This book is like a hodge-podge of everything the author loves in stories, up to and including queerness, gothicness, necromancy, skeletons, mysteries, magic, mysterious death, space, friendships, romance, attractive people being badass in sword fights, swearing, murder, galactic empires, red herrings, siblings, loyalty, puzzles, sunglasses, the color black. I think if you’re worrying about the worldbuilding here, you’re never gonna gel with this book. And in fact, I was in after two pages, and in love after four, when a minor character complains about Gideon offering him “sick pornographies” in exchange for letting her escape (she did offer him a “stupendous work of a titty nature,” her words). And that is how the book tricks you.Īlso, I heard so much about how you had to give the book time, and the worldbuilding was confusing, wah wah etc. Yes, there will also be vulgar hilarity and quippage, and lovingly crafted, profane verbiage uttered by lovable garbage humans. And I read a lot of reviews of this book before I actually read the book itself! Y’all would not shut your mouths about it! So, I’m just doing everyone who hasn’t already read it a public service here: If you decide to read this book you will be having such a great time with it you will experience true joy, and then after that you will have your heart ripped up and out through your esophagus, and you will bleed out your feelings all over the floor. Look, nobody warned me that I was signing up for emotional wrenching here. As Gideon would say, “if my heart had a dick you would kick it.” I blame the author for what she did with the plot and the character progression she knows what she did and so do all the rest of you! I blame every single fucking person who told me to read this g.d. I blame the author for creating such a lovable main character (and lovable side characters). Well, fuck you, I did! I did love it! And I’m so mad and so sad also! It’s been a long time since I let a book get to me like this, and frankly, I blame everyone.

Please note that although there are no real spoilers in this review, intuitive readers/reviewers might be spoiled anyway because of the way I’m going to say some things.

Gideon the ninth gideon