After pre-ordering and eagerly awaiting [b:Nona the Ninth|58662507|Nona the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #3)|Tamsyn Muir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1643298298l/58662507._SY75_.jpg|92285474] for months, I had to wait five weeks after the release date for my copy to arrive. Supply chain problems were to blame. Enragingly enough, these issues afflicted all the UK independent online bookshops I know of but not the Bezos empire. When Nona finally arrived I fell upon her immediately. Re-reading [b:Harrow the Ninth|39325105|Harrow the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #2)|Tamsyn Muir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1602323622l/39325105._SY75_.jpg|60943273] and [b:As Yet Unsent|58662978|As Yet Unsent (The Locked Tomb, #2.5)|Tamsyn Muir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1654793588l/58662978._SX50_.jpg|92286520] turned out to be an excellent decision. As before, Tamsyn Muir gleefully disorientates the reader by slinging them into a new setting, genre, and point of view. I was once again astounded by her effrontery and enchanted by the truly peerless Locked Tomb experience.

The primary mystery of the book is who the hell Nona is. She lives in Harrow's body and shares a flat with Camilla, Palamedes, and Pyrrha. The three of them are trying to ascertain whether Nona is amnesiac Gideon or a fusion of Gideon and Harrow. I was always sceptical of the latter, as I did not see how the fusion of two people with absolutely zero chill could turn out like Nona. Then again, Alecto didn't show much sign of it either. Nona is of course a very different narrator to Gideon or Harrow. She is concerned with her friends, her volunteer job at a school, and cute dogs rather than necromancy, sword fighting, and space wars. I loved the scenes of her daily life on an overcrowded, unstable, and dangerous resettlement planet, as they were both charming and built a lot of tension. Nona's emotional openness is a wonderful contrast to literally everybody else in the series.

I was surprised by how much I came to care about Camilla and Palamedes. They didn't make a huge impression on me in previous books, but are one of several reasons I'm now impatient to re-read [b:Gideon the Ninth|42036538|Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1)|Tamsyn Muir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1546870952l/42036538._SY75_.jpg|60943229]. Their relationship while sharing Camilla's body is touching and tragi-comic; their metamorphosis into Paul is an arresting twist. I was amused by Ianthe's reaction to Paul. Also seen anew via Nona's eyes are Coronabeth (who she sweetly calls Crown) and Judith, who has become possessed by... something. A resurrection beast, perhaps? She's referred to as a 'thrall', which has an ominous ring. Coronabeth and Ianthe's reunion is suitably overwrought, while Nona stands awkwardly in the background disguised as Harrow. After an initial period of ostensibly domestic shenanigans, Nona's narrative accelerates rapidly in the final third; a similar pattern to [b:Harrow the Ninth|39325105|Harrow the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #2)|Tamsyn Muir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1602323622l/39325105._SY75_.jpg|60943273].

Also akin to the previous book, there's another narrative mixed in. This time, it's God (or Jod) recounting how he destroyed the world and started a necromantic space empire. He appears to direct this recollection at Harrow (or is it?) while they are inside his memories and/or the River (?). His tone is of self-justification verging upon self-pity and his story full of terrifying and farcical details. It turns out he nuked the Earth out of rage at the perfidy of billionaires, who fucked off into space to escape environmental collapse. While I very much understand that rage, I don't think nuclear obliteration was a constructive response. I appreciated this backstory and explanation of why Jod references 21st century memes. These must have filtered down throughout the Nine Houses, given how many pop up. I greatly enjoyed all those I spotted, but must have missed a fair number.

The return of Gideon as Ianthe's co-worker in the Jod Squad was a pleasant surprise. She has been returned to her original body and made a prince by her dad, but remains a corpse. While many people are referred to as zombies during the book, Gideon definitely has the most zombie-ish vibes. She is understandably in a bad mood, not least because of Harrow. (Ianthe says to Harrow, "God thought you might be lost to us".) Getting to kill Crux does not prove as cathartic as she expected. The climactic final scenes of the book feature an epic road trip through the River to reach the Ninth House, where Harrow has apparently been hanging out in the locked tomb in Alecto's body. (Didn't I call that after re-reading Harrow?) Amid the mayhem, there is a powerful moment as Nona decides to keep going for the sake of Noodle the six-legged dog. She resists her memories of being Alecto, which must be full of horrors.

At the very end, the locked tomb is finally opened and all hell breaks loose. The final scene is told in quasi-Shakespearean language and features my favourite lines: "Then perish" from Harrow and "Get in line thou big slut" from Gideon. They're back! After the tender relationships Nona had, it was nice to be reminded of Gideon and Harrow's wonderful dysfunction. Wild to consider that Gideon and Harrow have now both kissed Alecto/Nona. (Wait, did Harrow's kiss transfer Nona into her body?!) That's far too chaotic to be called a love triangle, especially as Ianthe is also there.

[b:Nona the Ninth|58662507|Nona the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #3)|Tamsyn Muir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1643298298l/58662507._SY75_.jpg|92285474] cements the fact that Tamsyn Muir can carry off remarkably audacious and surpassingly entertaining feats of narrative fuckery. The Locked Tomb series is hilarious, moving, weird, mysterious, and quite unlike anything else. I loved [b:Nona the Ninth|58662507|Nona the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #3)|Tamsyn Muir|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1643298298l/58662507._SY75_.jpg|92285474] and eagerly await [b:Alecto the Ninth|39325106|Alecto the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #4)|Tamsyn Muir|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|60943284] (a.k.a Let's Kill Jod?). ( )

Let me down after the banger that was Harrow ( )

Again I find myself of a couple different minds on this book. This book so far has the most consistent reading narrative. Personally, however, I find myself caught in that space where I'm not interested enough in the writing to want to read the book, but I am interested to see where the story goes, and if my speculations are correct. To that end, I did find myself more interested in the secondary narrative of John's over Nona's.

It took a bit but Nona did grow on me, and I have to applaud Muir for what feels like a very adept portrayal of kids. ( )

First off, this book is amazing and I can’t wait for what comes next. SECONDLY your books make me feel INSANE Tamsyn!!! First with Harrow, I was so confused I thought I really forgot what happened in Gideon. And then in Nona I really thought I knew what was going on but you only supplied me little bread crumbs that I ate up and then BAM. And holy moly cow was I surprised and so happy.


I will buy all your books.


ALSO, thank you ( )

I like Muir's writing, and i'm invested in this series, but I'm not entirely sure what I was reading, and at no point did I really feel like I understood either the plot of this story, or how it was contributing to the series. The far past details were useful context and gave some of the world building, but I'm not sure how much value there was for me in that context.

It is, however, very pretty writing, and that alone was enough to keep me going. I don't need to understand if the writing and characters are interesting. ( )