Gideon the Ninth

This book was not what expected. Although to be fair, it is marketed very poorly. “Lesbian necromancers in space”, they say. Lesbians, yes. Necromancers, technically. Space...not so much. And moreso, it's what that pithy phrase leaves out that does the book a disservice.

Gideon the Ninth, while hard to categorize, is part gothic Madeline Miller, part Agatha Christie, part Hunger Games, with some sci-fi thrown in and dipped in a Tumblr filter. The book follows Gideon in service to perpetual frenemy Harrow, daughter of the Ninth House. Harrow and Gideon are summoned to participate in a competition where each of the other Houses send two companions in order to see who is most suitable to become a Lyctor, the most powerful servants to the Emperor. Harrow has her reasons for wanting to become a Lyctor, while Gideon is pulled along with this girl she ostensibly hates out of some underlying sense of loyalty, obligation, and her own goals.

I really enjoyed it. The character moments mostly landed for me, and the humor, while not always being a hit, was funny enough. This book made me laugh out loud more than once. I also thought the plot reveals were very well done, and I was constantly left guessing.

I do have two issues with the book though. The first is that Gideon is very passive. Most things happen TO Gideon and she just kinda accepts them.

My second problem is the names. Oh sweet lord, the names. Each character has two names and a house number, and Muir writes this book as if it is socially unacceptable to use the same name more than one time in a row. If there was some overaching logic as to which character refers to whom in what way...but I could find none. Character A would refer to Character B as X and then Y in the next sentence, and then Character C would refer to B as X and then their house number in the sentence after that. I hated this so much. It was like it was intentionally meant to be confusing in every scene. By the time I started figuring out everybody's names, the book was almost over.

But overall, I recommend giving this a try!

8.5/10