Space Nuns & Bone Magicians | Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Harrow the Ninth is EXTREMELY my shit. If somebody scanned my brain to see which tropes, themes, style conventions, and plot twists I love, then dressed that blueprint up in some necromantic party clothes, you’d probably have a close approximation of this book. I felt seen on a very deep and personal level. Plus, I was entertained as hell.

Books like this are precisely why I often continue reading a series even if one (or two) of the installments don’t quite vibe me with me. Harrow the Ninth is a gift. (You can read my less than impressed initial reactions to the first book in this trilogy here, though I later amended them after I listed to the audio book.)

Why did I love Harrow the Ninth so much more than Gideon the Ninth?

While it’s not fair to compare apples to oranges, I think it’s easiest to demonstrate why I loved Harrow by pointing out its major distinguishing characteristics from Gideon. A little show and tell, if you will.

Also…I guess there might be ~spoilers~ here? If you’re concerned with those.

1. The Narrating Protagonist

For one thing: I don’t really like Gideon Nav. This is not a common opinion, I know, but as I’ve said before: snarky meme-queen isn’t much of a personality, much as the good shitposters of tumblr have been trying for the past decade or so. Reading from Gideon’s perspective was amusing but often frustrating for me. A personality clash.

But Harrow? A fervently devout, guilt-ridden, lonely, psychotic bone-magic nun? Absolutely 100% the content I’m here for. I loved Harrow so much, and it was amazing how Tamsyn Muir was able to imbue this protagonist with so much depth and nuance considering she essentially Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind‘ed herself and spent about 2/3 of the book trapped in an elaborate series of delusions. And yet. And yet I found Harrow to be infinitely engaging and understandable, in a way I never felt with Gideon.

Harrow Nonagesimus is this book. (Duh, Renae, it’s there in the title.) Although the backdrop of the plot is God’s unwinnable war against giant space revenants, the story itself is one far more small—and altogether more complex. This is a book of grief, of loss, of guilt, of losing your religion in ever more painful and unexpected ways. Harrow’s journey out of her psychosis to lucidity was written with such perfection and care.

And, also…Gideon’s not like…gone. Which was evident as soon as the narrator started yelling at Harrow repeatedly about the pommel of Gideon’s sword. And when Ianthe kept sniggering every time Harrow mentioned the name Ortus. Slightly disembodied Gideon Nav was way more entertaining for me than full-on, straight in your face Gideon Nav for 500 pages.

Also, this is some truly excellent monologuing and character work for both Gideon and Harrow:

You sawed open your skull rather than be beholden to someone. You turned your brain into soup to escape anything less than 100 percent freedom. You put me in a box and buried me rather than give up your own goddamned agenda.

Harrowhark, I gave you my whole life and you didn’t even want it.

2. “Mysterious” Narrative Choices

And another thing, tangentially related to Harrow’s psychosis and general status as a smol bean trying her best with a really shitty situation: the non-linear second person narrative. I am such a sucker for “experimental” prose, if it serves a purpose beyond the author flexing. And I think that the second person narrative in Harrow the Ninth absolutely served a purpose.

I gather that many other readers spent most of the book wondering WTF was going on, but I was immediately on board with all of it and knew where things were headed. This is not to say I’m smarter than other readers (definitely not!), but rather to say that for me, reading Harrow the Ninth was not an arduous task of deciphering clues and attempting to get the story straight; rather, it was a delicious ride where you know the final destination and are happy to just…anticipate. Which is also markedly different from my experience with the first book, where I genuinely got a headache trying to unravel Muir’s vague world-building.

While the mystery of Harrow’s psychosis wasn’t that mysterious to me overall, I nevertheless think it was done extremely well. I wasn’t shocked by Gideon’s eventual re-emergence after Harrow un-compartmentalized her mind, but I hadn’t plotted out each beat of the novel 300 pages in advance, either. I had a general sense of the thrust of the story, and I was content to let the details fill themselves in with time.

3. It’s Just a Good Book, Okay?

And in general, I just loved the story. It’s so reductive to say “this is a book about grief” when it’s also a complicated, exquisitely plotted story about nearly immortal beings doing Stuff with necromancy—a seemingly limitless magic that has so many more applications than mere “raising the dead.” Harrow the Ninth combines an exciting scifi plot with a unique magic system and the kind of character-building I so rarely find outside of, say….romance novels or very well-written fanfiction. 

For a book that exclusively takes place either on a space station 40 billion lightyears away from our solar system (assuming it is our solar system), and/or entirely within Harrowhark’s mind, this is such an action-packed book! God has an orgy! People make soup! Harrow and her new comrades are being stalked by the angry revenant of a dead planet! Harrow is being haunted by two (three?) separate ghosts/souls/memories, which is excessive even for her! So much to do, so much to see.

I understand that describing this book as a tale about a psychotic bone nun’s journey into mental stability sounds incredibly dull, but Harrow the Ninth is anything but boring.

It had bewildered her, back at Canaan House, how the whole of her always seemed to come back to Gideon. For one brief and beautiful space of time, she had welcomed it: that microcosm of eternity between forgiveness and the slow, uncomprehending agony of the fall. Gideon rolling up her shirt sleeves. Gideon dappled in shadow, breaking promises. One idiot with a sword and an asymmetrical smile had proved to be Harrow’s end: her apocalypse swifter than the death of the Emperor and the sun with him

4. Counter-Opinions

As a mental exercise, I often read extremely critical reviews of my favorite books—mostly because I’m weird and like to hurt myself. No, kidding. I like to “test” my adoration of a book to see if my opinion can be swayed.

In this case, that lead me to this review, which has several excellent points (paraphrased):

• Because of Harrow’s psychosis, there’s very little “growth” or exploration of her character until the end.
• By making it a plot twist that Gideon is the narrator during the second-person sections, Muir has to “water down” Gideon’s voice in order to keep the mystery intact, rather than just write authentically as Gideon from the get-go.
• Too many memes in nonsensical places (i.e., none pizza with left grief).

Interestingly, I was reading this and I 100% understood where the reviewer was coming from. I even agree, to a certain extent. (Especially about some of the memes—none pizza with left grief would make absolutely zero sense to a reader who isn’t aware of the tumblr post, though I assume that…most readers are aware of the meme, so it’s probably a moot point.) Anyhoo. I agree with this well-reasoned opinion, and yet! I love Harrow the Ninth anyway!

It’s always important to be aware of the (debatable) flaws of your faves, and for the knowledge that others perceive those flaws to not dilute your enjoyment of the aforementioned fave.

In other news: I am ready for the final book in this trilogy!!!