Gideon the Ninth

I debated on the rating for this book for a long time, even after my second read, but finally settled on 5 stars. After my first read, I was battling with 4 or 5 due to world building details feeling a little too convoluted/unclear, but especially on my second read through, I realized it was my fault for reading too fast to pick up on what I had complained about previously. I adore that this book was even more enjoyable the second time through and can't wait to re-read it more and more.

This book has swords, lesbians, a thrilling haunted house murder mystery, necromancy science, and more. Along the way on my first time around, I came up with some wild theories that all ended up being really wrong but we're decent guesses. I initially went into this book expecting it to be way harder to keep up with than it was, based off of MANY reviews along the lines of “you won't know what's going on at all but you'll love it”. I personally didn't find it hard to follow–the whole point of a murder mystery is not having the answers or solution until it tells you? You can't solve every Sherlock Holmes book before the end for the same reason. Anyways, fantastic read that has me full of brainrot even months later.