Harrow the Ninth

Second Read: 3.5 Stars (leaning toward four)

I think my first read through review was fair. The book has a lot of STUFF you have to notice or put together and it can be really chaotic. But rereading it was super enjoyable since now that I knew what was going to happen I could understand all the mega confusing stuff from before and actually see a lot of the puzzle pieces. I still think the flashback/dream sequences were pretty uninteresting and its a lot of lore dump but it was far better than my first read through.






Middle book syndrome is omega real.

** SPOILER ALERT **




I have to give this book props though. The use of perspectives in this book was super interesting and fun to piece together. The issue was that it felt like nothing was happening during the first 70% of the book. All I got were tidbits hinting at the bigger picture and a whole lot of exposition about characters I just wasn't super invested in and I didn't think mattered. Same thing with the smaller “present” plot. The threat of the Resurrection Beasts felt super irrelevant (it basically was) and it just filled up space while Harrow was getting confused by her memories. I kind of felt like I got the point about her being an unreliable narrator and her needing Gideon after the first few references. However, the way it was written was excellent and it made me bump its rating up a ton though it required a ton of attention. I literally had to read it all in one sitting because I wanted to keep it straight in my head.

Side note: it was super hard to get into the flashback memories since they felt like they were there to keep sticking the same point.

But once the climax started to hit, the finally started to breathe. It was weird. I literally felt like the book was dammed up until Gideon finally surfaced. After that the book had the same feel as the first book in the series and it clicked into that familiar spot. The climax itself was really overwhelming though. There were so many weird twists with Gideon and her lineage along with all the reveals about the Lcytors, God, and the Blood of Eden were just like “ok. got it. alright I guess” etc. It took multiple reads for me to understand the actual lore there. Also I was so annoyed by the weird immersion breaking humor there. The climax in the River with Harrow was also weird and it felt like it just jumped the shark there.

I kind of just attribute a lot of it to middle book syndrome but I do end up comparing it to The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson. Both of these books had this huge buildup about a mystery and not too much happening. However, Sanderson's execution made that all pay off well and it was super gripping. This one just felt less well executed.