Review: Nona the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir
by
Stuart Holland
I do not understand how Tamsyn has done it again.
I don’t know how I’m still so confused and so rivetted.
I’m bereft, without Alecto the Ninth to read next.
I hem and haw about my ratings before I review. Not here. 5 stars, no consideration required.
I’ve talked about the language in my previous reviews of the previous books. That’s still on display. I still look stuff up but don’t feel like I’m being forced to use a dictionary. I’m continually amazed by the whiplash - how scenes can be so dramatic and then cut through with a sudden “you bitch” or “we had beef”.
I’m amazed at how much the book wants you to work out. How much the characters and the narrator never stop to talk to you, the reader. They’re just there, doing their thing, and you have to run to keep up. And if you do, there are so many layers to peel back. So many entire lives, entire plans, that happen “off screen”. And I believe them, and they make sense, even though so much doesn’t make sense, in the best possible way.
And then there are the people on screen. We saw pieces of them in previous books and they shine here. Nona shines - she’s earnest and weird and you’re on a weird journey with her to find out all sorts of weird things.
It would be easy to make a book inscrutable. And it would also be easy for a book like this one to be inscrutable for its own sake, but it isn’t. It gives you what you need to follow, while never really giving anything directly to you. This wasn’t at all where I thought this story was going to go, but I am so glad that it is.
The cover of the book was right. I do love Nona, and you should love her too.
