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#Gideon the Ninth: chapter 20
robobee · 2 months
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gonna start the secret history soon... will I get through it or DNF it for 2 years we will see
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bogreader · 5 months
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“an inauspicious nine hours later…” so the number 9 is unlucky in their world?
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lemon-natalia · 1 month
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Gideon the Ninth Reaction - Chapter 20
i just wanna apologise in advance for how long these posts are getting lol, i have a lot of Thoughts about this book
oh wait nope they are going back to the creepy lab where two people just got murdered. great plan guys
Dulcinea wanting to team up surprised me a little, but it really shouldn't have. she's been paying a lot of attention to the Ninth, and especially Gideon.
'thousands of years after you're gone ... is when you really live' this is such a different, almost warmer, perspective on death and necromancy, and i can see why it appeals to Dulcinea specifically, who's clearly had to come to terms with her mortality pretty early on in life. but its also part of the more disturbing theme that the past never really goes away, and can't help but view this line along the same lines of discovering the ancient study last chapter, and the ancient laboratory, and Canaan House in general, which are only just now having their secrets revealed, and the terrible consequences of those secrets becoming apparent, after thousands of years
'she grasped a railing, leaned over, and proffered her hand' well this is getting very courtly romance
ah yes lets go through the door decorated with a swirl of human teeth, i'm sure there's happy fun times to be had in there. harrow, resident goth interior designer who specialises in bone decor, is probably taking notes as we speak
even after hurting her hand twice, Harrow really just can't resist experimenting even further huh. she's so very reluctant to accept that her existing powers aren't enough by themselves for this
ooohhhh, having to literally suck the life force out of your cavalier to win?? thats so sick and twisted and i love it. these challenges are, again, clearly relying on this intense relationship between the pair, both in trusting them absolutely and in this literal soul-siphoning/melding link thing.
however, it feels like Gideon's really getting the brunt of it in these challenges. Harrow's absolutely putting in an awful lot of effort and power, but it's the cavalier who has to fight the bone amalgamation, the cavalier who has to have their life literally siphoned out. they're about trust and a bond between them, but also seemingly about a willingness to sacrifice your cavalier to achieve that goal, and i have a really bad feeling about where exactly this is going in terms of how exactly one achieves lyctorhood
'under no circumstances will i ever desire your juice' Harrow you may wish to revisit this sentiment when you guys (to my limited knowledge) eventually become girlfriends
'none of this is worth it, at all [...] i'm sorry. We take so much' i'm like 90% sure the voice talking to Gideon throughout all this was Dulcinea, largely because it doesn't really make sense for it to be anyone else, but there were certain lines, specifically these ones, that made me suspicious at first it might be some(one? thing?) else. but it also feels fitting that its Dulcinea coaching her through this.
wow, just wow, i'm really impressed with the writing in this chapter, and how the pain Gideon is feeling is expressed. its such an abstract experience/feeling to describe, but i think its done incredibly well
'Ha-ha, said Gideon, first time you didn't call me Griddle, and died' ok i know she didn't but THANKS for giving me an absolute heart attack with that sentence Tamsyn Muir
Harrow i get understand u are protective of Gideon but let Dulcinea comfort her plz
'you can't just ask someone why they want to be a Lyctor'. ahh the duality of Gideon the Ninth. this just evocative prose about how it feels to be on the brink of death, and then immediately afterwards hits you in the face with a mean girls reference. beautiful, iconic, effervescent.
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chaos-has-theories · 1 year
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“Step one,” she said, singsong, “preserve the soul, with intellect and memory intact."
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“Step two, analyse it—understand its structure, its shape."
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"Step three, remove and absorb it: take it into yourself without consuming it in the process.”
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“Step four, fix it in place so it can’t deteriorate. That’s the part I wasn’t sure of, but I found the method here, in this very room."
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"Step five, incorporate it: find a way to make the soul part of yourself without being overwhelmed."
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"Step six: consume the flesh. Not the whole thing, a drop of blood will do to ground you."
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"Step seven is reconstruction—making spirit and flesh work together the way they used to, in the new body."
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"And then for the last step you hook up the cables and get the power flowing."
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Gideon the Ninth, chapter 34 // Nona the Ninth, John 1:20
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g1deon and pyrrha + gideon and harrow throughlines scattered in all of tlt continue to drive me insane.
the initial investigation scenes post the 5th deaths where the 2nd house tries to pull cohort rank control of the situation, gideon & harrow immediately sneak away to learn that the winnowing trial was developed by the second house and cohort founders, g1deon & pyrrha. winnowing as incorporating the other, refusing distractions for the sake of true control, loyalty and duty.
gideon is wearing his sunglasses, rifling through their things. she doesn’t see it as a real place someone would live in, only a stop along the way to somewhere else, more whole.
she sees a gun on the wall that her mother's ghost will use the river memory of to try and kill harrow in the dream of cannan house:
It took Gideon a long time to realise that she was looking at something goddamn ancient: it was a blowback carbine gun. She’d only ever seen pictures. ….. The hairs on the back of Gideon’s neck had risen when the lights came on, and they hadn’t gone back down, as if her intrusion might well tempt time back to claim its grave goods. GTN chapter 19
Carbine rifle, read the key. For a moment she pitied Judith Deuteros’s last seconds. To be killed with this ancient piece of grave goods! It would have been like being set upon by a ghost out of time. HTN chapter 18
gideon reads "one flesh, one end" for the first time. she tells harrow these people were living in each others pockets, the same phrase she'll later use to describe the two of them. pyrrha spent nearly 10,000 years locked in a drawer in gideon the first’s mind bc he couldn't bear to let her go. gideon tells harrow how they feel like strangers despite growing up together.
harrow cant stand the thought and in less than a month harrow will lock gideon in a drawer and gideon the first will relentlessly try to kill harrow in her waking hours to spare her the agony he'll never learn is closely parallel to his, and when she fails to hear his real name her brain starts bleeding:
And he had said: “Ortus, have pity.”
“This is my pity, Lord,” said the Saint of Duty. HTN chapter 20
g1deon was john’s oldest friend, he carried that suitcase in his loyalty to him. then he becomes an amnesiac, immortal thanergy void, absorbing and nullifying the echoes of that catastrophe. founding the cohort that flips planets in the exact mirror to the ecological tragedy they all sacrificed everything to spare earth from. over and over again.
He didn’t even ask me to explain. That was the kind of guy he was. He and I had grown up on the same street. I’d spotted him for mince pies all the time as kids, so stands to reason he let me cut off his arm and carried a nuke for me. John 1:20
in g+p’s room harrow says that theyre all the ninth house has ( = you’re all that i have). gideon firmly says shes "NO ONE'S son or daughter"
but in less than a year gideon’s mother, sitting opposite her father, will recognize pyrrha with a sense of profound relief before her revenant is unceremoniously killed. gideon will watch through harrows eyes, in hiding:
Harrow, I will never forget the look on her face as long as I live, or as long as I die. (…) It was the smile for your old cellmate who’d just landed back in prison, the one that told them at least you were in it together—or more correctly, the smile of someone stepping out of jail after serving a very long sentence, having seen someone there waiting for her. Someone whose presence meant total reprieve, someone she hadn’t expected. It was a little bit mocking. It was deeply relieved. HTN chapter 50
i don’t have a conclusion to this rn i’m just……much to think abt. the displacement of grief, the loyalty through control, how it just happens over and over and over again and they just bear witness as tools or trapped souls or revenants, clinging to anything they can even if they don’t remember it.
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jackalopetrope · 1 month
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I'm experiencing The Locked Tomb again, and the Second Reading (or listening in my case, I'm doing audio books this time), is absolutely DELICIOUS. It's like, a whole different book. Littered with details that couldn't possibly be enjoyed without having read the subsequent story beforehand!!
I've had to pause and jot some things down just because they make me feel ways (this is obviously full of spoilers):
In Chapter 6:
1) Aiglamene is teaching Gideon how to wield a rapier and tells her, her hands "Shouldn't be twins, but sisters", that they have different roles, but should be aware and support each other or something. And I was, Tamsyn are you sending me secret messages about the Third?
2) Harrow is speaking to the congregation and Gideon is thinking about how full of shit she is, but then Harrow says something like how no one will ever love the Ninth like she does, that "her heart is interred here", and Gideon is like well actually that bit sounded sincere. Oh boy. It sure is Harrow. Sounds like Ninth Poetic Gothic Nonsense, but in Hindsight, really quite literal. Well done Muir.
3) This one is a little less direct but when Gideon realizes she may never return to the Ninth and thinking that that somehow makes it seem fragile, that by turning her back on it, not looking at it, it might fall apart. Likes she's destroying it... Omg 😰 Just sort of rang like a precursor to how she felt about Harrow "turning her back on her" with the lobotomy y'know?
4) So Harrow and Gideon are getting on to the shuttle to Canaan and tension is high, they are not happy with each other and Harrow says "I want to watch you die", and Gideon, just super hyped to finally be escaping, smugly saying "Well you won't do it here." (Here being the ninth) 😭 Tamsynnn
Chapter 9:
When Ianthe catches Gideon hiding in dark, listening in on the third, she refers to "the necromancer of the third house", necromancer SINGULAR. Nice little drop there.
Chapter 14:
Harrow says "I'm not equipped to deal with a spirit attached to a live nervous system, you're so noisy!", implying Harrow is equipped to deal with spirits NOT attached to live nervous systems, like say, a bunch of dead kids haunting you???
Chapter 15:
Harrow says "She never liked that cursed thing anyway" in regards to Gideons longsword, said she always felt it was "judging her". Which is a weird thing to say about a sword Harrow
Also my current crazy theories that may debunked during this book or the next two because I don't remember all the lore:
1) Teacher is John? The colorful belts and the bracelets mentioned on Ianthe and Kiriona are like... Control belts or something. John needed a way to "be" on that planet without going to the system. John got hyper paranoid after all his Lyctors betrayed him, and wanted security measures on his Princes?? Like clearly he isn't aware of what they doing all the time, but maybe he can, remote in? Idk. Crazy theory.
2) Cytherea is the only reason Gideon made it through the aversion trial. Or Harrow rather, because I'm not convinced Gideons body didn't die. (Or do her escape death trick). During that sequence Gideon starts throwing up blood and seems like it's going to end very quickly then Dulcinea is like No! And the blood dries up, and the soul sucking pain is described as moving around Gideons body... I don't think Harrow would be experienced enough to adjust her siphoning like that. Also Dulcinea was clearly very intent on that key. At first I thought in half memory of the scene that maybe she was just interested in seeing if Gideon COULD survive the trial. But I don't think she cared who got her that key really.
Idk! I'm only on Chapter 20 of Gideon. I've gone completely nuts about these books.
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nose-coffee · 4 months
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pg. 196 (pb), Chapter 20, Harrow the Ninth
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pg. 465 (pb), Chapter 50, Harrow the Ninth
anybody else think abt how gideon's parents both really deeply value poetry and prose? nobody? just me?
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olivemyheart · 29 days
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Gideon the Ninth, Chapter 20:
She said abruptly, "Why did you want to be a Lyctor?"
Gideon mumbled, "Harrow, you can't just ask someone why they want to be a Lyctor," but was roundly ignored.
The older woman was leaning against Protesilaus's arm. She looked extraordinarily sad, even regretful; when she caught Gideon's eye, a tiny smile tugged on the corner of her mouth, then drooped again. Eventually, she said: "I didn't want to die." (emphasis mine)
Based on the verb tenses here, is it reasonable to guess that Harrowhark already suspects "Dulcinea" is a Lyctor by this point, and Cytherea is choosing to confirm it?
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paradoxcase · 9 days
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Chapter 20 of Nona the Ninth
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I suspect Hot Sauce will be back. I don't think her only contribution to the plot will be to headshot Nona. We also haven't learned why she's called Hot Sauce yet, which I feel is still a loose string
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Ok, so they just thought that Nona was going to chill unconsciously for a while and I guess them shooting at her was just a reaction to hearing her beat down the door? And obviously they shackled Camilla and Palamedes because Palamedes did observable necromancy on Nona earlier
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Is that the secret she told Hot Sauce? Hot Sauce thought it could be solved with organ transplants, but maybe she was just speculating. Palamedes thinks the problem is that her body is rejecting her soul, so not actually a physical problem. But wouldn't Pyrrha also have been having the same problem? Or is her situation special because G1deon became a Lyctor and she was just tagging along for 10,000 years? And Harrow went half of her life with Alecto haunting her, but maybe she didn't get kicked out because she wasn't the primary person in control of her body, sort of like how Palamedes isn't getting kicked out of Camilla? And Wake was stuck in a sword for 18 years, but maybe inanimate objects aren't opinionated about what soul they're being possessed by
And also... Ulysses and Titania were already dead before John ever knew them, and it sounds like we don't actually know whether or not John found their original souls when bringing them back to life, or if it was two random other souls - wouldn't their bodies have rejected the new souls if they weren't the actual original souls, if what Palamedes is saying in this chapter is true? If I remember the timeline right, they didn't become Lyctors for like hundreds of years after the Resurrection
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This is a great point that I don't think has been explained yet - Lyctors' bodies are invisible to other necromancers, even to other Lyctors, but Palamedes did something to Cytherea's body back in Gideon the Ninth that helped kill her. So how did he do that? Even Harrow as a Lyctor wasn't able to do anything to G1deon's body without getting him to eat her own bone marrow
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Ugh. I don't get like ~~feelings~~ about the whole Palamedes/Dulcinea thing because I feel like it was kind of awful and not a fun way, but still
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So this obviously isn't going to happen now that he's spelled it out, but that honestly is exactly what I'd expect out of this story at this point
Is "water bottle" a reference to something?
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I mean, we already have several examples of Lyctorhood that can't be described as "half-dead cannibals" or "a mutual death" - we have G1deon and Pyrrha who were both alive in the same body, and they were supposedly an actual Lyctor and not like Harrow was, and then there was John and Alecto, who both survived in different bodies and may have conditional immortality supported by the other person. But Palamedes thinks that "true Lyctorhood" is when both people die? Or does he think that all the existing Lyctors are just at an incomplete stage of a longer process that results in the death of both people? Did John and Alecto both die during whatever happened to them? I mean, obviously Alecto died at some point, but I'm very muddy still on what are the exact conditions that cause a planet to die other than it being flipped with necromancy
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I hope Camilla/Palamedes and Nona do go to visit Gideon soon, since that seems to be where most of the other interesting characters have wound up as of the end of this chapter
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So in addition to being the Angel, and also "Aim", which is probably the first word of a BOE name, they're also "the Messenger". "The Angel" was the name the kids gave them, and angels are messengers in Christian theology, but it's really not clear to what extent Christianity or Christian theology has survived in any population in this book, and if John imported the idea of angels into Nine Houses theology, that hasn't been mentioned anywhere in any book yet, so it's not clear what "angel" actually means to either the Nine Houses characters or the New Rho characters or the BOE characters. If we go with the idea that people are still speaking Modern English somehow, then I guess it's possible that "angel" survived as a word meaning "messenger" in House/English, although that seems unlikely to me since in most vernacular contexts it just means something along the lines of "being of supreme goodness" these days. But are we meant to conclude that the kids heard someone call the Angel "the Messenger" in some language and translated that into "The Angel" in House/English? And again we have they/them pronouns, and no explanation of why they are important or the reason for all the special rules around them
Also I do love that We Suffer's reaction to chapter 19 was "you're the most horrifying thing I've ever seen. Lots of blood and guts, very impressive, 10/10"
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I guess the "key" is Gideon's body, because it open the Tomb? I'm curious as to what exactly We Suffer knows about that
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Hmm, I guess from Corona's perspective, it would have made sense for Harrow to tell people about meeting them, Camilla extracted her promise to not tell anyone when Corona couldn't see or hear them
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Funny that this is the version of this they play. I love how Corona has been trash-talking Judith for ages, but I honestly think this is just how the twins express affection for people? When we're first introduced to Ianthe she's trash-talking Corona, and they both trash-talk Babs despite the fact that I think Corona at least liked him, but for some reason Ianthe assumed that when Corona was trash-talking Judith it was because she didn't like her
It's pretty funny that Judith described Corona as having been "radicalized" in As Yet Unsent, but now it's Corona who takes the risk to rescue Judith from BOE and bring her back to the Nine Houses. I don't think Corona is actually loyal to any side at this point, she just wants to save Judith, and possibly be with Ianthe, although I'm not sure about that, either - if Ianthe keeps insisting that the best thing to do with Judith is mercy-kill her, I think Corona may switch sides again in the future. She seemed genuinely swayed by what BOE told her in As Yet Unsent, but I think she's ultimately more like Pyrrha where she thinks it's all fucked and just wants to protect her loved ones, rather than being like Palamedes who wanted to go be a big damn hero and find a way to save all the people in the cages and all the people in the barracks. Or maybe Corona is still loyal to BOE, and just thought she could deliver Judith to safety and continue relaying information back? But she had to know that stealing Judith would be considered a betrayal regardless
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Who is John's "real" enemy if it isn't BOE? There are the resurrection beasts, for sure, but I'm not sure they actually have the ability to keep fighting them now that it's just Ianthe and John
I'm not sure why Camilla seems to telling We Suffer not to kill (presumably) Ianthe (or, I guess, Naberius's body)? I don't think Camilla has any love for Ianthe and probably Babs getting headshot at this point would be at least a little inconvenient for her
It sounds like John is not in a good place right now, between "mid-dismyriad crisis" and "I've been on-call as Teacher's whipping girl"
I'm curious what exactly Pyrrha told them. It definitely wasn't everything, because Ianthe is referring to "Harrow" and not "Nona", and also Ianthe didn't know anything about Judith being alive and a prisoner, and Judith was a major tactical element since they were using her to work the stele on their ship
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the-grey-hunt · 6 months
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Nona the Ninth chapter icons
it's time. i have my paperback, and i have the will, and this post will contain very many spoilers if you have not yet read Nona the Ninth. As usual my chapter notes contain what I think is relevant and/or the cause of the choice in icon
(note: the John chapters do not have icons. therefore they will be skipped, but their presence is noted).
gideon - harrow
(john)
DAY ONE
1- The locked tomb icon. General introductions are made. I assume the locked tomb stands for us meeting Nona.
2 - still locked tomb icon. General Nona backstory. It is implied that Nona doesn't have much longer.
3 - A tree with a single apple on a branch. Potentially an apple-of-Eden icon, especially as this is the chapter where school (knowledge) is introduced. The Angel and Noodle are also introduced.
4 - Seventh house skull. This plagues me as much as the fourth house skull in Harrow the Ninth's chapters. Why the seventh house? "For beauty as it blossoms and dies". This chapter features the Angel being worried, and Hot Sauce watching.
5 - Ninth house skull. Palamedes and Nona practice necromancy and talk about the blue light.
6 - Sixth house skull. Camilla tells a story, which includes how the Sixth House escaped.
(john)
DAY TWO
7 - Second house skull. Pyrrha bribes someone for Site C.
8 - Third house skull. Nona pretends to make a radio call to Crown.
(john)
9 - Sixth house skull. Flashback to the last time Camilla took Nona swimming.
10 - Slashed Second house skull. Pyrrha gets caught in a riot. But why slashed? In Harrow the slashed skulls represented false memories/Harrow's bubbles, but what's false or not happening or in the River about the Second here?
(john)
DAY THREE
11 - Fifth house skull. They discuss what's sexy. Blood of Eden storms the apartment. (again, the skulls of house members not present in this book plagues me. Traditions and debts to the dead. does pyrrha's opinion of "landmine people" being sexy count as a debt to dead Wake, enough to invoke the Fifth's skull? Is it something to do with Augustine?)
12 - Apple tree again. The meeting with We Suffer.
13 - Third house skull. Crown/Corona takes them to see Judith Deuteros.
14 - Locked tomb icon. Crown claims to know "what" Nona is.
15 - Seventh house skull. They hear about the broadcast. Nona tells Hot Sauce that she's dying.
(john)
16 - Icon of a tower with a pointed roof and shallow projecting windows, and a base with three arches. Presumably, meant to indicate the Tower in the river. The shadows are drawn as if to indicate there is space inside the arches where they're being cast across a floor.
The broadcast happens. Ianthe refers to herself and Kiriona as the Tower Princes.
(john)
DAY FOUR
17 - Icon of a plant with a few shallow side leaves and one large front-facing round leaf at the top with a pointed tip. The Angel has the kids at school make emergency shelter plans. Nona draws an animal.
18 - Eighth house skull. Palamedes asks the Angel if she has a House implant. The Angel considers this a fuckup and tries to have him and Nona killed. Hot Sauce shoots Nona for being a zombie (okay, I can kind of see the "salvation no matter the cost" in this).
(john)
19 - Opened tomb icon (broken chains, unshaded/white interior). Nona has a tantrum.
(john)
DAY FIVE
20 - First house skull. Corona reunites with Ianthe.
21 - Slashed Third house skull. Corona has a secret wire and is maybe betraying Ianthe to Blood of Eden with it.
(john)
22 - Slashed Ninth house skull. Nona is disguised as Harrow.
23 - Sixth house skull. Palamedes fights Ianthe for Naberius's body and wins.
24 - Gideon's skull icon (crossed-out IX, sunglasses, open jaw). Kiriona is found and starts participating.
25 - Slashed Gideon skull. Kiriona "brags" about what John has done to her and makes some demands.
26 - Fourth house skull. (Fidelity? Kids?) Nona talks to Honesty and Hot Sauce about the Convoy. Hot Sauce permits her to remain in the gang.
27 - Second house skull. Pyrrha reminisces about Wake to Pash. Number Seven sends in the heralds.
(john)
28 - Slashed Sixth house skull. Paul.
29 - First house skull. They prepare to return to the Houses. We Suffer issues them Protocol One.
(john)
30 - The Tower. Nona drives through the River.
31 - Ninth house skull. Back on the Ninth House. The devils are here too.
32 - Opened Tomb. Nona returns to her body.
Epilogue - First house skull. Alecto seeks out John.
you know what i've noticed? the john chapters only occur when Nona is asleep, unconscious, or similarly incapacitated.
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palamedeeznuts · 11 months
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In chapter 20 of Harrow the Ninth where Harrow is contemplating her funeral... and finds the idea pitiful and wonders what would be said... and it's just Gideon narrating this and proposing "here lies the world's most insufferable witch"...
This better not be foreshadowing anything please please
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carica-ficus · 1 month
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"Harrow the Ninth"
13/02/2024
Reading progress: 100/507 (20%) Read through since last update: 100
*in the singing voice of Mariah Carey* It's tiiiimeeeee~!!!! I've got my hands on Harrow a few weeks ago and now I finally have the time to start reading it! I've been looking forward to this book ever since I read through Gideon and all my friends are already anxious for me to continue with the series! :D For those of you who stumble upon this little reading journal and have not seen me do it before, I just want to highlight that this is a public expression of my own thoughts while I read through the book. I like to speculate over the text. Since Muir loves to hide bits and pieces of information throughout her books, I like to try piecing them together on my own. It's fun and I feel like I'm conversing with her work in a way, like I'm a participant in the story. I know some people might find that annoying, but just let me do my thing. ^u^' (Just skip this post if you don't like it.)
----------------------------Spoiler warning!!!----------------------------
And now, without further ado, my thoughts and notes:
Who else needed an embarrassing amount of time to realize Ianthe was referring to Harrow when she said Harry? (Hate hate hate that nickname)
Yer a bone wizard, Harry.
The Noniad? Really? Really?
Well Harrow just took body dismorphia to another level. Painting a skull on her face with her own blood to feel some comfort? To regain just a little bit of control? Love her. Love love love her! She's such a mess. 🖤
Hold on. The Emperor says he hasn't resurrected anyone in 10 000 years. Didn't he... Become Emperor 10 000 years ago? Hm hm hm.
I'm managing to follow up on the time changes and the POV changes. As best as I can, of course. Obviously, I'm still a little confused at some times, but I'm glad some questions are slowly getting answered. Well... There's even more questions being asked, but I'm glad we get further insight to the lore.
I really missed Muir's writing. There's such a profound poetry in her style. I love it so much. 🖤
UGHHH!!! THE WRITING IS SO BEAUTIFUL!!!!!
The way Muir writes about Harrow and her life, especially about her childhood, feels so gritty, so powerful, and so incredibly raw. There's no possible way to connect to Harrow's experience. She went through so much. But the grief, the responsibility, the connection she has to her culture, to her planet, to her family and to her duty is just so masterfully written, I can't help but feel so drawn to her character. And her story. Man, I missed this series and it's only been 3 months since I've read Gideon.
It's way to early on to know who's the person narrating behind Harrow in "the future", but after the scene with Ianthe and the letters, I wouldn't be surprised if it was Harrow herself. Just from the past. I can't remember whether or not Harrow wrote letters to herself and I just forgot about them... Maybe she did. I don't know. In any case, I'm just speculating, but the way the narrator talks and offers up part of their own personality and parts of their own knowledge, I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out it's Harrow. (Well, she did write letters to herself as is revealed in some later chapter, but I think she did the same in Gt9.)
There's so much that is not said yet, but my go to reaction is to just accept it, not fight it. I am wondering where Gideon is, but at the same time I don't currently care about her whereabouts because it's obviously none of my concern. I am also a bit confused over why Ortus is being mentioned so much when he wasn't even involved at the whole Lyctor thing. Again, just speculating and throwing my 2 cents out there. I have full trust in Muir. Everything she writes is with a good reason. I'm presented with all of this information and tangled up timelines and conversations because I need to be. They'll add up to something more. I know it.
Speaking of weird timelines, I wonder where we're at this point in time. I feel like we're actually somewhere unspecified, that these chapters I went through were just a collection of memories, from the past and the future. So I'm wondering what is actually happening right now, but then again, as I already said, this doesn't matter yet and will be revealed later.
Excuse my philosophy. I might be entirely wrong. Don't take it personally, I just like to ramble in these little reading journals of mine, mostly because I like to look back at them and see how much I was wrong/right about my speculations. 😊 What I'll say is that I find Muir very clever as a writer. I like how she plays around with the narrative and makes the reader keep guessing. And I love to guess. I love to participate in her writing. It's very fun! It makes me feel like I'm a part of the story, not just an observer. If that makes any sense. 😅
OKAY! SCRAP EVERYTHING I SAID!!! The part about traveling through the River, the part where Mercy says that something can get inside the Lyctors body when their soul is separated from their physical form, that's the one!! I'm not saying anything more about my speculation, but I hope I have the right hunch about this.
(It will be SO fucking funny if I'm wrong about this, but I don't care.)
(Oh, on another note. That's such a super cool concept!!!! Love the idea. Love how much there's at stake!!!!!)
They're already in the River??? Nah, I'd die instantly. From stress alone.
Also, a little detail I liked is how The Emperor's eyes are described in detail. They're mostly black, but then there's a line where Harrow notices a little silver circle around them. I'm wouldn't outright say he's probably a Lyctor, but I'd say he might have also sacrificed/killed someone he cares about or his cavalier. I don't know, I just found it really interesting that his eyes are often mentioned as something strange.
BTW I love the heterochromia part. Such a beautiful way to portray the cavaliers have become a part of the Lyctors.
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bogreader · 5 months
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lemon-natalia · 13 days
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Gideon the Ninth Reaction - Chapter 31
what with this and chapter 20 Harrow is getting undressed a lot more frequently than i would have predicted at the start
wait is this the infamous pool scene i've heard about?? 
yeahh Harrow’s general attitude of paying more attention to the other Houses rather than Everything else going on really backfired w/ sending Gid & the Fourth back to the facility. but to be fair i don’t think anyone could have predicted just how badly it would go
interesting to get an insight to Harrow’s parents other than Gideon’s in this chapter. the fact that they were fully willing to kill the other Ninth children to have Harrow be such a powerful necromancer, their fear of Gideon - but also Harrow continuing her mother’s tradition of the salt water pool, their kindness to Harrow as they were preparing to kill themselves and her. it paints a quite nuanced picture of two very ruthless but cowardly people who do seem to have loved their daughter to some degree, even if they were terrible people.
and i was right in my suspicion that there’s something up with Gideon herself! what with surviving nerve gas and being fine after the whole soul-siphoning thing, she just physically seems more resistant to dying. maybe her mysterious origins will be coming back into play soon
guess in a roundabout way i wasn’t wrong in chapter 2 that Harrow’s both prideful and vulnerable, she has just as much self-loathing as Gideon and her superiority was an outlet for it. she’s more comfortable being drowned than hugged!! this chapter in general recontextualizes so much of Harrow’s character and motivations and i feel like i’m gonna have to go back and reread this book at some point with that in mind
so i already knew about the reveal Harrow’s parents killed off the other kids so this chapter isn’t as impactful as it might have otherwise been, but it is still a very good chapter in that it gives such an insight into Harrow’s psyche growing up knowing something like that from such a young age. the entire chapter is pretty much just exposition but it’s worked into the characters and their dynamics very well
oh also she doesn’t actually blame Gideon for her parents dying apparently! this is why we communicate people
ok i wasn’t expecting to actually find out what was in the Locked Tomb in this book but here we go i guess. Harrow talks about the ‘beast’ the emperor defeated at the resurrection being in the locked tomb, but actually in there is a … preserved dead girl? hm, there feels like a lot more to this than the emperor is actually telling. the mention of the tomb being surrounded by salt water as well feels significant somehow, especially since Harrow mentioned it in this chapter as ceremonial.  
ooh it occurred to me that, based on absolutely no evidence other than i know a character called ‘Nona’ is the title of the third book, is the girl in the tomb Nona??
“I deserve to die at your hand. You are my only friend. I am undone without you” i am not normal about these two
also gahhhh Gideon moved to the cavalier bed. i have absolutely nothing coherent to say except i love them your honour
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onefleshonepod · 2 years
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harrowhark nonagesimus in chapter 20 of gideon the ninth by tamsyn muir / mr. darcy played by matthew macfadyen in joe wright’s pride and prejudice (2005)
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threebooksoneplot · 3 months
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Episode 33 - "Holes Holes Holes" (Show Notes)
listen along here
General New Moon content warning for ongoing discussions of suicide!
[00:02:54] Cassandra Claire’s “Very Secret Diaries” (yes, it's the same Cassandra Clare. She spelled it with an "I" back in her fandom days)
[00:03:49] The Cassandra Claire Plagiarism Saga
[00:04:10] Fanlore's definition of "crack/crackfic"
[00:05:29] Orlando Bloom in Gran Turismo
[00:07:20] The only valid two-party system
[00:08:20] The Poldark TV series and books
[00:13:58] This chapter be like
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[00:15:35] What Ioco (and G) mean by “Disney wolves” (why yes G does regret her entire life after having to google “Disney female animals”)
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[00:15:46] It's a vine by Lily Zella
[00:20:18] What G means by "Chekhov’s heart problem”
[00:21:03] Waiting Is Not Easy by Mo Willems
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[00:23:52] Bella be like
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[00:29:13] “Oh my God, he admit it”
[00:29:39] Bella defines “friend” in the New Moon movie
[00:30:43] Poor Angela
[00:31:27] Hank the Tank
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[00:31:51] The Wild Animal Sanctuary (which actually IS where Hank the Tank was relocated! G highly recommends a visit next time you're in the Denver area—they also house a ton of the tigers/other animals rescued from the shitty roadside zoo in Tiger King)
[00:33:08] Cocaine Bear (and the true story)
[00:35:33] Shannon can’t go 10 minutes without talking about Gideon the Ninth/the Locked Tomb books (in which someone ends up with an actual hole in their chest. Eat your heart out, Bella)
[00:36:37] One of G’s favorite posts of all time
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[00:39:37] 10 Things I Hate About You's “tumescent” scene
[00:40:07] Amber talked about reading New Moon before Twilight back in Episode 28
[00:41:01] G did her best to find the originator of this post and failed. Drop us a line if you know who made it!
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[00:44:14] Human Pet Guy (cw: ableism, body horror, and general ickyness if you click)
[00:58:36] "Bella" running and sobbing in Twilight the Musical (the other thing G is reminded of is this Broad City gif: )
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[01:03:22] The sick as hell "Victoria smearing James’ ashes on herself" moment
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[01:06:15] "Fucking guy” as coined by Nandor from What We Do in the Shadows (TV)
[01:22:21] The Russian dude nickname that starts with T and is ‘quite funny’ to G’s American ears? “Tit.” (It seems to be mercifully uncommon.)
[01:22:32] The Shadow and Bone series' Tolya
[01:22:52] I Am Dragon is a sillyfun Russian fairytale movie we watched with Bella’s Book Movie Club in summer 2023, and features a minor character named Igor
[01:34:18] Follow Ioco @iocococo here on Tumblr!
[01:34:40] Bella's Book Club's December book info and events calendar
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Thanks for show-noting along as always! See you in 2024 :D
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