#and alecto at the center of it all. because she is the ultimate haunter of the narrative

[thermodynamic-comedian]

the locked tomb is literally the most haunted narrative i have ever witnessed. you cannot point at any single character, and say "this is their story", because everyone else is touching and has touched the story in some way. every character has their fingerprints all over the story. everybody's a ghost and they're all haunting these books.

that's because you're not reading one story. you're reading an entire universe of stories, some of which have already played out, some of which are actively playing out somewhere where you can't see them. you can smell and taste and sense these stories all over the one you're actually being told.

everytime a character dies or fails to die or dies in all ways except physical, they start haunting the narrative too. the original lyctors have been haunting the narrative since gideon the ninth, wake and alecto were both quite literally haunting harrow the ninth, both of the first two books are haunting nona the ninth. i can only assume alecto the ninth is going to be the book where we confront the ghosts.

and it's not just the narrative being haunted. individual characters are haunted by other characters. griddlehark are haunting each others' narratives. same with the tridentarii. john's somehow haunted by himself, which is impressive, and kind of overkill, considering all the other characters he's also haunted by, including the earth herself.

there are so many possible interpretations as to whose story the locked tomb is, and all of them are equally correct, because the story itself doesn't seem to know, and i mean that in the best way possible. i mean that in the way that this could be the story of two kids who grew up together. this could be the story of what happened to those two kids, or of what happened long before either of them were born. this could be a story, where everyone's story is actually about someone else.

everybody can have their own opinions. personally, i like the idea that the thing haunting this story the most is what we see in the john chapters of nona the ninth: two beings stuck in an endless loop of making and remaking each other. and they're in love. and they will be and already have been the death of each other. that feels very on brand for this series.