alaterdate | Harrow the Ninth (Reply)

In Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir the author has drilled through my skull and exposed my meme-addled brain for all that it is. Muir has also made me weep all shapes of tears (except onion. Though who knows what Alecto the Ninth has in store). Second books of trilogies are either really good or really bad in comparison to their bookend brethren. HtN is not even comparable to GtN. Meaning I can't say if it's better or worse, it's just different.

This title is written in 2nd person for a major portion of it. Sometimes it changes POV, but most of the story concerning the titular character is in 2nd person. Now you are thinking "What? That's awful." I too once felt this way. Reading the excerpt at the end of the GtN paperback I was confused about the shift and I didn't like it. I am picky with my POV, I also don't like first person. And people always say "don't write in second person. Unless it's interactive narrative àla Choose-Your-Own-Adventure™." Let alone 2nd person past tense!?
Turns out it's almost as easy to get used to as first person with the caveat that it does occasionally rip you out of the story.

However, I don't think it's a bad thing. Particularly for this book. It's interesting metatextually to be reminded by your brain that you are not Harrow, but "you" is Harrow.
For instance read this:

"You sat down with your legs crossed and your hands laid helplessly in your lap. The basket hilt of the rapier nudged into your hip, like an animal that wanted feeding, and in a sudden fit of temper you considered unbuckling the damn thing and hurling it as hard as you possibly could to the other side of the room; only you worried how pitifully short it would fall."

The trick is to never imagine that this is you, but that you see it happening to Harrow in a 3rd person POV way even though the text is saying "you." The sooner you start imagining that you are looking over the shoulder of "you" the easier it is to get into the flow. Now read it again with this in mind.
As soon as my brain parsed this, reading the novel was a breeze.

Beyond that hiccup (which really isn't one, it's a feature I promise) this book also starts out bizarrely confusing as did its predecessor. Here though the lore isn't a measured ooze that slowly helps you navigate the world. Here, you are just confused, until you aren't. And I wholly believe that's the point. But I promise you, it is well worth it.
In all honestly it did take me probably over half of the book to become truly invested in the goings ons. But omg, does it get fun as hell.

I can't even begin to explain the plot of this book. Not because there isn't one, but because it's so spoilery to be honest. You'd have to have already read GtN to even begin to understand what the hell I'd be talking about. Basically, Harrow is no longer in a haunted mansion, she is in a haunted spaceship. And she has to navigate this new situation while being...under the weather. A person and a place threated both internally and externally.

By far and large my FAVORITE thing about this book is... THE MEMES. Left and right I was blown away by their masterful usage. Usually when a book references real life timely things you think "this is going to age terribly!" Usually it's contemporary fiction works referencing pop culture media and moments. Plus some memes are fleeting. But Muir has overcome this fault. Most of the memes she references are quite iconic and have stayed in the social mind over the years. The most wonderful thing though, is that you don't even have to understand these references, at all. They fit so well into her writing and narrative that a meme can sit side by side with a reference to a classic literary work and not feel out of place at all. It's astounding! I have the utmost respect for this, the utmost awe, I am crying right now thinking about it. I can't believe this masterpiece exists. Muir is a genius.

Now for characters we have almost completely purged the previous cast for the most part. I don't love the new cast as I loved the cast of the first book. They are interesting in parts, but the issues between them are... their own? Harrow more observes them than interacts with them. So I didn't particularly care for any of the new characters. And I won't even name the one(s) I disliked.
The characters that pull over from GtN are still interesting though and I enjoyed seeing Harrow's perspective on them.
But I love Gideon the most.

I was blown away by this book. I can't even get into most of the amazing things without spoilers though :^(

I think it's masterfully crafted. I think Muir is extremely talented. And I can't even imagine what she has in store for the final book after this.