Hardcover, 496 pages
Published Sept. 12, 2022
Her city is under siege. The zombies are coming back. And all Nona wants is a birthday party. In many ways, Nona is like other people. She lives with her family, has a job at her local school, and loves walks on the beach and meeting new dogs. But Nona's not like other people. Six months ago she woke up in a stranger's body, and she's afraid she might have to give it back. The whole city is falling to pieces. A monstrous blue sphere hangs on the horizon, ready to tear the planet apart. Blood of Eden forces have surrounded the last Cohort facility and wait for the Emperor Undying to come calling. Their leaders want Nona to be the weapon that will save them from the Nine Houses. Nona would prefer to live an ordinary life with the people she loves, with Pyrrha and Camilla and Palamedes, but …
Her city is under siege. The zombies are coming back. And all Nona wants is a birthday party. In many ways, Nona is like other people. She lives with her family, has a job at her local school, and loves walks on the beach and meeting new dogs. But Nona's not like other people. Six months ago she woke up in a stranger's body, and she's afraid she might have to give it back. The whole city is falling to pieces. A monstrous blue sphere hangs on the horizon, ready to tear the planet apart. Blood of Eden forces have surrounded the last Cohort facility and wait for the Emperor Undying to come calling. Their leaders want Nona to be the weapon that will save them from the Nine Houses. Nona would prefer to live an ordinary life with the people she loves, with Pyrrha and Camilla and Palamedes, but she also knows that nothing lasts forever. And each night, Nona dreams of a woman with a skull-painted face...
that's probably due to that fact that it's been so long that I listened to the first books and also that english is not my first language. The first part with the kids was kinda boring for looooong stretched especially comparing to the first to books, things picked up in the end but as I said I had no idea what was going on anymore.
But Hotsauce is cool ^__^
It's a bit of a disappointment that, yet again, the reader is left to try to make sense of the characters, plot and wtf is going on. I wish I didn't have to go on forums to find out important information that was only very, very slightly hinted at in the book. It's one thing to want revelations and plot-twists and ah-ah-moments, it's another to leave the reader completely in the fog for 500 pages. If the writing wasn't that good and the characters that compelling, I would've left it a while ago.
It shouldn't be possible, after reading Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth, to finish another Locked Tomb novel and yet again be like "What the hell did I just read?!" However.
Nona the Ninth is yet another wonderful, unexpected, weird masterpiece from Tamsyn Muir.
Did this feel like a bit of a filler at times? Yes. Is having an extra book that accomplishes less than the previous two, in terms of resolving existing plotlines, immensely preferable to having a rushed final volume in a series, especially if said book is full of delightful character moments? Also yes.
In the words of wise tumblr user gideonisms: "tlt was written for the girls who get obsessed with random side characters and for everyone who did the lord’s work in the early 2010s: shipping two women who have spoken twice in canon."
I blazed through this book after re-reading Gideon and Harrow (and I'm glad I did- there were details there that were great to have been reminded of). Overall this was a great story; Nona is an interesting mystery and trying to figure her out is part of the fun of this book. It does start off a bit slow, but towards the end it is rushing and almost too much is going on to fully follow it all. This is one I will have to re-read when the next (yes there is a fourth) book comes out.
For a full review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2022/09/book-review-nona-ninth-by-tamsyn-muir.html
