Reading Wednesday
May. 12th, 2021 07:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yuuagoCurrently reading: Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir.
I've had this sitting unread for... a while now. Been kind of not wanting to read it, because if I did read it, it would be read, and then there wouldn't be any more Locked Tomb novels until Alecto the Ninth comes out next year, and that would be terrible.
Anyway. I'd heard some things about the format of this book, but it's still kind of a trip. The atypical second person POV, the dreamy quality of the third person sequences, the whole... wrong/weirdness of everything - there's a lot here that I feel like I encounter more frequently in literary fiction and horror stories. It's interesting!
I'm about halfway through, haven't quite figured out where things are... going... like, something is clearly up (That is not how the story went) but hell if I know quite what, exactly.
I didn't like Ianthe in the first novel, and I still don't like her in this one, but she's kind of... likeably unlikeable. There's just something about her. No wonder people ship her with Harrow. Suddenly that all makes sense.
Weird though the third person sequences are, I am glad that we get to know Ortus the Ninth a little, because I do find that I like him! He's got a quiet melancholy something-something about him, maybe it's the bad poetry that makes him charming. And the dynamic with Harrow just really interests me.
(As for Ortus the First, I'm still trying to figure out what the hell his deal is.)
Also: I have a feeling that the second person portions are actually first person. I just get this sense that sooner or later, we'll get an I in there somewhere. It just reads like there's a very distinct narrative voice there. (HMM, I WONDER... perhaps....???!)
I've had this sitting unread for... a while now. Been kind of not wanting to read it, because if I did read it, it would be read, and then there wouldn't be any more Locked Tomb novels until Alecto the Ninth comes out next year, and that would be terrible.
Anyway. I'd heard some things about the format of this book, but it's still kind of a trip. The atypical second person POV, the dreamy quality of the third person sequences, the whole... wrong/weirdness of everything - there's a lot here that I feel like I encounter more frequently in literary fiction and horror stories. It's interesting!
I'm about halfway through, haven't quite figured out where things are... going... like, something is clearly up (That is not how the story went) but hell if I know quite what, exactly.
I didn't like Ianthe in the first novel, and I still don't like her in this one, but she's kind of... likeably unlikeable. There's just something about her. No wonder people ship her with Harrow. Suddenly that all makes sense.
Weird though the third person sequences are, I am glad that we get to know Ortus the Ninth a little, because I do find that I like him! He's got a quiet melancholy something-something about him, maybe it's the bad poetry that makes him charming. And the dynamic with Harrow just really interests me.
(As for Ortus the First, I'm still trying to figure out what the hell his deal is.)
Also: I have a feeling that the second person portions are actually first person. I just get this sense that sooner or later, we'll get an I in there somewhere. It just reads like there's a very distinct narrative voice there. (HMM, I WONDER... perhaps....???!)
Yuu. Fic writer & book lover. M/Canada.