Which isn’t to say the supporting characters aren’t well drawn or present.

Those books only work if the character you’re inhabiting is compelling, and Harrow… is certainly that. And it is a book about being totally immersed inside someone’s head, seeing the world exactly and only as they see it, and trying to puzzle out what’s going on from their perspective. I didn’t even particularly like Harrow as a character in Gideon, but Muir has made being inside her head an absolute delight. Muir has, in a spoilery way I won’t go into, tied her hands a bit on the scope she has to portray Harrowhark, the protagonist, and she has absolutely knocked it out of the park despite/because of that hand tying. Come for the lesbian space necromancy, stay for the intricate character work and laugh out loud self-referential humour.īecause at its core, what makes Harrow such a good book for me is that character work. It’s part of what I found most interesting about the reading experience, in fact, that Muir has done such a tone shift between the two books, she’s bound to lose some of the audience who like the first because they just don’t want what is being done with the second.īut, that all being said… Harrow is hands down, no question, honest to god, a more accomplished, better written and more interesting book than Gideon (which I loved and gave five stars, so…). I gave it 5 stars without even a pause, so I’m not saying it’s a bad book, but it’s a very different book, and if you’re not someone who likes to be absolutely baffled, and you don’t want to be getting the previous book out to check things and pulling increasingly distressed faces so your boyfriend asks if you’re ok… this might not be the book for you.

In fact, important consumer note here: if you liked Gideon the Ninth and are wanting to read Harrow because it’ll be more of the same – with a fairly linear adventure/mystery narrative – it might be worth being cautious about Harrow. I did not go in expecting a batshit book in Harrow, but I’m fundamentally inclined towards liking nonsense like this, so I was happy to roll with it. I… have been known to like a batshit book, in my time my unwavering love for Vellum, possibly the most batshit book I’ve ever read*, is a testament to that. The art really does remain gorgeous… I originally had Gideon on kindle, but bought it in hardback so, when I pre-ordered Harrow, I could have a lovely matching set

Harrow gideon