Gideon, tired disaster gay of the Ninth House, just wants to leave. Tired of the creepy nuns, the oppressive tomb that’s considered living quarters and the promise that upon death her skeleton will continue to be press-ganged into serving the Ninth House, she packs her clothes and her dirty magazines and attempts to hit the spaceport.
Only Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, won’t let her go. See, the Emperor of the Universe has summoned the heirs of all nine Houses to a planet to compete to become his next immortal, all-powerful servant. Only they need a cavalier at their sides to deal with all the physical stuff, and one of those Harrow doesn’t have, so despite their mutual loathing
Gideon has to woman up and go along for the ride. Only once they get there, Gideon and Harrow discover it’s not going to be as easy as they thought. As the body count rises and the mystery deepens, the question is: can they succeed? Or would it be better if they didn’t and just let the Ninth House die?
This book in one GIF:
The first chapter or two I found a little slow moving, and I was not a fan of Gideon on the whole. But I persevered, and oh boy am I glad that I did. I got finished and wanted to turn back to page one just to start reading it again. All the feels, all the humor, all the sheer madness that is contained between the covers. Gideon and Harrow are the snarky goth butch/femme are they/aren’t they will they/won’t they lesbians that I didn’t know I was missing in my life. When people describe this book as “lesbian necromancers in space solve mystery in crumbling castle” they are vastly underselling the plot. The side characters are really well-fleshed out; my favorites have to be Abigail, Magnus, Palamedes and Camilla, with Isaac and Jeannemary following slightly lower down; they just remind me a little of Ruffnut and Tuffnut (and they are not my favorite characters from How to Train Your Dragon).
I will freely admit to ugly crying at the ending; I could see it coming a mile away, doesn’t mean it wasn’t a gut punch. I have the two sequels that are out (and anxiously awaiting the third) in my TBR hoard, but I keep putting them off because once I’ve read them, they’re read, and this series is one that I want to savor.
(Me, almost the entire book about Gideon and Harrow)
I’ve lived my whole wretched life at your mercy, yours alone, and God knows I deserve to die at your hand. You are my only friend. I am undone without you.”
“But Gideon was experiencing one powerful emotion: being sick of everyone’s sh-.”
“One flesh, one end.”
“We do bones, motherf-,” she said.”
I must no longer accept,” she said slowly, “being a stranger to you.”