstory and explanation of why Jod references 21st century memes. These must have filtered down throughout the Nine Houses, given how many pop up. I greatly enjoyed all those I spotted, but must have missed a fair number.

The return of Gideon as Ianthe's co-worker in the Jod Squad was a pleasant surprise. She has been returned to her original body and made a prince by her dad, but remains a corpse. While many people are referred to as zombies during the book, Gideon definitely has the most zombie-ish vibes. She is understandably in a bad mood, not least because of Harrow. (Ianthe says to Harrow, "God thought you might be lost to us".) Getting to kill Crux does not prove as cathartic as she expected. The climactic final scenes of the book feature an epic road trip through the River to reach the Ninth House, where Harrow has apparently been hanging out in the locked tomb in Alecto's body. (Didn't I call that after re-reading Harrow?) Amid the mayhem, there is a powerful moment as Nona decides to keep going for the sake of Noodle the six-legged dog. She resists her memories of being Alecto, which must be full of horrors.

At the very end, the locked tomb is finally opened and all hell breaks loose. The final scene is told in quasi-Shakespearean language and features my favourite lines: "Then perish" from Harrow and "Get in line thou big slut" from Gideon. They're back! After the tender relationships Nona had, it was nice to be reminded of Gideon and Harrow's wonderful dysfunction. Wild to consider that Gideon and Harrow have now both kissed Alecto/Nona. (Wait, did Harrow's kiss transfer Nona into her body?!) That's far too chaotic to be called a love triangle, especially as Ianthe is also there.

[b:Nona the Ninth|58662507|Nona the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #3)|Tamsyn Muir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1643298298l/58662507._SY75_.jpg|92285474] cements the fact that Tamsyn Muir can carry off remarkably audacious and surpassingly entertaining feats of narrative fuckery. The Locked Tomb series is hilarious, moving, weird, mysterious, and quite unlike anything else. I loved [b:Nona the Ninth|58662507|Nona the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #3)|Tamsyn Muir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1643298298l/58662507._SY75_.jpg|92285474] and eagerly await [b:Alecto the Ninth|39325106|Alecto the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #4)|Tamsyn Muir|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|60943284] (a.k.a Let's Kill Jod?). show less