#Gideon the Ninth: day 13

[books]

Writer Spotlight: Tamsyn Muir

Tamsyn Muir probably doesn’t need a lot of introduction here on Tumblr, but for those who aren’t yet familiar with her work: Tamsyn Muir is the bestselling author of the Locked Tomb Series. Her fiction has won the Locus and Crawford awards. It has been nominated for the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, the Shirley Jackson Award, the World Fantasy Award, the Dragon Award, and the Eugie Foster Memorial Award. A Kiwi, she has spent most of her life in Howick, New Zealand, with time living in Waiuku and central Wellington. She currently lives and works in Oxford, in the United Kingdom. 

We asked Tamsyn some questions about Nona the Ninth, the next installment of the Locked Tomb series, which comes out on September 13. (Mild spoilers ahead. You have been warned!)

Can you tell us about Nona the Ninth? How would you contextualize it alongside the previous Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth?

The Locked Tomb has always followed a concrete set of rules about whose point of view we’re in—there’s a priority list and a hard if-and-else-if set of codes about who is telling the tale. The priority character is always Gideon Nav herself, but after Gideon the Ninth, in many ways, she gets knocked out of the ring.

Nona is the next rule on the priority list—the next storyteller. Except there are also a bunch of other storytellers popping up in the priority list as she lets her guard down. That’s kind of one curtain I wanted to pull back on The Locked Tomb as a whole. Who’s telling this story? What is the truth as someone else understands it? Which is why, where the last two books have been told very much from the perspectives of the Nine Houses, we’re finally in a setting where the Houses have pulled back, and the truth told is completely different.

You have a knack for approaching the next part of the story from a completely different vantage point, which is deliciously frustrating for the reader. Why do you think this works so well (when really, it sort of shouldn’t)?

Oh, but it does, and it’s been proved to work—just play an RPG! One thing I passionately loved in Final Fantasy IX, my very favourite Final Fantasy at the end of the day, is that one moment you’re with the thief-turned-thespian Zidane and a wonderfully dashing attempt to kidnap a princess in the middle of a theater performance—then you’re with…some very bizarre kid called Vivi…who has lost his ticket and is getting negged by a horrifying rat child. You’re given a completely different lens on a completely different situation in what’s basically a completely different genre. In the same game! There’s a risk of getting too comfortable in someone’s truth—you might want to settle down in a character whom you have learned to understand. But then you have to practice a very radical empathy in settling down in Nona, who just absolutely does not give a shit about swords or empire and, at her worst, can be quite an irritating, materialistic babe in the woods who is WAY too into dogs. Of course it’s alienating. If the experience of being in Gideon’s head was the same as being in Harrow’s as being in Nona’s, there wouldn’t be any point. If different vantage points didn’t work, A Song of Ice and Fire would never have gotten off the ground. Hell, neither would The Iliad. I just sit longer with my vantage point.

After writing foul-mouthed and horny Gideon and acerbic, memory-challenged, and also horny Harrow, how did you approach writing Nona’s character, and what did you enjoy most about the process?

Harrow would hate that you described her as horny. Gideon would be fine with being described as horny. Nona would love to sit you down and talk about all the things that make her horny, at the end of which you are 50% worried that she doesn’t honestly understand ‘horny,’ and 50% worried that she DOES understand ‘horny.’

Nona is my character who doesn’t give a fuck. Gideon and Harrow both give too many. It was fun to write a character who sincerely seeks out love as she understands it, who has a large collection of friends and interests, and has no ambition. And yet what I really enjoyed is that Nona is easily also the most terrifying POV character of the series. 

We meet some old friends in a new place in Nona. What aspect of the familiar characters meeting the unfamiliar world was the most fun to write?

Honestly, the fact that they’re in such a different milieu was fun enough. One is a woman completely out of time, trying to find something to live for; two are dyed-in-the-wool Housers forced to re-examine values they’ve always taken for granted and what the next part of life after death is going to look like for them. All three are fish out of water. And then there’s actually the reader meeting the familiar after two long books about the unfamiliar, and all the ways I hope that’s entirely weird and recontextualizing. And then, for Nona, what’s familiar to us is entirely unfamiliar to her. Writing Nona was like one long experiment with jamais vu.

When Lyctorhood goes south or gets experimented with, we get someone’s mind in someone else’s body. What is it that drew you to writing this Cartesian mechanism into the universe of the Nine Houses?

Oh my God, please do not spring words like Cartesian on me, I have not had lunch yet.

My understanding is that Descartes thought mind and matter were two completely different things and then got stuck trying to explain why they don’t feel like two completely different things. So if someone kicks you in the goolies and your mind forms the thought ‘yowch, my goolies,’ how is that mind-matter gulf being bridged? Minds in The Locked Tomb lose to matter nine times out of ten. (This is linked, not coincidentally, to my experience of psychosis.) Gideon’s mind is constantly in danger of being sucked away into the storm drain of Harrow’s matter. Revenants are minds that have temporarily anchored themselves to foreign matter, but over time the matter exerts itself, and the mind starts to fall apart. So when you get a mind that’s big enough not only to resist the matter it’s attached to but actually to start burning that matter up…well, what kind of mind could possibly be so powerful?? (Significant looks at camera.)

You’ve previously headcanoned the often affectionately named “Jod” as Taika Waititi (which offers up the potential for some delightful space-god-gay-pirate crossover fic, thank you). Do you have any casting headcanons for the other characters?

I have recently admitted to loving Erana James as Harrow, except I don’t think Harrowhark is quite that good-looking.

By the way, I wish I had come up with Jod. Whoever did, well done you. 

We know you’re not allowed to read fanfic for legal reasons, but who would you find intriguing as a ship proposition and why?

I find all ships intriguing. I’ve spent too long in these mines. No ship is too problematic or cracky for me. My only hope is to out-fandom fandom by presenting them with ships more problematic and crack-filled than they do (I will not; fandom always wins). In these tiresome days where ship wars have been taking on airs, as is my understanding, of virtue versus sin (I don’t even know what Bakudeku is and yet I feel sorry for anyone who ships it; I didn’t ship Reylo because it wasn’t messed-up enough and feel the same), I hope the Locked Tomb fandom is just accepting that all shipping is batshit and every ship is just as bad as the next. Gideon x Harrow is just as bad as Teacher x Crux is as bad as Hot Sauce x Cytherea the First is as bad as Camilla x Juno Zeta is as bad as Silas x Every Asht Brother (actually, I wrote the Asht brothers in an unrelated piece that’ll never see the light of day and imo they’ve suffered enough, but). 

I was in the Kingdom Hearts fandom briefly. We shipped people with Goofy. Actually, let’s go with that. Naberius Tern x Goofy. On second thought, please don’t go with that. Goofy had a happy marriage and would know better.

This question has sparked some debate among the editorial team here because we absolutely can’t agree on one. Do you have a favorite character?

Yes. As of twenty seconds ago, it’s Naberius because I can’t enthuse enough over how he and Goofy’s relationship would break down because Babs spends so much money on silk pillowcases to avoid hair frizz. He only needs two, max, but has twenty. I hope Goofy goes on longer and longer adventures with Sora and Donald to try to ignore how his love life is breaking down over Naberius leaving the wedding they were just attending because he saw some other dude wearing the same shirt. Leave him, Goofy!!!

If Nona had a Tumblr, what would it be called, and what would she post?

It would just be a single text post with ‘hi,’ and she didn’t even write it. She dictated to Camilla, then ran out of ideas. Her profile just says ‘nona,’ and it’s a default layout. Nona just wouldn’t see the point of Tumblr, even if you told her there were pictures of dogs: why would you want to see a picture of a dog when you could be near a dog in real life? (I told you Nona was scary.)

Which house would you belong to, and do you see yourself more as an adept or cavalier?

I belong to No House. I’ve never been able to belong to a House. I’ve never been able to sort myself into anything really; I’ve tried, and nothing sticks. I can’t be an adept or a cavalier either, I’m just sitting in the corner glumly eating hot dogs. I guess I’m Hot Dog House.

The Locked Tomb fanart is strong here on Tumblr. Do you have a favorite piece you’ve seen recently?

Every piece I have seen recently is my most favorite piece! I was just in Spain for the Celsius convention, and the most intensely wonderful thing was that I came away with fan art that the fans have done. I don’t know what they’re feeding them there in Spain, but pretty much every fan was just nonchalantly like, ‘I drew this,’ and presented me with the goddamn Sistine Chapel. Someone had, while they were waiting in a queue, just filled a sketchbook with the most incredible work on the fly. Special shout-out to a marvelous flipbook I got where Harrow and Gideon are ducks.

The plan was for Alecto the Ninth to be the third and last book. Here we are with Nona the Ninth and Alecto still set to appear (we are not complaining). How has that process been?

AWFUL!!!!

It took me a long time to let go of the fact that it wasn’t going to be a trilogy; it was four books. I want the story to be done now! For one thing, because I’m really excited about the ending, and for another thing, the longer this goes on, the more of a terrible gremlin I become. The Locked Tomb is very special to me, but also I have five million other stories to write and only so long in a lifetime. I’ve been with this world since 2018, and I am wildly excited to get to all the other places. My editor and I will, I think, shed a sentimental tear on the final page, but also, you haven’t even met Teresa Santos yet, who has kept every gun she has ever loved.

What kind of writer are you? A plotter? A pantser? Do you have any morning rituals that set you up for a day of writing?

Plotter. I envy pantsers and gardeners. This is why Nona being unexpected got to me so much. I don’t actually have any rituals or exercises or anything—it’s important for me to have a specific writing space and a good breakfast. But every book is different. Like, what helped with Harrow was breaking every so often to die in Donkey Kong Country.

Do you have any writing or publishing or life advice for any budding queer sci-fi writers reading this?

I see so many writers—and this may also have something to do with being a queer writer—giving themselves SUCH a goddamned hard time. If I could give any advice to them, it would be to stop beating themselves up so much. I’m really dubious at how there’s this perceived glamorous youthquake to writing— like, that if you haven’t been published by 25 and don’t have BookTok at your feet, you’re a failure—it is so much more important to live your life. I’m so grateful I lived in an era where I could write fanfiction, for instance, and not have the sense that it ought to be my side hustle. You don’t have to have published the world’s most important and meaningful queer SFF story by the time you are 29. You don’t need to have done jack shit. 

I do have one piece of practical life advice because if I have any regrets, it is that for a large portion of my early twenties, I used to consume like six cans of Mountain Dew a day. I don’t think this sparked queer joy. I think it stripped away all my tooth enamel. You will LOVE having tooth enamel in your old age, so stop.

The Locked Tomb is seriously good and gloriously queer, and its continued success will hopefully encourage more publishers to publish more queer sci-fi, all of the time. Do you have any queer sci-fi reading recs to tide us over while we await Alecto? 

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh is coming soon. It should really be called Problematic Gays I Have Loved (this is why they don’t let me title things).

Thank you so much to Tamsyn for taking the time to answer our questions! We’re so excited to see everyone’s reactions to Nona the Ninth when she arrives on September 13!! In the meantime, head over to the #the locked tomb tag for fan theories, fics, and art (remember to filter for spoilers)!

#writer spotlight #tamsyn muir #nona the ninth #harrow the ninth #gideon the ninth #you can't spell necromantic without romantic #the locked tomb #writers on tumblr #tlt #lgbtqia+ lit #lgbtqia+ reading recs

[the-rat-eatery]

Reasons I NEED Alecto the Ninth right now, as in right this moment or all my teeth might fall out:

1) Gideon and Harrow reunion, right now

2) I need more Pyrrah Dve, she lost EVERYONE in one day and she is my favorite and I love her so much and I need her to be happy

3) Alecto revenge, it will be glorious

4) PAUL

5) Ianthe saint of wet rats

6) I just need them all to be okay at the end

7) THE WEDDING??? TF IS THAT???

8) Can someone please kiss and/or kill John?

9) Can someone please hug Gideon, dear god that girl has not had a good time- ever really but like especially in the past few months

10) Pyrrah Dve

11) What’s up with The Angel? What’s the message??

12) I need an update on the gang, Honesty, specifically, I love that man

13) Noodle!

14) The cavalier to the saint of Duty

15) Please just let them have a moment of rest

16) I have a feeling I will cry a lot and I like torturing myself

17) G1deon’s best friend, aka the best woman in fiction

18) Harrow, my darling girl, please kiss your girlfriend

Tamsyn Muir taken my sanity hostage and is feeding it bone marrow soup

#the locked tomb #tlt #harrowhark nonagesimus #the locked tomb series #gideon nav #pyrrah dve #Paul #palamades sextus #camilla hect #tlt ianthe #ianthe naberius #ianthe tridentarius #harrowhark the ninth #harrow the ninth #kiriona gaia #Jod #john gaius #ooooooh j get it now #Kiriona has his last name #that makes sense #god Gideon you have been through so much love

[grigori77]

Once again, to celebrate this awesome day, I thought I'd give another shout-out to some more of those wonderful ladies that I alove and admire, both those who hve inspired me for a while now, and those that I just recently discovered ...

IMAN VELLANI. Oh my sweet girl! :3 Exploding onto the scene thanks to the recent acclaimed hit/fan favourite that was the Disney/Marvel Ms. Marvel streaming show, the most adorable geek girl in ALL THE WORLD really got a major, much deserved profile boost (regardless of the problems) thanks to her co-starring return to the role of super-popular young Marvel superhero Kamala Khan in The Marvels. She's a genuine absolute SWEETHEART and she deserves all the success that's surely coming to her.

GIDEON NAV & HARROWHARK NONAGESIMUS. Yup, I have FINALLY gotten round to reading Tamsyn Muir's ridiculously popular sci-fi fntasy novel series The Locked Tomb! It's still early days, I'm only on Gideon the Ninth, but I am ALREADY falling head over heels in love with the story's central duo, the reluctant warrior Gideon, a snarky oversized golden retriever of a woman, and her "hated" charge, Harrow, the scheming, overly-ambitious scion to an ancient clan of intergalactic necromancers, who's a metaphorical vicious little soaked ferret. I love them, they're so adorably dysfunctional ...

AWKWAFINA. For me, one of the funniest people around, this musician, comedian and actress deserves every ounce of success she's earned for herself. I mostly know her for her acting, having been a fan ever since she was in Ocean's 8, since showing up in a raft of great roles in the likes of Shang-Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings, Raya & the Last Dragon, Crazy Rich Asians and Swan Song, although she's REALLY hitting her stride now, showing up in REALLY BIG stuff like Renfield, Quiz L\ady and, now, the incoming (and long-awaited) Kung Fu Panda 4.

TATIANA SUAREZ. Perhaps the most incredible sportswoman I have come across in a good long while, this one is a TRUE INSPIRATION REVELATION. A strong up-and-coming contender for UFC World Champion, she's been through SO MUCH in her life to get where she is now, having had her teenage dreams of being an Olympic Gold Medal wrestler dashed after an accident during training led to the discovery of a burgeoning case of thyroid cancer. Fighting off the condition, she then fought her way back after embracing judo and then mixed martial arts, before AGAIN suffering a debilitating neck injury which NEARLY ended her sporting career again, forcing her to take another long-term hiatus to get back into fighting shape ... just as COVID hit. Now she's back again, fighting fit and better than ever, hungry for that next chance and looking like she's definitely gonna get it this time ...

SINEAD O'CONNOR. The last 13 months have been really tough, we've had to say goodbye to some truly wonderful people, but one in particular REALLY HURT. The music industry lost a true GEM with the passing of this genuine GODDESS, the Irish singer-songwriter best known for her INSANELY popular cover of Prince's Nothing Compares 2 U, although those in the know recognise that she was ONE HELL of a force nature in her own right, courting controversy throughout her career for her outspoken religious and political views. She NEVER backed down on what she believed, and earned my undying respect and admiration for it.

FLORENCE PUGH. A completely amazing young actress who's had a trily ASTOUNDING rise to fame in recent years, I've be a fan of Flo's ever since she broke out in a MASSIVE WAY in the twisted psychological drama Lady Macbeth. She's blown us all away since, lighting up the screen in the likes of midsommar, Don't Worry Darling, Oppenheimer and, now, Dune, Part Two, but now, for me she will ALWAYS be Yelena Belova, the true successor to the MCU's Black Widow mantle.

MIZU. One of my favourite female characters of the past year (although I'm sure she would balk at actually bringing up her gender), the titular lead protagonist of Netflix' wild runaway success new animated series Blue Eye Samurai is a genuinely fascinating and intoxivating character, who prompts profound debate about gender roles and personal identity while kicking arse in SPECTACULAR FASHION indeed in feudal Japan.

TEYONAH PARRIS. Definitely one of THE MOST AMAZING African American actresses coming up right now, this young lady is definitely earning her breakout star status. Having come up through sterling turns in the likes of Dear White People, Chi-Raq, If Beale Street Could Talk and Candyman, before finally making good on all that promise with high profile lead turns in THey Cloned Tyrone and her ongoing role as MCU superhero MOnica Rambeau/Photon in Wandavision and The Marvels.

BILLIE EILISH. What do I REALLY need to say about one of the most popular and astoundingly unique musical artists of the moment? Ever since her breakthrough at just THIRTEEN YEARS OLD with her wildly successful first single, Ocean Eyes, which became a massive runaway smash on Youtube, this incredibly talented young singer songwriter has consistently impressed with ever release, entirely deserving her immense success with an amazing debut EP and two subsequently BRILLIANT albums. She keeps going from strength to strength, and at just 22 years old is only just BEGINNING what's sure to be a MONSTER of a career ...

KITTY O'NEIL. A true legend in cinema, even though most of us have NEVER actually seen her face, this little lady was one of the GREATEST stuntwomen and racers of all time, and a MASSIVE inspiration throughout her life as well. Despite going deaf due to illness during childhood, Kitty still went on to become a record-breaking racing driver and professional stunt performer, probably best known for having doubled Linda Cart in Wonder Woman and Lyndsey Wagner in The Bionic Woman. It's a genuine mystery why Hollywood hasn't made a biopic about her yet ...

HOLGA KILGORE. Probably my ABSOLUTE favourite fictional female protagonist of 2023, the badass barbarian lady from Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was a pure, unapologetic JOY, thanks in no small part to a wonderfully game turn from Michelle Rodriguez. Holga's just an absolute sweetheart, fully capable of decimating a whole room full of big, dangerous men with her bare hands without ever losing her gentle kindness, simple, honest innocence and unswerving loyalty. TRULY the MVP warrior tank any adventuring party wants in their corner ...

SIOUXSIE SIOUX. Truly one of alternative rock's true, all time GOATs, the lead singer of one of goth's greatest and most important bands, Siouxsie & the Banshees, is a singular master of haunting, ethereal vocals and a genuine style ICON who lent her look and manner to a whole GENERATION of scary young women ...

SABINE WREN & SHIN HATI. While my favourite Star Wars offering of 2023, the opening season of the Ahsoka series, was, all round, just SO GREAT for me, there was one particular element that just stuck with me above ANYTHING ELSE - the season-long rivalry between Ahsoka's troubled Mndalorian apprentice Sabine and Dark Jedi student Shin. They raged, continuously tried to kill each other and endlessly traded smouldering looks of hate that bordered on OBSESSION ... all while genuinely SIMMERING with barely restrained sexual tension. They made the whole fandom FERAL, myself includced. #wolfwren indeed ...

BRODY DALLE. And last, but BY NO MEANS LEAST, a little more personal self-indulgience ith one of my greatest rock-fan super crushes, namely the awesome Aussie lead singer/guitarist of supercool punk bands the Distillers and Spinnerette. Still rocking her iconic status to this day, she remains a genuine inspiration ...

#international women's day #iman vellani #gideon nav #harrowhark nonagesimus #gideon x harrow #griddlehark #awkwafina #tatiana suarez #sinead o'connor #florence pugh #mizu #mizu blue eye samurai #teyonah parris #billie eilish #kitty o'neil #holga kilgore #siouxsie sioux #sabine wren #shin hati #sabine x shin #wolfwren #brody dalle

[jikanet-tanaka]

13 books!

What’s up readers?! How about a little show and tell? Answer these 13 questions, tag 13 lucky readers and if you’re feeling extra bookish add a shelfie! Let’s Go!

(I was tagged by the kind @glueblade, thanks for sending the ask!)

1) The Last book I read:

The Lost Metal, by Brandon Sanderson

2) A book I recommend:

I really enjoyed The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller!

3) A book that I couldn’t put down:

It's a clichéed response, but Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. Damn but I loved Gideon (the character) from the start and I wanted to know more about her.

Also Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett. My favourite of his so far!

4) A book I’ve read twice (or more):

Do mangas count? Because I've read the Fullmetal Alchemist series by Hiromu Arakawa quite a number of times lol

5) A book on my TBR:

The rest of the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. I only read the first novella so far, and I'm hooked!

6) A book I’ve put down:

I tried to read The Well of Time a couple of times, and I've never quite managed. I don't know why it just doesn't click with me.

7) A book on my wish list:

God, so many. I'd be curious to read anything by R. F. Kuang, like the Poppy Wars series and Babel.

8) A favorite book from childhood:

I was a big fan of the Bartimaeus series by Jonathan Shroud. Barty is still one of my favourite narrators ever.

9) A book you would give to a friend:

I have the tendency to lend my books to my friends, does it count? For one, I got two of them hooked on the Stormlight Archive series by Brandon Sanderson that way. I have a friend who would really like Uprooted by Naomi Novik too, but I haven't had the occasion to lend it to her yet!

11) A nonfiction book you own:

I like reading history books these days! So I have a few of Martin Wall's books about Anglo-Saxon history, and couple of books about the Viking age and the Roman era too.

12) What are you currently reading:

Artificial Condition, bu Martha Wells, and Irish History by Neil Hegarty.

13) What are you planning on reading next?

Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett. And a lot, lot more lol...

I tag... @baepsae-7, @andordean, @mass-convergence, @kelenloth, @ramblesanddragons and anyone who would want to try! But no pressure if you don't have the time!

[monstrousgourmandizingcats]

Between the text of the first three Locked Tomb books themselves, the back matter in Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth, and a few interviews, I think that Tamsyn Muir has provided us with enough information to semi-confidently predict at least one major plot element in Alecto the Ninth. It has to do with Harrow, the Resurrection, and what’s beyond or underneath the stoma.

In the Gideon the Ninth back matter Tamsyn says that Harrow is “named very specifically for the harrowing of Hell” (GtN p. 468 in the paperback). The harrowing of Hell is an event in the traditional Christian theology of Jesus’ death and resurrection where He descends into hell and brings salvation to righteous people who died before His time. As Kate Mary Warren’s “Harrowing of Hell” article in the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1907-1912 puts it:

This is the Old English and Middle English term for the triumphant descent of Christ into hell (or Hades) between the time of His Crucifixion and His Resurrection, when, according to Christian belief, He brought salvation to the souls held captive there since the beginning of the world. According to the "New English Dictionary" the word Harrowing in the above connection first occurs in Ælfric's homilies, about A.D. 1000; but, long before this, the descent into hell had been related in the Old English poems connected with the names of Cædmon and Cynewulf. Writers of Old English prose homilies and lives of saints continually employ the subject, but it is in medieval English literature that it is most fully found, both in prose and verse, and particularly in the drama.

The Biblical citation for this is I Peter 4:6, which describes Christ preaching “even to the dead.” Historically the way this was understood was that people before Christ who had died without “deserving” hell but for whom Jesus Himself hadn’t died yet went to a morally and hedonically neutral underworld space like we see in Ancient Greek religion. It was this particular space in hell that was harrowed. More recently the view has been advanced that He just emptied the place and gave out salvation like Oprah giving out cars, and there is some early evidence for this understanding too (Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom; I Corinthians 15). In the interview that Tamsyn did on the Nona the Ninth release day, she tells us bluntly that “Harrowhark is in Hell”.

So that establishes--in my opinion--that Harrow is, is or is going to go, beyond the stoma and release someone, or something, trapped there. One might think based on what we’ve seen of the stoma so far that this would be a very bad thing. “[W[here the things are that eat us,” as Ianthe puts it (GtN p. 382), seems like an awful place filled with awful people, or beings--the thing that possesses Colum in the climax of Gideon the Ninth, the horrifying-looking stoma itself, and of course the devils that the Empire is fighting on Antioch and that have made it to the Ninth House by the end of Nona the Ninth.

But hell is by definition a weird and horrible place with weird and horrible things in it. What if, in the case of at least some of the “things that eat us,” that isn’t their fault, and isn’t how it’s meant to be?

I’m indebted to my IRL best friend and Locked Tomb pusher @mayasaura for pulling these quotes and page numbers for me, as well as realizing a certain numerical discrepancy in the first place:

Twice in the first two books, “ten billion” is given as a figure of people being “avenged” by Blood of Eden (and a certain evil cougar well-known to us all). Cytherea declares herself the “vengeance of the ten billion” on GtN p. 405. Wake gives the same figure on HtN p. 465. Yet suddenly in Nona we get a figure of eleven billion as the capacity for Jod and the OG Lyctors’ cryo ships (p. 13), and ten billion as the figure that The Trillionaires “le[ft]....behind to die, having stolen financing and support and materials” (p. 395). There are a few possibilities here: either The Trillionaires took a billion people with them in their own fleet, Jod is very bad at math for a scientific and medical genius, or the eleven billion capacity for the cryo fleet was supposed to give extra room just to be safe (this is what I think is likeliest). Either way there’s a slight ambiguity about the pre-Resurrection population of the Solar System in general, which, when I noticed it, got me thinking about the other big ambiguity with population figures in these books: the fact that the Nine Houses ten thousand years in the future do not have a population in the high ten digits or even close to it; even the mid-sized individual Houses only have a few million people each (NtN p. 30; the Seventh and Eighth Houses sum to nine million), and the total population is maybe a hundred million at the very most.

So where is everybody?

Jod did not resurrect everybody who lived in the Solar System when he and Alecto “went full fucking Hungry Caterpillar” (NtN p. 409). We know this for a fact; this is where the neo-Niners came from when he fulfilled his promise to Harrow to repopulate her House (HtN p. 35-36). As Jod puts it, “I set many aside, for safety.” Whose safety from whom?

Here’s Jod describing what’s beyond the River in Harrow the Ninth (p. 340-341):

"A genuinely chaotic space--chaos in the meaning of the abyss as well as unfathomable...located at the bottom of the River. The Riverbed is studded with mouths that open at proximity of Resurrection Beasts, and no ghosts venture deeper than the bathyrhoic layer. Anyone who has entered a stoma has never returned. It is a portal to the place I cannot touch--somewhere I don't fully comprehend, where my power and my authority are utterly meaningless. You'll find very few ghosts sink as far as the barathron. If I believed in sin, I would say they died weighted down with sin, placing them nearer the trash space. That's what we've been using it for, in any case. That's where we put the Resurrection Beasts. The rubbish bin...with all the other dross."

Note the deeply dehumanizing and condemnatory language. Rubbish, dross, trash. “Very few ghosts” are down there, supposedly--but do we really think John Gaius would do that? Just pontificate to his Lyctors and tell lies? Lies about the number of pre-Resurrection people whom he’s hated and dehumanized for ten thousand years, the proportion of the human race that for whatever reason he thought couldn't or shouldn't hack it in his brave new thanergy-powered world?

I do. And I came away from Nona the Ninth with a more sympathetic view of his original intentions than did most of the fandom!

I think that at least some of what's on the other side of the stoma is, or are, the souls of the people Jod in his infinite wisdom decided not to resurrect. The world below the bed of the River is directly associated with hell both in the text of the series and in interviews with Tamsyn, and furthermore I think that Harrowhark is going to replicate her namesake's "triumphant descent” and free at least some of these souls, who are in turn at least as likely--probably likelier--to wreck up Jod and impose real consequences on him as Alecto is. I think that this fits the plot, the themes, and The Locked Tomb's overall structure as a story from its cosmology and theology right down to the names of its main characters.

In ten months we’ll see if I’m right!

#the locked tomb #meta #theology #tlt theories #tlt predictions

[the-grey-hunt]

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.

#the locked tomb #gtn #nona spoilers #nona #nona the ninth

[read-and-write-]

Get to know me, double edition

Two tag games running around at the same time so I'm copying some people and doing both at the same time, and for the people who tagged me in one, this is your tag for the other.

Thanks to @myheartalivewrites @happiness-of-the-pursuit @littlemisskittentoes @heybuddy-drabbles @suseagull04 @14carrotghoul for tagging me in this! I finally did it!

There's two versions of this so this is a double tag game, reduce, reuse, recycle and all that, answers under the cut

First Set

Last song: María La Curandera - Natalia Lafourcade

Last film: I can't remember which basically tells you everything you need to know about how many movies I actually watch

Currently reading: Gideon the Ninth bt Tamsyn Muir, and I'm rereading Loveless by Alice Oseman because I want to anotate the physical book that i got half a year ago

Currently watching: Interview with the Vampire, I'm in episode 6 and seriously considering just putting all my tbr aside to read the novel

Currently consuming: Chocolate Ice Cream and a cheese sandwich (✨girl dinner✨)

Currently craving: This specific fries with pulled pork and cream cheese and BBQ sauce from this specific place that are bomb every single time.

Next Set

1. Were you named after anyone?

My great-grandfather, Manuel

2. When was the last time you cried?

On friday my cat needed to get surgery done, needless to say I cried more than once during that day.

3. Do you have kids?

i am just a baby (no)

4. What sports do you play/have you played?

I did Artistic Roller Skating for a long time, branched out to Figure Skating for like two months but tropical country couldn't keep up and went back to my roots until around two years ago when I started having Adult Schedules for Work. I have also done Gymnastics.

5. Do you use sarcasm?

Yes, and also suffer the "everything I say sounds serious" sindrome

6. What’s the first thing you notice about people?

Hair generally, if we are speaking in Spanish, accent.

7. What’s your eye color?

Brown that leans to black.

8. Scary movies or happy endings?

Happy endings, I am a coward and proud.

9. Any talents?

I am very good at knowing things, I am a fun fact girlie, if you have a random question ask me because 8 times out of 10 I have the answer, if I don't just give me 2 minutes and I'll have it.

And I also sing.

10. Where were you born?

Medellín ✨en la playa con la oriental✨ if this means something to you seamos amiguitos

11. What are your hobbies?

Writing, reading, singing, spending my money in silly little gadgets, walking around a mall just looking (o lolear, my mom would call it)

12. Do you have any pets?

My soulmate, best friend and child, a cat named Iglesia.

13. How tall are you?

1,56m or for my american friends 5'1

14. Favorite subject in school?

English, Spanish, Art and Philosohpy, long ago the four nations lived together in harmony-

I was indeed a humanities nerd.

15. Dream job?

Right now? mantenida, now if I had to chose and ignore if it's possible or not I'd love to work in the production crew of Doctor Who or any other big fiction TV Show, turning your hyperfixations into profit and all that.

OKAY now tagging some people, no pressure y'all, if you have already done it I apologize @raysletters @ssmtskw @rmd-writes @gayrootvegetable @gay-flyboys @firenati0n @anincompletelist

#tag game #guess how long this has been sitting on my drafts #too long

[threebooksoneplot]

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

[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”)

[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

[00:23:52] Bella be like

[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

[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

[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!

[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: )

[01:03:22] The sick as hell "Victoria smearing James’ ashes on herself" moment

[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

Thanks for show-noting along as always! See you in 2024 :D

#show notes #episode 33 #twilight #podcast #twilight podcast #new moon #midnight sun #life and death #twilight saga #the twilight saga #twilight renaissance

[priestessamy]

Who wants to see what happens when a former theology student reads the Locked Tomb books?

Obviously, major spoilers ahead for Nona the Ninth.

I'm not kidding. This is a long one. I won't be offended if you put this one aside and wait until you've go the time necessary.

All of the dream sections with John and Harrow begin with “John X:X”. A friend pointed out that the numbers create a message through a basic 1=A code: The Tower has Reactivated. Which is very cool and awesome. But I couldn't help thinking there had to be more. There's always more with this woman.

So I did what any sane person would do and I started comparing the listed titles with their corresponding verses in the Gospel of John. Like, the bible one.

See, back in the day I actually went to theology school. I was gonna be a pastor. I literally took a full semester class on the Gospel of John. If anyone is equipped to puzzle this out, it's me.

I wanna kick off with something important here. I'm about to start throwing out some absolutely wild shit here, and I don't know how much of it was fully intentional. Tamsyn Muir has put so much work into this series and I'm willing to give her full credit. But I'm not claiming any sort of full knowledge of authorial intent. This is analysis and theorizing. Some of this will be interesting, some of it will be relevant, but all of it is just me going buckwild on a book that deserves to be gone wildly buck on.

So here's the verses we're working with, including their related page numbers. Below that, I've included some notes on the significance of the verse and connections between that chapter and the gospel itself, at least as far as I can glean. There will definitely be stuff I've missed, stuff I've read too much into, stuff I've straight up read wrong. Feel free to add in anything in the replies and whatnot.

John 20:8 (pg. 13)

Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed.

The major connection here is obvious. The inciting incident for the series of books is Harrow opening the Tomb, seeing the Body, falling in love, all that.

Paralleling this, Gideon is getting to look in on the ships, and Mercy is reporting to John Gaius that everything is going sideways. The disciples are witnessing and reporting back.

It also has to be noted that the narration points out that John Gaius in the dream is mostly talking as if this were meditation, just to hear himself talk. And the gospel of John leads with “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was god” and yadda yadda. Gospel John (we'll call him Author for sake of ease) was all about this association between God/Jesus and speech.

It should also be noted that the Locked Tomb doesn't make anything easy because John Gaius is equal parts analogous for Jesus and God (not to mention Adam). And yes, I know that theologically speaking, that tracks, but narratively it makes things very difficult to talk about. So sue me. It's complicated.

Finally, I'm compelled to go on a quick diatribe about how the gospel of John was the only book to skip the details of Jesus' birth and early life. The Author didn't care about that. He cared about the miracles, he was fucking horny for the miracles. Which makes sense, because we're about to hear all the miraculous things John Gaius did. Oh, and the horrors. Can't forget the horrors.

John 5:20 (pg. 73)

For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.

This is the first time John Gaius performs a miracle, and it's only the beginning. Pretty straightforward.

A small touch here I like is John Gaius in the dream calling Harrow his Beloved.

As John gets more into his mania, the people around him start worrying whether he's eating. It's an issue shared with Harrow and Nona. And it's actually something the disciples ask Jesus at one point in John 4. Granted, that's mostly so that Jesus can go into a lecture about being fed by the Spirit. But still, it's worth noting.

John refers to Gideon as his “voice in the wilderness” which is a direct reference to John the Baptist. Do you see the problem here? There's so many fucking Johns to talk about. Epithets aren't just helpful,they're a necessity. Anyway, this connection makes sense, because it's speculated that John the Baptist was close to Jesus because they were cousins. Much the same way that John Gaius and Gideon grew up together, thick as thieves.

There's another interesting quirk here that I really like. At the end of this section, John's speech cuts off suddenly. That doesn't happen anywhere else in the dream segments as far as I can recall. Now obviously in context, it's because Nona's being woken up suddenly in a new and jarring way. But it does make for some fun connections where the Gospel of John cuts things off without warning. More on that later.

(I really tried to figure out if there was any significance to the power being cut off at 6:01 but I'm drawing a blank thus far. Alas.)

John 15:23 (pg. 98)

Whoever hates me hates my Father as well.

Fewer links to the actual verse itself this time around. The closest I can figure is that some of John Gaius' friends are pretty weirded out by what he can do at first, which...y'know, fair enough. And maybe he takes that a little personally.

John Gaius in the dream naming all the detritus he sees, it has a little bit of an Adam feel to it. Naming all the animals. It's small but it's there.

It takes three days for everyone to believe. Three, big number, biblically. This is also the first time we see a developing link between one of John Gaius' friends and Jesus' disciples. Augustine is kind of his Andrew. He was one of the first to join up, one of the most loyal, and he brought his brother into the fold (just as Augustine later brings in his hedge fund manager brother). Not all of the other characters are as strongly linked to the disciples, but there's some interesting bits and pieces.

Oh! This is also the first time John Gaius cries openly. And the famous “Jesus wept,” comes from the gospel of John.

With the raising of Ulysses and Titania, we get two more interesting links. First, we've got our Lazarus moment. Granted, it's much more halting and complicated than the way Jesus did it, but we've got dead bodies moving. But what I find much more important is the massive clue in the form of their names. In each of the dream segments, we don't actually get full names for the major players. It's always X―, including whoever Ulysses and Titania were before he revived them. Which means that all of John Gaius' crew had different names before their resurrections. And Jesus definitely liked bestowing people with new names. One of the biggest examples? Simon Peter, who Jesus declared to be Cephas, his rock. Simon Peter, Andrew's brother. The hedge fund manager, Augustine's brother. His cavalier, his rock.

John 5:18 (pg. 127)

For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Again, this one isn't directly tied to its particular section. But to the narrative as a whole, it lines up better. In this section, John Gaius is starting to really perform some crazy shit, and streaming it out for people to see. Word is spreading, some are doubting, others are getting hyped, and eventually world leaders start getting aggressive.

This is the first time where John Gaius mentions the absurdity of his company that will come up on occasion. This is another case where there's a tenuous link between his crew and the disciples, who were composed of fishermen, a tax collector, a religious/political zealot, a wealthy man, a poor/homeless man, and possibly a sex worker (depending on whether you subscribe to that interpretation).

John 8:1 (pg. 188)

but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives

Here's the first time where things get really interesting. The end of John 7 and the beginning of John 8 are weird because they don't show up in every single early manuscript. There's been debate for centuries about whether they should even be in there. And I'm glad it's still in there, because it's where we get Jesus defending a sex worker and his important “let he who is without sin cast the first stone” banger. Jesus gets a lot of bangers in this gospel.

Pyrrha gets a fascinating moment here when she betrays the police. It marks her as an inverted Judas figure. Even by the time of Harrow the Ninth, she swears herself to John Gaius when everything goes down toward the end. Granted, some of that shifts through this book.

John 19:18 (pg. 219)

There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.

Sadly this particular verse doesn't yield much. They can't all be winners.

John Gaius in the dream gets mad over the nature of souls (for obvious reasons later revealed) and storms around the yard three times. Big number, etc.

Some of the world leaders lie about sending out twelve ships with a guiding beacon. This one's obvious and I think that's on purpose. It's this noble image, a heroic crew of twelve, and it's all a big sham. There is no salvation, and I think that's a big theme here. Things are going to get worse, and having faith in the Twelve and the One isn't going to get you to safety.

We get a mention of cows in this chapter, John gets told cows watch sunsets. As near as I can tell, this is sort of an inversion (or maybe a send-up) of the way the bible talks about sheep, lambs, goats, etc. Whichever way you look at it, people are livestock. And John using livestock to make a defensive barrier for himself? It just proves he's willing to make big sacrifices, and foreshadows the much bigger destruction he'll be causing later.

John 5:1 (pg. 270)

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals.

On first blush, this one doesn't look like much. However, chapter 5 of John actually is pretty relevant. This is the scene where Jesus heals several disabled people, which just gets him in trouble with the local leaders.

It's a small thing, but the barbecue scene here does have a real Last Supper vibe to it. Low-key party while facing down a major crisis.

Here we see another connection to the biblical disciples, but with a big change. In the gospel of John, the disciples are often blank pages, and many of them aren't even explicitly named. They question Jesus, but only in the same way you expect someone to say “who's there” in a knock-knock joke. They're the set-up so you can speak on a subject. They're the novice asking the monk about the secret of the universe. John Gaius' crew? No fucking way. They stand their ground, they shout, they question him and push him and prod him. They call him out. And John doesn't have all the answers. They're all imperfect, and they're all screwed.

Someone uses the “cow defense” against John Gaius and his people again. There's a pattern here developing of excuses.

John 3:20 (pg. 279)

Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.

This is the section when John Gaius finally decides to embrace the necromancer vibe. He embraces the darkness in order to try and save the world. Pretty clear reversal here of the dark hero, taking on the shadow for the sake of true good. Also worth noting this comes shortly after the most famous line there is, John 3:16. For god so loved the world that he gave his only son etc. John Gaius so loved the world that he...does a lot of really fucked up shit.

Yet another cow fact. They recognize one another. The cows, man. Think about the cows.

John 9:22 (pg. 318)

His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue.

In this chapter, Jesus heals a blind man who vouches for him, even though the people in control are like “Hey that dude's no good”. John Gaius is also finding out that it's no longer just him and his little family that are in trouble. Anyone trying to join up with him is also put on a wanted list. Things are getting more dire and a lot of people want him dead.

Granted, John Gaius ain't doing himself any favors by killing a lot of people.

“Guys as careful as me don't have accidents.” This one's interesting because another facet of the gospel of John is that the Author really leaned into Jesus being a divine figure. Other books tried to paint him as being human like the rest of us. But the Author was like “oh, no thank you, this guy was capital-G-God and he did a lot of crazy stuff and you just gotta deal with it.” Everything is in control, everything is preordained, and god don't make mistakes. God does exactly what god's gonna do.

John 1:20 (pg. 395)

He did not fail to confess, but confessed freely, “I am not the Messiah.”

This one's a little complicated, because the line is actually coming from John the Baptist. Who was indeed not the messiah. But it does pair well with Mercymorn chewing John Gaius out. “John, your problem is that you care less about being a saviour than about meting out punishment.”

To top it all off, as John Gaius is putting his final Hail Mary (haha) into play, he says “cows exhibit mourning behavior for other cows.” He's parroting their words right back at them to excuse his behavior.

He's not the messiah. He's a necromancer.

John 5:4 (pg. 432)

[No text, Some manuscripts include here, wholly or in part: paralyzed—and they waited for the moving of the waters. From time to time an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one into the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had.]

As you can see here, this is maybe the most interesting part. And it makes sense being the final verse. This is another section where the text doesn't appear in all of the manuscripts. Depending on which version of the gospel you're reading, this doesn't exist. And we're reading a dream. We're reading a story that does and doesn't exist.

And what's happening here? Harrow is finally realizing that even if she loves God (even if that's only because of her religious devotion) she can't keep worshiping blindly anymore. She's broken and she needs healing. So she steps into the water in search of a cure for her disease. And just maybe, in Alecto the Ninth, she'll find what she's looking for.

#nona the ninth #the locked tomb #ntn spoilers #seriously im spoiling so much here #long post #very long post #bible stuff #nerd stuff #bible nerd stuff

[paradoxcase]

Chapter 6 of Harrow the Ninth

Mercy seems like a very high-strung person. Completely disabling Harrow seems like it was probably unnecessary - I wonder if Ianthe gave her some kind of trouble or something, or if Mercy is just used to everyone giving her trouble, or is just very easily upset such that it seems to her that everyone is constantly giving her trouble, or maybe everyone just gives her trouble because she is ridiculous

Ortus's eyes are described as "dark" in the Parodos, so presumably this is the eye color that Harrow thinks is relevant to her right now.

A number of questions here: 1) Do they measure age in something other than years in some contexts? That might make sense when everyone lives on planets that don't have 365-day years, actually. I'm reminded of Embassytown, where the main character measures her age in hours, although that sounds hellish to keep track of. 2) Why does the Body tell her to lie? Mercy is extremely unlikely to know about the 200 children, given that she doesn't spend much time in the main solar system anyway and doesn't seem to know much of anything about Harrow right now. Or, would she have known something about Gideon's mom crashlanding on Pluto, and Harrow having been born not that long after that would be considered significant? Also, I don't think Gideon has a reason to say this, so the Body probably isn't Gideon's ghost. She has Gideon's eye color, but there's probably some reason that Gideon has that eye color, like that she inherited it from her mom, maybe. Is the Body Gideon's mom's ghost? I think we were given to understand that that ghost fucked off a long time ago and couldn't be reached for comment. Or maybe that color eyes just means something Significant in this universe and that's why both Gideon and whoever this is have this eye color? 3) Do people sometimes count age starting from conception in this universe? I guess if you have the ability to know exactly when that is and have good enough medical science to mostly guarantee a safe birth that might be a thing. 4) Why is Mercy relieved? Is it just because she thinks Harrow is 15 instead of 14 and 3 months, because that would not make me feel that much better, personally, or because she thinks that Harrow's birth didn't coincide with Gideon's mom crashlanding on Pluto or something? Harrow's birth coinciding the Gideon's mom appearing on Pluto might indicate to Mercy that Harrow might actually be Gideon-who-was-adopted-by-Harrow's-parents, so maybe she's just relieved that Harrow isn't Gideon. If that's the case she doesn't seem to suspect that Gideon might have been the cavalier, since she didn't ask about Harrow's cavalier's age

I wonder if the Emperor thinks that Harrow might be special in some way, possibly due to Harrow maybe being Gideon?

I'm glad that someone is having a normal reaction to people who are 13-18 years old being sent to the Lyctor trial, although it seems like she's mostly unhappy about having to work with teenagers and not necessarily the forcing teenagers to kill and eat their cavaliers angle. Although, Ianthe is 21, and I don't think she has a reason to lie about that. That's young, but it's not "pubescent"

And lmao at Mercy literally saying "hiss"

Referring to the second-person narrator by a regular non-proper noun is just weird, yo. The narrative also uses the third person possessive pronoun "her" for this one sentence, and then promptly goes back to "you". Please pick a POV style and stick with it for at least the entire paragraph

Is the primary thing the Ninth House needs to import lightbulb filaments and vitamin supplements? Yes, yes, I get it, it's dark and not very full of nutritious food, but aren't there a lot of other more critical things that they would need to import, like, you know, actual food, which is not going to be made up for by vitamin supplements, and water, and probably a bunch of technology that's doing things like creating breathable air and heating and so forth? And the mayonnaise, which is clearly something Gideon knew about, who was responsible for importing the mayonnaise?

This is funny to me, because I made the mistake of saying "chop-chop" once as a teenager, and my best friend never let me live it down

So why does this not require a thanergy source?

I didn't comment on it before, but animaphilia looks like it means soul+philia, but clearly the Third House wouldn't want to be known for doing the same kind of soul magic as the Eighth House, so I'm not sure what kind of necromancy is meant by "animaphilia". Also, we learned in the last book that Ianthe isn't really an animaphiliac, that was just what she pretended to be when she was also pretending that her sister was a necomancer too. So, either Mercy is really up-to-date with what the Third House is saying about its heirs, which seems unlikely, or every Third House necromancy does animaphilia, or Ianthe is continuing to lie about her specialty

Also, is physical attractiveness like, an important part of being a Lyctor, or maybe just an important part of being Mercy's coworker?

And Ianthe's relationship with her mom doesn't sound great

I think if Ianthe manages to persist as a Lyctor for another 10,000 years she might just become Mercy 2.0

Why did the Emperor stay on the Erebos for 80 years? It didn't take 80 years to send the letters and wait for the Lyctor trial to finish. If we believe the timestamps given on the first two sections of this book, it took less than five months from the letters being sent to the completion of the trial. He spent 80 years here, and suddenly there isn't time to wait for Harrow to recover all the way before leaving. Some of that rush might just be Mercy, but he also told Harrow that he was short on time himself

I'm curious what entity the Empire is fighting that they lost 18 thousand soldiers and three ships to. Not a Resurrection Beast, probably

Is getting a runny nose because you eat spicy things actually a thing? Like honestly practically whenever I eat anything of any description that's more substantial than a light snack I get a sneezing fit that's like a minor allergy attack and I've seen and heard people say, oh, that's because of spicy food but no???? it's not??? literally everything I eat has this effect, and no I don't have any allergies other than penicillin, I got extensively tested for them as a child because I was constantly sneezing and had a runny nose all the time. So I feel like this reaction is not caused by spicy food and this take might be bullshit, personally, and it seems like the same kind "flavorful food is bad actually" discourse that gave us stuff like graham crackers and Kellogg's cereal

Anyway

Here is the narrative again criticizing Harrow's internal monologue

So the Emperor told someone to go make static noises at Mercy and so she physically came to the Erebos to retrieve the Emperor and actually got her way because the Emperor didn't want to fight with her in public, and she's also having a very long fight with Augustine. Is the third Lyctor, the one whose name might be Gideon, the one who passes notes between the three of them because they can't stand each other? But no, because she "can't even confirm the third is alive". In the prologue, it said that "five sets of eyes closed" or something to that effect, so I figured that must be the five Lyctors, including Ortus/Gideon, but did it actually refer to the other four plus the Emperor? And for some reason, the Emperor doesn't want Harrow and Ianthe to know what Ortus/Gideon is actually doing

So this is whatever it was that was keeping him there for 80 years. "Nearly twenty years" is approximately the amount of time it's been since Gideon's mom crashlanded on Pluto, just as a point of reference

Here, Harrow doesn't know the word "pommel", but the narrator does. The narrator knows technical things about both necromancy and swords, while Harrow only knows about necromancy because she removed Gideon. Given that the narrator knows about both necromancy and swords, that sort of indicates that they are a Lyctor, and the only Lyctor who would recognize Naberius's offhand weapon is Ianthe. Is Ianthe stealth-narrating this story? If so, she isn't referring to herself in the first person, the way that Dirk was when he started narrating the Meat Epilogue

So that's what a stele looks like, and it's something that goes on a ship. What's interesting to me here is that this is the first ever mention in this series of there being dead languages, or even more than one language, in this world that's spread out over nine planets and a space station full of Lyctors that haven't been back to the solar system in a very long time and that has lasted for 10,000 years. What are the dead languages? How many of them are there? What is the distribution and history of speech communities in this world? Are there at least dialectal differences between the different planets? Are we ever going to find out? I'm going to guess probably not. We have Abigail as a world-renowned historian researching shit from 9000+ years ago and not a single mention or implication that any languages other than the one that everyone is speaking here in the year 10,000 are involved in that, until now, and I'm guessing this will probably be the last mention of that, dead languages are just mystical shit that make steles work, that's the only relevance they have

Also, steles apparently have to "hook up to" obelisks, which are presumably out in space somewhere, like necromantic cell phone towers I guess

I know this is a metaphor, but I've very skeptical of this. Let's math it. The earth's circumference is only 24,901 miles. Assuming you were only travelling eight hours a day, you only have to be travelling at an average speed of 8.5 miles per hour in order to get entirely around the whole earth in a year, you could do it in a 17th century tallship, except that the tallship can actually be sailing 24/7 so realistically it would be about three times faster. But ok, let's say you're power-walking or something and are travelling at 4.26 miles per hour for eight hours a day to get to the exact opposite end of the earth in a whole year, and you're somehow able to do this in spite of all the oceans being the way. How much faster would it be to travel at the same speed directly through the center of the earth instead? The diameter of the earth is 7,917.5 miles, at 4.26 miles per hour that's still approximately 1858.6 total hours of travelling, whereas, if you power-walked over the surface, that's a total of 2922.7 hours, which is only like 50% more walking. You're definitely not going to get there in a hour unless you can go through the center of the earth at thirteen or fourteen times the speed of an airplane, and if you can do that, you can travel the same distance overland in just a bit over 3 hours

So I think this is a bad metaphor to explain River travel

Very curious which Lyctors these were

You know, I might have to take back my statement that Ianthe is less irritating than Draco

Also, Ianthe is a flesh magician, and one of the weird POV breaks here was the narrative chiding Harrow for hating on flesh magicians

Now Harrow is surprised by what she actually says. Does this mean something? I can't think what

Ok, so this is why we can't have a bunch of regular necromancers hanging out with the Lyctors and siphoning their power

Was this meant to be the challenge where they fought the construct at the beginning of Gideon the Ninth? Because I'm very sure that was Lab Two, and if it's to do with Pyrrha, she's listed as the Second House cavalier at the beginning of this book, so it should indeed be Lab Two

#the locked tomb #harrow the ninth

[iviarellereads]

A guide to The Locked Tomb coverage on this blog

First, I am keeping this space as spoiler-free as I can for anything past the point of the post I'm writing. I'd appreciate it if replies and notes stayed respectful of that or tag considerately.

Second, this might go without saying, but it seems improbable that any one person could catch every meme, every reference, and every nuance of The Locked Tomb series, even on a third or more run at it, even having been on the internet as long as the author has been and run adjacent to the same spaces. I foresee this being a potential problem given how some people have learned to interact on the internet.

So, while I plan to make reference to all the things I catch as I read, I'm going to miss some! Think of this as a collaborative exercise in the replies ("Ooh, I happen to know that the line [text] is in reference to a particular Vine that went viral at one point, it can be found in [link to compilation with timestamp]") rather than a competitive one ("pfft, how could you miss [reference], how dare you leave out [thing]") so that we can all come together and make this a positive space where we accept that we are all mere humans and should strive to be our kindest selves, rather than attempting to attain impossibly perfect recall for the decade old references.

Third, and hopefully last, there will be an inevitable gap after the end of Nona the Ninth, until Alecto the Ninth's release and for some time afterward. My plan is to get and read Alecto as quickly as possible, finish whichever book I'm covering at that point, then cut in to finish Alecto either all in a row or every-other-day depending on if folks are still interested in what I'm covering then. We'll have to wait and see! But I think that's better than cutting something else off mid-thought, no matter how excited I am to deep dive on Alecto.

So with all that said, let's all just be excellent to each other and try to have fun that's not at anybody else's expense. There aren't a lot of resources like the ones I've been working to build in my spoiler-free notes and I don't want to alienate anyone who's not here to cause trouble.

Index

Gideon the Ninth Index

The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex (Single post)

Harrow the Ninth Index

Nona the Ninth Index

Full-Spoiler Reread Thoughts

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21

#blog housekeeping #tlt #the locked tomb

[bettsfic]

I'm really enjoying your craft essay commentary! I have to read more in 2023, too. If you have anything in mind, it would be cool if you posted the list so we could take a look and join you! (Or if anyone has recs?)

i honestly wish i was one of those people who could make a reading list and make my way through it, but since reading is my job, when i read for fun it has to be either 1) entertaining, and/or 2) enriching, and it's surprisingly rare how few books there are that seem to fit into either category. which has nothing to do with the books and everything to do with my weird personal tastes.

but! here's what i'm hoping to make my way through in the coming weeks.

novels/memoirs

return of the king (re-read) and maybe some other tolkien stuff (i went on a used book store spree recently)

in the dream house by carmen maria machado (a christmas gift from @significationary!)

furnace creek by joseph allen boone (just preordered it in paperback)

the last 3 books of the neapolitan quartet by elena ferrante (i already read my brilliant friend)

the last samurai by helen dewitt

the color of sin and father of lies by janet inglis (these were very hard to get my hands on; i don't think they're in print anymore)

the locked tomb series? at least, another attempt will be made. the first time i tried gideon the ninth, it uh. didn't seem like my thing. but enough people have rec'd it that i'll try hard to stick with it.

maybe i'll finally read mdzs

i'd also love to pick up some classics that i'd intended to read for my comps, or maybe take a crack at smiley's list of 100 novels

nonfiction

authoring autism (this is going to take me a while, because it's a little over my head and also a very emotional read for me)

both tin house writer's notebooks

13 ways of looking at the novel by smiley

anatomy of criticism by frye (i think)

mystery and manners by o'connor

my narratology and rhetoric books (there are 2 narratology books that are based entirely on foucault so i'm gonna have to read him too probably)

and i have a bunch of other craft books on my shelf, plus a lengthy craft book purchase list, which i'm not letting myself touch until i've made a dent in what i already have

what i would love more than anything is to find a book or fic i can't put down, that i read until five in the morning and then pick up again as soon as i wake up (entertainment). or i'd like to find a book that's maybe not super interesting on a conflict level but which is so beautifully or weirdly written that it either teaches me something new about writing, or does one thing so remarkably well i might want to teach it in a class one day (enrichment).

last year, the best thing i read was a 700k fic that's not even on ao3 anymore, that was both entertaining (so sickeningly dark, with such high stakes) and enriching (i learned a goddamn ton about scene-level pacing and honestly just what it means to stare the present moment in the eye? i still can't even articulate exactly how masterful it was on a scene level). i also read when meat loves salt by maria mccann, which should have been a slam dunk for me (gorgeously written, historically accurate, extremely fucky gay relationship), and i did really like it but i read it in fits and starts throughout the year because it couldn't seem to keep my attention for long.

i thought the problem was that i was poorly medicated so i couldn't focus on anything. but now i can focus on stuff and i'm still putting down most of the books i pick up out of sheer disinterest. so i'm hoping this year i can kind of target that problem and figure out what my deal is, or find a way to reliably find books i know i'll like.

i always appreciate recs of the "this is the most exceptional thing i've ever laid eyes on" variety, so if anyone's got any of those, i'd love to hear them.

#book recs

[kai-herondale]

a short psa:

dear followers I apologise but I have just read gideon the ninth and obtained some new blorbos to scream about. I understand that this interruption to my normal posting genres and routine may be perturbing and bewildering but I am planning on going feral for the nest 10-13 business days. Please be assured that I will tag everything with #tlt so feel free to block that if I'm clogging your dash. consider yourselves warned.

#kai talks #gideon the ninth #the locked tomb #gtn #tlt

[caminadrummer]

mmm, prime numbers?

yeehaw thank you!

1. How many books did you read this year? (fully thought 1 was a prime number so let's just roll with it)

22 that i've read with my own two eyeballs (+ 3 currently reading) and 20 audiobooks yeehaw

2. Did you reread anything? What?

the hunger games trilogy, la sombra del viento and aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe

3. What were your top five books of the year?

in no particular order: the left hand of darkness, patient zero and the making of the aids epidemic, stone butch blues, gideon the ninth, cien años de soledad

5. What genre did you read the most of?

science fiction, apparently 10 whole books of it

7. What was your average rating? Does it seem accurate?

i don't rate them ): i always have a rly hard time thinking of how to rate anything i read/watch/etc especially when what i consider the quality of the thing to and my enjoyment of it are at odds so i can never settle on a satisfying enough system to apply uniformly

11. What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read?

the oldest thing i read and enjoyed this year was jane austen's emma

13. What were your least favorite books of the year?

funnily enough, jane austen's mansfield park

17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

i went into gideon the ninth not knowing absolutely anything about it and had the time of my life with it so let's go with that

19. Did you use your library?

nope, i've been mostly reading stuff i've bought and/or pirated a gazillion years ago

23. What’s the fastest time it took you to read a book?

i read la traducción by pablo de santis in one afternoon. it's short enough but i think it's the most pages i've read in a day all year (and consequently the most pages i've read in a day in well over a decade probably)

#thank youuuuuu #addictsitter #ask

[thewhitefluffyhat]

State of the Blog 01.01.23

Taking a quick break from queues for an announcement: Happy New Year, all!

For this state of the blog update, I’ve decided to show my hand a bit and list every one of the many projects I’ve been kicking around. Think of this as a kind of New Year’s Resolution, perhaps? I certainly won’t get to all of these, but I’m making it my goal in the coming year to at least finish a few!

(And yes, if one of these piques your interest, feel free to reply/message/reblog/etc. No guarantees, but it would certainly move it up in priority!)

Multichapter Fanfics

-If the Fifth Found Out: AU in which the Reverend Parents invite a Fifth adept over to exorcize Wake’s revenant. Abigail and Magnus then proceed to discover a war crime, report a war crime, and adopt a war crime in the aftermath. (Or they try to, anyway. It’s complicated, they only manage to get Gideon at first.)

-The Mysterious Curse of Castle Drearburh: Rumor has it that any suitor who seeks the Reverend Daughter’s hand in marriage is cursed to die soon after. Cam and Pal therefore put on their detective hats to investigate… by using negotiations for Camilla’s marriage to Harrowhark as cover! A Canon Divergence/Fake Arranged Marriage/Mystery AU, where determining the divergence event is part of the mystery. Also featuring: my aroace Cam headcanons, and eventual Griddlehark.

-Butterfly Daze: Seemingly typical Griddlehark Modern/College AU with a supernatural twist. But is Kiriona’s new roommate a vampire? A cryptid? A ghost? Or just a normal, if traumatized kid? Turns out the answer is none of the above… and John, the loving father who has always been part of Kiriona’s life, may know more than he’s letting on.

-Puella Magi Nonagesimus 💀 Magica: Crossover with the setting of magical girl series Madoka Magica, and a continuation of this snippet. TL;DR: magical girls as an excuse for a Time Travel AU. The story is split  between the present day survivors in the wreckage of Canaan House, where Harrow and Gideon learn the ins and outs of being a magical girl while bodysharing, and Harrow’s wish-induced dreams of the past, where she and Gideon try to forge a better timeline.

Fanfic Oneshots, in order of more silly to more serious

-harrowhark nonagesimus does not like pizza: God orders pizza for the Lyctors on the Mithraeum. (Somehow.) This goes over exactly as well as you’d expect.

-Effervescent: In which Abigail is very confused as 200 dead Ninth children (led by a handful of shitty teens among them) attempt to crash Harrow’s River Bubble AU party.

-Growing Pains: Character study of ~13 year old Harrow, in which Gideon gets her first period and assumes (quite logically) that it must be another of Harrow’s attempts to kill her.

-All That Glitters: Harryanthe Arranged Marriage AU, where Harrow is running the riskiest puppet show of her life on the Third, Ianthe is initially pissed her dad is marrying her off to some weak-willed nun, and Yakety Sax is probably playing in the background as clueless narrator Coronabeth keeps dragging both of them off to various social events.

-Reverend Daughter for a Day: Back in their bodies and on the Ninth for [insert vague handwavy reasons], Harrow proposes that she and Gideon switch places. For one day, Harrow will be the servant and obey any orders Gideon gives her. No refusals, no limits. Naturally, everything that can go wrong, does go wrong.

Misc Projects

-Keep a Consistently Active Tumblr: For whatever reason, actually posting things as opposed to lurking is a major struggle for me, but let’s see how long I can keep this up! I’ve still got a few more analysis rambles on the backburner, and plenty of material for themed queues… the trick will be crossing that last step and actually putting them up.

-Gideon: The Last Bonebender: You know those “if TLT was written by a straight, cis dude, what would be changed?” satire posts? Imagine if instead, Gideon the Ninth was adapted for Hollywood by a straight, cis director. Just how bad could it be? Note: this is the closest project to being finished, but needs reworking to be less cynical and depressing. Oops...

-Gideon the Ninth for D&D 5e: A homebrew module that uses GtN as a jumping off point for a spooky dungeon and murder mystery adventure. Try your hand at the other Lyctor puzzles! Play out a full cavalier tournament between all the Houses! Attempt and probably fail to save Jeannemary and Isaac from their fate!  …And yes, someone’s going to have to become a Lyctor at the end. Not happening while the owners of D&D are being jerks, that’s for sure.

-TLT Fanfic Rec Lists:  At the moment, I’m up to August 2022 in my chronological journey through the AO3 TLT tag. And once I’ve caught up, I’ll have recs to share! Not sure if it would be better to do longer / broader topic lists, or lots of weird and hyper-specific themes like “Gideon Joins the Cohort AUs” or “Life on the Sixth” or “In Which Ianthe Is There.” Maybe a mix of both?

#the locked tomb #gideon the ninth #harrowhark nonagesimus #gideon nav #griddlehark #my tlt stuff #my ramblings #state of the blog #fanfic #having spectacularly failed to find the time for nanowrimo or yuletide #fingers crossed this will work out better #^^;

[daffodil--lament]

caoimhin 2022 reading wrap up

- Gideon the Ninth & Harrow the Ninth - good. made me insane. read them basically cover to cover. awesome

- The Hobbit - 10/10 it's the fuckin hobbit man. this was of course a re-read because I'm cultured

- The Great Gatsby - cool. enjoyed. also a re-read. so true fitzgerald materialism is bad. I love gay people

- Dogsbody - so good. dwj's ability to balance the themes of her stories always gets me. I need to read more of her books

- Howl's Moving Castle - I've read it more than 10 times in the last two years I love it so much 10000/10

- A Study In Charlotte - I love me some sherlock holmes. I love autism. I love people who are fucked up. enjoyed it as much as I did when I was 13

- Castle In The Air - hmc sequel. gets better every re-read. dwj poses an earth shattering question: what if all your favorite characters got even stupider? (this is about prince justin. he's the worst I love him)

- A River Runs Through It - destroyed me. holy shit. I finished that last page and had to go lay down for awhile. I was thinking about it for days. I am haunted by waters. god. good lord almighty.

- House of Many Ways - MASSIVE tone shift from a river runs through it. Charmain is a bitch and I like her so much. twinkle sucks. 9 million out of ten I love you Sophie Pendragon

- Howl's Moving Castle - by the time you finish homw you have to start hmc again to distract yourself from the series ending. howl and sophie were holding one another's hands and smiling and smiling quite unable to stop. I'm gonna pass out

- Hamlet - fuckin classic duh. I read this for the first time in seventh grade because I'm better than everyone. there's a reason it's one of the most widely known pieces of literature ever written

- Pride and Prejudice - also better every time I read it. Jane Austen is a genius. I wish I had an Elizabeth to my Darcy

- The Lightning Thief - percy jackson my beloved

- Sea of Monsters - retweet

- Storm Front - harry dresden is a bitch

- Fool Moon - harry dresden gets grievously injured, still manages to kill people

- Grave Peril - michael carpenter my beloved

- Summer Knight - karrin murphy btw (she is not enjoying herself)

- Death Masks - I love small children who carry great magical power

- Persuasion - Jane Austen I love you. I played minecraft prolifically while I listened to this book. it was so good. genuinely amazing. love love love

- Loki: Agent of Asgard - I always start this and I'm like "ha ha funny comic book" and then by the end I'm completely decimated. the art is so cool and I love watching it change throughout the run. conceptually the whole story and premise are so amazing. I can't really explain the extent of how good it is and do it justice. it's just awesome

- Pride and Prejudice - I forgot that I read this twice but if it's on the list you'd better be damn sure it happened

- The Raven Boys - I love pretentious glasses-wearing teenage boys (me irl)

- Patriot Games - the Harrison Ford movie is better but it was chill ig.

- Dream Thieves - fuck shit up little man

- Blue Lily, Lily Blue - popular among welsh voices in my head

- Murder on the Orient Express - AMAZING. I love hercule poirot so much. although I sort of knew the general ending, having seen, you know, literally any TV show made in the last 100 years, I was really surprised and pleased with the way the whole novel unfolded itself. awesome

- The Raven King - honestly awesome ending to the series. thoroughly enjoyed

- Rebecca - books that changed me at age 8. not sure why my mother chose to give me this book at that age but I'm forever glad she did. Rebecca is dead the entire story and she haunts it more than any ghost could. Spectacular. something about Mrs de Winter's name never being told to us or said out loud, but Rebecca's name being EVERYWHERE.... fantastic

- Blood Rites - I LOVE YOU THOMAS

- Never Let Me Go - I understand why this was award winning and I think I will never read it again

- Howl's Moving Castle - what better way to end my year. howl said I think we ought to live happily ever after and sophie thought he meant it. also I got the fancy illustrated hardcover version for Christmas and I am so happy. I will not be lending it to anyone ever. it's my baby.

#hmc #reading #books #keys.txt