#gonna probably get into gideon the ninth next

[magicdyke]

i love alice oseman's writing tbh

[sistersorrow]

Finished Harrow the Ninth a couple hours ago

I'm not a reviewing type, so I'm just gonna include a bunch of things that made me have reactions and other miscellaneous things about my experience with the book

I don't care what Gideon says, the waters may be choppy, but the Harrow x Ianthe ship ain't sunk yet

TV Tropes is a godsend for me, cause it wasn't until I read the Foreshadowing page that I remembered a bunch of details I'd completely forgot about

I didn't bother to actually google how you pronounce Ianthe until 300 pages into the second book

People sold Gideon the Ninth as "lesbian necromancers in space" but Harrow the Ninth is the one where Harrow and Ianthe are both down horrendous

I had a vague inkling that The Locked Tomb was set in our future just because there were nine houses on nine planets and the Ninth House sounded like Pluto, but I did not expect this to be all but confirmed through a 10,000 year old immortal necromancer referencing the "It's for church honey" Facebook post and God himself mentioning None Pizza Left Beef

This does not however explain not 10,000 year old Gideon referencing Llamas in Hats

No one is allowed to say they Fucked Nasty Style anymore unless it involved cutting off your partner's arm and replacing it with a necromanticly animated bone one

The author confirmed on Reddit that partway through writing that scene she realised how sexually charged it felt and ran with it

My pronouns are She/ cause I'll never be Her (toxic immortal lich wife Ianthe, who killed a man and ate his soul to attain unlimited power and get her face on posters)

The author has stated that Ianthe is a very intentional Draco in Leather Pants character with the core differences being that she's a woman and as a sense of humour, which is why she is in fact Best Girl

I was left wondering if I'd imagined all the memes being referenced cause TV Tropes didn't make mention of a single one, so I checked the Locked Tomb subreddit to make sure I had not performed The Work on myself

If there are any Homestuck references, I didn't notice, cause I have expunged most of my knowledge of it

Dad jokes are the pinnacle of all humour

The Emperor is really bad at gaslighting

Harrow may have died with the last thing she ever saw being a nudie mag that doesn't exist, which is just hilarious

Ianthe did everything wrong, and that's why she's the best

Reading this book has reminded me I'm very bad at picking up on foreshadowing, hence scrolling through TV Tropes right after finishing the book

That threesome is the most uncomfortable I've been in weeks, which makes it good writing

I'm probably gonna read the short stories next then start Nona the Ninth sometime next week

[starberry-cupcake]

Things were happening too much. Gideon "Griddle" Nav, Chapter 30

I'm gonna have to split these up because there's so much going on.

previously, in gideon the ninth:

this happened

currently, having finished chapter 34:

well, I am exhausted and I'm just reading this

"gideon can't catch a break" should be the subtitle of this book

we literally can't finish a world-shattering disaster, we're onto the next one

the skeletons can't clean the blood fast enough

so, palmolive has a plan

palmolive's plans are like my cousin playing d&d, he talks as if the plan is bulletproof but then you hear him and it's some looney tunes shit

they work more frequently than not, which is infuriating but also moves things along

I feel like I'm constantly arguing with this guy in my head

palmolive's plan is to use the mind reading thingy harrow leveled up when they won against the first boss to show her mentally how dulcinea's key was so that they can break in that door

there are 2546 things that could go wrong with this, but he says he's super sure

he's not, in fact, super sure, but it works

camilla, my qp wife, has the poker face of the century

they look at the room and find some stuff, pins in a board, necromancer notes, the fact that the skeletons aren't constructs, you know, the usual

oh and that teacher and the other dudes are all super dead

which, we all kinda knew that

the fact that the old man didn't have a heart attack at this point is prove enough he doesn't have a beating heart to begin with

I'm gonna say, I love learning book lore and understanding how things work in said lore, but this book is making me feel terribly dumb

I don't know if it's a language barrier, the fact that Gideon doesn't understand the stuff herself and she's the narrator or what, but I feel so dumb sometimes reading their explanations

the gist of it, I believe, is that they don't know what's powering them to do what they do...or who

they can't really delve into it because a fire alarm goes off

I haven't blamed dulcinea for things yet but you know how I feel about her, they check on her and she's still alive, so she's still a threat in my book

they fix the alarm but they can't really delve into it because the Second has murdered Teacher (he wasn't alive but he kind of was, you know how it is) and ratted them out to the Emperor

but Teacher says "one of them" can't come back, which makes me think this isn't as simple as they think it is

the second is a goner btw

they were a goner the moment they thought they could take on Camilla The Everything, love of my life

but they can't really delve into it because mayonnaise uncle and duracell bunny nephew tell them the third have opened up abigail's body

they can't really delve into that either because palmolive figures out that abigail had a key inside her body and the third have gone through the door it opened

the third is like when you have a dog that's constantly making noise and then, for 10 straight minutes you don't hear them, so you just know they've done something bad

so gideon, harrowbean, palmolive, my qp wife, mayonnaise uncle and duracell bunny nephew all go to confront the third

yandere simulator twin is bloody and cryptic in the middle of the room

I could go on a tangent and talk about the madwoman archetype in victorian literature and how she's a representation of the 'lucia' archetype (no relation to me), dulcinea of the 'ophelia' and maybe regina george twin could be a closeted 'jane'

I'm not going to, though, you're welcome for that

so regina george twin is crying in a corner (gideon is emotionally doing the same, probably) and chad is dead on the ground

get wrecked, asshole

well, he's not dead-dead, nobody in this book is ever dead-dead, this is the hotel california of space

yandere twin has absorbed chad's ghost like piccolo and kami sama in dragon ball (rip akira toriyama)

she says she's figured it all out and the whole test was so a necro would soul-fuse with a cav, one flesh one blood one end one bed, I forgot how the oath went

I don't think she's figured it out because we're not ending this book yet

palmolive also doesn't think so

very important note: there's writing on the wall (literal and metaphorical) again saying "you lied to us" and it's the same writing that was featured before and we still don't know what that's about

so the eighth goes berserk and mayonnaise uncle wants to fight yandere twin for slurping chad's soul

duracell bunny nephew goes like "I'm not sure about this" and that was the moment I knew he was toast

I have already established I feel dumb reading the explanations but, for what I can understand, what the eighth does is that the necro detaches the soul of the cav and makes him astral project elsewhere for a time but there's always a tether to bring him back, if that is broken or he drifts too far he can't come back but other things could go into his body instead, or something like that

which is what happens

I thought that the recent dead had, because gideon says there were six people in him, and we've got 6 dead (protozoa, the unknown corpse, the 2 teens and the bride and groom), but idk

all this happens after yandere twin fights using chad's moves and some magic body jelly

this is body horror territory, there are tongues coming out of orifices that should not have tongues and goo flying all over the place

the eighth is dead at the end of it, yandere twin and her inner chad are gone and regina george twin is crying because she wanted to be the one absorbed, which I guess makes sense considering she was training with swords

you know, I had my suspicions that maybe she wasn't a necro after all, but harrow distracted me when she said she must have been a good one

so now we're down to: gideon, harrowbean, palmolive, my wife, regina george twin, yandere twin w/inner chad and dulcinea my mortal enemy

and whoever it is that's coming in after the second contacted whatever number there was in the space phone tree

also, protozoa was one of the two bodies that were cooked earlier on, we still don't know who the second is

there's more we don't know than what we do know

see you on the next one, if you're not yet tired of me

[angstbabyjae]

Nona The Ninth Epilogue Analysis and Interpretation

I just finished rereading Nona the Ninth of the Locked Tomb Series with my dad and of course he was majorly confused at the epilogue, so here is my interpretation of what happens in it. For things said by the characters in old-timely English I’ve replaced them with my interpretations of what is actually being said, with the exception of lines that I think were said verbatim. Even though I think Alecto is actually talking in Shakespearean English during this scene I’m still going to write down my modern English interpretation of what she says, though keep in mind she is likely actually talking the way she does in the epilogue. There’s also a line down the road of Alecto’s that I keep as written because I don’t entirely understand it. Here we go!

Alecto wakes up after her and Harrow’s souls switch back to their bodies. She finishes her sentence from before John put her to sleep and breaks out of the chains, breaking her bones. She cries “ah, ah, ah!” and Ianthe shows up, having recovered from the Herald Bullet Pyrrha shot her with and goes to attack Alecto. Harrow, still injured and still laying on the alter begs Ianthe not to kill Alecto saying something along the lines of

Harrow: What you doing, Tridentarius? Touch her and our vow is void and I’ll kill you where you stand.

Ianthe: You’re gonna fight me? You’re half-dead.

Harrow: I’m half-dead, but you would be two-halves dead, bitch.

This one is nearly word for word what Harrow says. It sounds a bit more like something Gideon would say, not Harrow, but it’s definitely Harrow that says it. I think it’s further proof of Harrow and Gideon’s souls having an effect on each other after lyctorhood (even though they’re no longer lyctorally bound). Then Ianthe says

Ianthe: I’ll die only of longing for you, my sweet.

Harrow: Then perish.

Harsh as fuck, I love it. A reminder that Ianthe is still in love with (or at least has her romantic sights on) Harrow. Then Alecto gets up from the alter and backhands Ianthe into the water surrounding the tomb. I’m not sure if it’s hitting Ianthe into the water that triggers this or Alecto summoning them, or what, but what appear to be pre-programmed skeletons emerge from the to tomb’s wall. I thought that maybe Alecto didn’t summon them and raises her sword to scare them away, which works but I’ve also seen people say that she sends them to attack Pyrrha, Gideon, Paul, and Aiglamene on the shore, as she probably thinks they’re here to kill her.

As Alecto starts walking, the bones she broke when tearing out of her chains start to mend. Her current weakness is probably why she wasn’t instantly healing like we know she can, as she describes her body as “not fully awake” as she stumbles on the steps crying for John. Next she mentions the “crowd of dead children” on the tombs shore fighting with “living children”. Either the skeletons on the wall are the ones fighting them or the possessed corpses of the ninth broke into the tomb and attacked. All we know is that Pyrrha, Paul, Gideon, and Aiglamene are fighting dead people. They’re all competent fighters so I assume they’ll be alright fighting them. Alecto doesn’t understand why this is happening, so she likely, and unfortunately, doesn’t retain any memories from being Nona (at the moment at least).

Pyrrha shouts for Alecto from the shore and Alecto remembers her from before her imprisonment. It says “she was mightily dashed in the memory of Alecto, so that all their sleep was perished with noise” which I’m having some difficulty interpreting. She calls back to Pyrrha and tries to tell her about how John imprisoned her to appease the lyctors and that Pyrrha was “fed” to them by John to appease them as well (when G1deon became a lyctor). But he never did appease Alecto and only taught her how to die. Pyrrha can’t hear her over the noise.

Alecto remembers some vow she made before she was imprisoned. This vow confuses me, as she doesn’t seem to be referring to her vow to Anastasia, as this is before she realizes Harrow is Anastasia’s descendant. Strange and confusing is this chapter’s middle name, but I love a good puzzle so I’ll have to sit with this one for a bit. Alecto then turns to Harrow and raises her sword to attack her because she thinks she’s going to try to kill her like Ianthe did, but then recognizes her as someone she saw in a dream and stops.

Harrow: Oh corpse of the Locked Tomb, I have loved you all my life with my whole soul and strength. I hope to God that I find grace in your eyes, but you can kill me if that’s what you want because I love you.

This makes Alecto mad. I’m not entirely sure why. Maybe she doesn’t like Harrow treating her own life so lightly. Or putting her life in Alecto’s hands. Maybe it’s because John (and her vow to Anastasia) puts her in the position of someone who serves others, not as someone who should be served. She then kisses her and bites down on her mouth because she doesn’t know how kissing is done. You’d think that Harrow would be all into this, but according to Alecto she is not “appeased” by this kiss, which confuses Alecto. It seems like Harrow is perhaps already becoming disillusioned with Alecto to me. She can taste through Harrow’s blood that she’s a descendant of Anastasia, which calms her down.

Alecto: You are a descendent of the tomb-keeper?

Harrow: Yes.

Alecto: Anastasia’s bloodline is unbroken?

Harrow: Through sin and iniquity, yes.

Alecto: I am very sorry about Samael.

This is referring to how John killed Samael to make Anastasia mortal again after she got the proper lyctoral process right. I don’t think Harrow knows about this so she doesn’t say anything.

Alecto: I remember my vows. As I swore to Anastasia I swear to you. I am in your service until you bid me the favor, and whatsoever you appoint I shall perform, and consider the vow rendered. This is what I promised, until such a time as you deal with me as you see fit.

This one was pretty hard to interpret so I just left the whole quote from the book in there. The last two sentences of this passage are what makes this passage so difficult. It’s undeniable that Alecto is saying she will serve Harrow, but she refers to the favor as something that’ll END her servitude to Harrow. She uses the word “rendered” to refer to what serving Harrow will make of the vow and I’m not entirely sure what that means. Whatever it means, it scares Harrow, who likely expected to become Alecto’s servant, not the other way around.

Harrow: My hands are too stained, and I am too lowly.

Alecto then places her sword in Harrow’s hands by the blade, which cuts her. Curiously, it seems this is not what causes Harrow to faint. The cuts on her hands “made the child exceedingly faint, but it did not swoon of weariness”. So she got dizzy, but not because she was tired. Which I could take to mean that her dizziness was from something to do with sword not because of her injuries or the fact she was cut. At this point we must assume Harrow’s limbs aren’t still sloughing off and that she was healed of at least her fatal wounds when her body swapped with Alecto. The “strength” she takes to not pass out pleases Alecto. Maybe the sword is supposed to make you pass out and for some reason it doesn’t work on Harrow? I dont know.

Alecto: Notwithstanding, I offer you my service.

Gideon, shouting from the shore: Get in line, you big slut!

Iconic. Clearly this sounds like a cavaliership pledge to Gideon, which she is pissed about. Despite Gideon being on the shore she seems close enough to hear Alecto and Harrow’s conversation, which Pyrrha wasn’t. So Gideon seems to have gotten away from or concluded the combat on the shore to make her way towards them and says this upon hearing them. We then get a time skip, with the only thing we know being that the next paragraph is “afterward”.

We know that Harrow ends up accepting Alecto’s blade and “thereupon” fainted, which means that the acceptance of the blade happened separately from when she placed the blade in Harrow’s hands. Harrow “did not swoon” when that happened and must have been awake when Gideon yelled at Alecto. I can only speculate on what happens after that, but if I had to guess I think Gideon probably charged at Alecto. She shouts “a very great shout” of anger when she calls her a slut, which knowing Gideon means she must have attacked right after. A confrontation between Harrow and Gideon is achingly missing from this epilogue, but to me I think it must have happened between the time skip. I don’t think Alecto immediately takes her and Harrow through the river when Gideon charges because Harrow is still awake and hasn’t “accepted the blade” yet, unless accepting to Alecto simply means having it in her hands. I’m thinking that maybe when Gideon charges Harrow stops her, which leads to a very emotional conversation between them which ends in Harrow accepting Alecto’s servitude and sword to the heartbreak of Gideon. I think Harrow will inevitably regret this. Harrow passes out, Alecto takes Harrow in her arms and into the river to what was once the Erebos and stabs John, yada yada yada. “Annabel, good morning” and all that jazz.

It’s very like Tamsyn to keep a Harrow and Gideon reunion from us until the next book. According to the excerpt of the first chapter of Alecto The Ninth that Tamsyn Muir read at TorCon last year, the next book will start with Harrow waking up from the same position she was left in in Harrow the Ninth: Laying in the tomb in Alecto’s place with the sword and skin mag on top of her. I don’t believe this to be the same scene as her actually waking up in her own body at the end of NTN. I think this is a flashback to her point of view in the river bubble/mindscape/dream (I really don’t know what it actually is) of Alecto’s memories with John. How she got from seeing what she did at the end of HTN (the tomb and the magazine) to what she does in NTN (Alecto’s memories of wandering the dead planet with John post-apocalypse, which somehow had John’s actual consciousness in it?? Who recognizes Harrow??? I don’t know, man). Since ATN will start with filling in gaps from before, I’m pretty confident we will also get this missing conversation between Harrow and Gideon.

About the vow between Alecto and Anastasia, this seems to have been made on Alecto’s part as a thank you to Anastasia for staying in the tomb with her despite it meaning her death. I suspect this is the case because in the previous chapter, after Alecto parts the salt water and walks to the tomb, she sees Anastasia’s bones in the curve of the rock. When it comes to Anastasia, the timeline seems to be that she starts building the tomb for Alecto on the ninth before everyone became lyctors. She has her child(ren?), maybe with Samael, on the Ninth, Pyrrha helps with the birth and paints the nursery. The disciples “discovering” the botched version of the eight-fold word John led them to happens after the tomb begins construction but before Alecto was actually sealed there, so it must have taken a long time. It’s so sucky to think about the disciples that told John to do this (which definitely includes Mercymorn) keeping this from Alecto at Canaan House while her tomb is being built so far away. Did Pyrrha know at the time? Did she find out afterwards while sharing G1deon’s body? Who knows. Then imperfect lyctorhood happens, Anastasia gets it right, John kills Samael, the tomb is completed, and a mortal Anastasia shuts herself in the tomb with Alecto to die watching over her. Fucked up.

That’s all I have for this post, I have another shorter one I’ll be posting after this going over a few key moments in the chapter prior to the epilogue. Hope you’ve enjoyed this analysis and I hope it helps people understand the epilogue more.

[rumoredtoexist]

i just finished gideon the ninth so here are my official final thoughts on it in no particular order (under the cut bcz spoilers)

WHAT THE FUCK WJAT THE FUCK WJAB THE FUCK

i love dulcinea ik she’s probably gonna die but she has my whole heart

JE WAS DEAD THE WJOLE TIME?!?

who tf put that key there??

did i just get fucking queer baited????

if that bitch doesn’t come back in the next book.

GIDEON?!?

*tears*

if someone’s last words to me were “see you on the flip side sugarlips” i’d flip my fucking lid

SO MAD i’m SO MAD

WHYS SHE DEAD

WDYM SHE WAS ALSO DEAD THE WHOLE TIME

of fucking course my favorite turns out to be the villain i should’ve fucking known she was too sweet

*gutteral screaming ensues*

how tf did she even become a lyctor wtf. (srsly i’m still trying to figure THAT one out)

[lemon-natalia]

Nona the Ninth Reaction - Chapter 29

Nona just wanting to go home and go to bed is so sad, its heartbreaking to think that even though the overall situation they were in wasn’t great, she and Pyrrha and Cam & Pal are probably never going to have that kind of small domestic happiness together again

and Noodle is still okay!! thats one bit of good news at least. i was going to say that bringing the dog along with them seems a little risky, but then again don’t think Noodle will be much safer left on-planet with BoE either

okay, Aim’s talking about how she, and her name, are one part of some kind of message? i’m guessing thats possibly related to the implant she and Palamedes were discussing back in the school. two major questions here then: why did Palamedes want to know about it (unless that was implied somewhere and i didn't notice), and who is the other BoE member that finishes the message?

i wonder it’s somehow related to/similar to the message that Cassiopeia left for the Sixth telling them to leave the Houses ... welp it wouldn’t be a Locked Tomb book without some kind of horrifically cryptic statement that will make absolutely no sense until the next one comes out

Pash’s attempt at making a joke is kind of endearing, in an ever so slightly pathetic way

BoE members not in the loop seeing Kiriona ‘i’m pretending to be a corpse’ Gaia walk across to a truck: i pretend i do not see it

also i can’t help but wonder what exactly Kiriona thinks of the whole Camilla and Palamedes becoming one person thing. especially since she and Harrow are separated right now

ngl this is a pretty bad reunion of most of the surviving Canaan House gang, as far as reunions go. half of them are dead/reborn in some shape or form (Gid, Pal, Cam), Judith’s not really conscious from what i can tell, and Harrow’s not there at all technically. props to Coronabeth for somehow ending up being the most normal of these lot

We Suffer’s name is very accurate, she really is just having one of those days where everything is going insane huh. poor lady

woooh let’s drive across the universe after one impromptu driving lesson, this is gonna go so well 

PAUL. Paul. like yeah i get there’s probably a lot of religious symbolism going into that name but it also feels almost hilariously mundane 

i’m … also just not too sure how i feel about Paul as a general development honestly? it's not that i think it’s bad writing, it fits with two characters who have been incredibly co-dependent and love each other a great deal. it’s just more that as a more general trope/plot overall it’s not something i particularly like personally

‘U Lap’ Gideon your nickname game has vastly decreased in quality since you threw yourself on a spike. like cmon ‘Sex Cam’ was right there

yknow of all the chapters to leave on a cliffhanger mid-sentence this one isn’t actually so bad

[carica-ficus]

"Gideon the Ninth"

07/12/2023

Reading progress: 443/443 (100%)

Read through since last update: 167

So... It seems I'm at the last reading update... I actually didn't plan to cram so much into one post, but I got really into reading for a day or two, and then managed to get to the last 50ish pages and said fuck it. I'm not gonna say much except that I didn't expect for it to be that bloody, then at the end got so used to it that I had no other choice to just close the book and think to myself "Well. This happened." I will be writing a concise review as I do with each book I read, but I'm just gonna say I loved it very much. (This is, of course, a big understatement, but yeah... I'll gush about it in my review.) SPOILER WARNING! (Like always.)

Without further ado, my thoughts:

I might have been unbothered by the first two deaths, but I sure as hell am not ok after the end of Act 3. Was all that really necessary?? 😭😭

Yooo that scene when Gideon forces Harrow to siphon from her again is??? Hhhhhh... Made me feel a few things. Here's a graphic rendition:

I'm glad Harrow is banning Gideon from seeing Dulcinea. And the thing she mentions about the keys - she's right, it really doesn't make sense. It stuck out to me before, but I just forgot to comment on it. In any case, it's extremely suspicious. Protesilaus is also probably missing because of a distinct reason, related to his adept. Wouldn't be surprised if the Seventh is the one going around killing people.

Of course Silas turned out to be a little weasel. But at least Colum has some dignity.

Oh yeah, Corona is definitely not a necromancer.

Ok, but why am I not surprised that Harrow is the one who had her fingers in Protesilaus's disappearance? Honestly, she's the second most suspicious person in the mansion, but I love her, so I don't care.

HELLOOOOOOOO???? HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO????

First plot twist I have not expected. At all. I'm shooketh, as one might say.

Aww man. False alarm. >:( (This was about Gideon't claim that she murdered Harrow's parents.)

Oooh, but the big revelation was good! It was just a matter of time, so my reaction was more like "Ah! Finally!", than :O (Future me talking here: I'm not entirely sure what this is referring to? I'd guess it was about the Locked Tomb.)

Not Dulcinea doing the King Harold from Shrek dying scene 💀

"I had reason to believe," said Harrow, "that you would trust her more than you trusted me."

"You are my only friend. I am undone without you "

Stuff just kept happening and people just kept dying. Didn't even get the chance to write it all out, and another one was on the floor. Anyway... WHAT THE FUCK.

Honestly, I thought stuff would get all tangled up and I would lose my footing, as I heard most people do. (Or will, in the next book.) So I'm just glad I could follow along quite nicely. It all made sense in the end, even the stuff about Dulcinea. I wasn't too surprised she's the culprit, I'm just surprised how she's the culprit.

PALAMEDES!!!! NOOOOOO!!!!!!

"I can't conceive of a universe without you in it." Again, Muir going straight for the jugular. I know she likes to kill off her characters, but she doesn't need to kill of her readers as well.

Ok, you know what. I knew there would be no happy ending. We all knew Harrow couldn't become Lyctor without Gideon dying. So, I am not surprised it happened. But I am also NOT OKAY.

Man, I love Harrow. I love her in the epilogue. I love her in the last chapter. I love how much she cares, how much she always cared. And I love how her relationship with Gideon evolved over time. Ugh. Uuughhh!

Ok, yeah... This was an experience. I'll be ordering Harrow soon and.... Yeah. I'm (not) prepared for more heartbreak.

[veeples]

book recommendations

@lavampira AND @narrativefoiltrope beloveds tagged me! thank you for the tag dani and i'm still soooo thrilled you loved goth western so much <3

tagging: @nerdferatum and @winesharksea and anyone else! tbh if you're a mutual of mine and you're on storygraph hmu, i love following other people and seeing what they're reading.

1. the last book I read:

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty — I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't expecting to tear up from a memoir detailing her year working for a crematory, but it ended up being a very touching experience in understanding how Caitlin went from college graduate to eventual Ask a Mortician (one of my fave youtubers I miss her so much). It is a book that deals with death, both the traumatic and the relatively peaceful, so maybe not the LIGHTEST of reads, but one I actually wanna re-visit soon!

2. a book I recommend:

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin — I got recommended this series by @queerbrujas, and wow! I think if you're someone whose interested for a sort of, soft start into sci-fi, the elements are there and add value, but the emotional arcs and world building that unfolds is just so masterfully done. Once I really got into the first book, I tore through the next two in the series with relative ease.

3. a book that I couldn’t put down:

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo — This is just a super fun fantasy read!! It makes me wanna read more like, fast paced heist sort of novels. Each character in the ensemble has a strong personality so they all stand out from each other, but they complement each other well and offer interesting relationships with each other! I was so enamored by the book I had to run out to a store to buy the sequel the night I finished it.

4. a book I’ve read twice (or more):

The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir — Funny thing is, I almost never re-read books because I feel like, good God I already have so many on my to be read list that I keep adding onto, I don't have time to re-read books. But this series has a ton of re-readability value, and it's almost necessary to take a second or third or fourth pass (depending on how insane you are) to pick up on the subtleties and the continuous narrative of themes that Muir puts down once you get past the memes and lesbians. I'm putting the whole series here because I've read Gideon the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth, and Nona the Ninth 2-3 times now and will probably re-read again before Alecto the Ninth comes out (impatient grumbling).

5. a book on my TBR:

Sterling House by Alix E. Harrow — Can I be completely honest, I actually don't know that much about this book. A librarian gave me a little book magazine when I was picking up some books one day and this book was on the cover. And the cover was just very pretty. I'm a very shallow person, you see. Also a bit like a bird because I see something pretty and I want it. But I also really wanna read Dungeon Meshi, so there's that too.

6. a book I’ve put down:

The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World's Greatest Piece of Cheese by Michael Paterniti — This book was honestly such a drag to read. Slow paced and at 80% in, I still hadn't gotten to the confrontation between the original cheesemaker and his best friend who sold his family's cheese and business for money, which is so hyped up. There's a point to it taking so fucking long, and the point is, that's apparently just how the people the author visited told stories. Long winding tales with bunches of offshoots. Probably great as an orally told story. Bit miserable as written word.

7. a book on my wishlist:

The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels by Stefan Timmermans, Pamela Prickett — This one I saw in an e-mail for new books that came out in March, I think, and I have an interest in funeral practices and issues in modern day death management, thanks to being such a big fan of Caitlin Doughty. This book deals with the growing phenomenon of the unclaimed dead, which got touched upon in one of Caitlin's books, but not expanded upon. I try not to buy books if I can avoid it, but this one being so new and probably a little too niche for my library, I'll have to purchase it if I wanna read it!

8. a favorite book from my childhood:

??? — I don't think I have one to speak of that I can remember. I remember really being enchanted with some book about a girl finding a secret garden, so maybe it was Literally just The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgsen Burnett. Or like, I really liked the kid's book about the old lady who swallows a fly. Does that count???

9. a book you would give to a friend:

Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson — This book was recommended to me by a friend, specifically the audiobook version. And wow, yeah! I kind of judge audiobook, and really narrator quality, by this one! The narrator put so much love and emotion into narrating the book, which really highlighted the emotional high points and made them punchier. This book may have made cry a little because I am always a sucker about characters who feel they don't fit in anywhere, who feel odd, who feel different, but find support and community and love with other people who feel the same way. So, like, I would definitely give this book to someone if they wanted an introduction to how good audiobooks can be.

10. a book of poetry or lyrics you own:

The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems by Pablo Neruda — I bought the bilingual version of this book last year so I could see how Spanish is used in poetry, and then found out that he has a complex way of using Spanish so maybe it's not that useful. <3 And then I didn't read it at all, it's still on my bookshelf. Judging me. u_u I'll get to it one day.

11. a nonfiction book you own:

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado — Don't remember how this book got on my radar, but I went out and bought it and was so pleasantly surprised by how the style Machado uses in it to detail her memoir of an abusive relationship. So it's not a light read whatsoever, but just by style alone made it very evocative, it almost reads like literary fiction. I never thought about approaching memoirs or non-fiction in what I figure is a kind of non-standard way, so it stands out from the other non-fiction books I've read.

12. what are you currently reading:

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver — So this is apparently a sort of, like, modern retailing of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield, which I would have got, except like, I'm not that big of a literary nerd. So I had to look that up. Really, it caught my attention because I'm currently re-listening to a fave podcast, Old Gods of Appalachia, and this book is set in like, 80s-90s Appalachia so it's adjacent enough to my interest. So far it is masterfully written and has such a strong voice for the narrator and protagonist. It's also a thick ass book, well over 500 pages which is a bit out of my usual range, but it's been nice to sit down with a longer story that feels like I'm sitting down to listen to the guy tell me his life's story.

13. what are you planning on reading next:

??? — Bruv who knows? I don't plan these things until I'm done with whatever I'm reading now u.u. I have a little gay romance I bought during indie bookstore day and I also promised @sysba to read some other Chinese manhua with some other sad tragic gay boys. It'll probably be that one.

[travelerstakes]

anyone wanna hear a wrong theory?

Hello! It's the girl reading TLT wrong again!

I was thinking I might as well go over why I'm convinced that Gideon is possessing the sword. I do this acknowledging fully and readily that I'm probably more than half wrong, but I think my reasoning is fairly solid so for my own posterity and other's enjoyment, let's go.

(evidence at hand: Gideon The Ninth up till they first make planetfall and sunglasses get pulled out. Assorted osmosis tidbits. Harrow The Ninth up till mid chapter 21)

First, why I think the sword's haunted:

Look, nothing that wants to be bathed in arterial blood, casts the evil eye over entire rooms, and has an incredibly traumatized girl protecting it from thieves isn't haunted. I'm sorry, that's the rules. Additionally, this book made a point early on to make sure we knew how revenants work. You don't put these things next to each other if you don't want an audience to link them.

Second, why I think it's Gideon in there:

We're told three things that naturally get haunted by revenants: people they cared about, grave goods (stuff they cared about in life), and their murder weapons. If it's Gideon, at least two of these things are very readily available. Harrow, and her own two-hander. If there was actually a two-hander in the Sleeper's coffin (which I really doubt), that potentially becomes three things. If there was actually a Sleeper, anyways.

Now, I *do* suspect that Harrow's possessed. The second person perspective in the main timeline is incredibly suspicious, since it implies that while she's answering to "Harrowhark Nonagesimus" and is seemingly attached enough to the name to make its use a major element in probably-banging Ianthe, she isn't *actually calling herself that in her head.* Of course, given all the "reborn as myself" stuff and how incredibly messed up her life in general and during the events of this book specifically are, she might also just be dissociated as hell.

Besides, as a lyctor, she's clearly *supposed* to be possessed by her cavalier. And however the process of taking a loved one for parts and an auto defense system actually goes, it's obviously went funky as all get out with her.

It seems like a cavalier is supposed to be their lyctor's sword, at least on a metaphorical level. Knightly service, the godking calling his lyctors his fingers, and them apparently being supposed to turn into a lyctor's limbic system during the fusion. This being a very literal "hey, you're Her Sword now, have fun!" Situation is a logical extreme of that, and would probably piss Gideon off to no end at the beginning of the book. Of course, I know that GtN is a romance, so there's a non-zero chance that this has changed, which only makes it funnier.

Whoever it is playing Transistor at Harrow, Harrow has some *strong* feelings about it. They mostly aren't positive, but she's still incredibly, INCREDIBLY attached to her sword in often very literal ways. That implies it's someone she at least used to know.

Lastly, other people it might be:

Any weapon from the Ninth is gonna be a hand me down, and Ortus the Lyctor clearly super, SUPER wants it. Perhaps it's somebody he used to know?

I'd suspect Evil Femme Jesus, but it seems like she can get around just fine without being a hunk of metal, and Harrow has a pretty different feeling relationship with her that predates the sword owning.

A Memory of a Much Lesser Self? Harrow's clearly got a couple of those floating around...

[empty-pizza]

thoughts on nona the ninth chapters twenty-four and twenty-five

PALAMEDES FUCKING TOOK THE BODY

HOLY SHIT

HE DID IT

HE COMPLETED THE NERD TO JOCK TRANSITION

we might be able to find gideon's body soon. can't wait to find out that none of this works as we expected.

maybe if ianthe read more novels about plucky youths with the power of logic she would have beaten palamedes in the mental battle

so pyrrha suspected nona was dying. honestly i've really enjoyed the way that nona is just, a kind of being that engages with life differently. aware of her own mortality in a way most humans aren't, yet enjoying every moment she can and always curious about the next moment.

damn we really might be about to find the body. key to a door, last thing left of wake, and possibly nona.

lol the blood wards are so weak they could only even kill one of nona's hands

hey it's her

got that potentially selfcest kiss in

kinda anticlimactic

is what i said until i finished the chapter what the FUCK gideon is here what the FUCK bingus bongus zinkus zonkus idk where this is going now, so maybe Nona really is just Harrow's mind in a weird state, or maybe she's Something Else, who fucking knows

let's read the next one

this is

gideon with more confidence than usual, i think, maybe, i dunno, it's been a while. i guess she kinda wasn't allowed to be outgoing during most of book 1 but idk. it's still a weird level of confidence for the situation. or not. idk.

so john just

brought gideon back

and this entire time she's just been hanging around as the daughter of big g

this makes me kind of mad, because i think how gideon and john would react to each other is super interesting and i wish we got a book that showed us more of that

but she goes by kiriona gaia now

and she's dead

but like, what

this isn't right

this is not right

the real gideon would care way more about finding harrow again

but what if she does, and this situation is just so fucking weird and i'm missing the contxt

what happened to her

she calls nona a fake nonagesimus

i'm gonna be honest, i like nona more than i like gideon and harrow, so if i have to say goodbye or fuck you to either of the OGs, i'm willing to if it means staying on team nona

gideon would not be this mean to someone as innocent as nona!!! don't tell nona to shut up!

what's going on in the river right now

kiriona wants to go to the ninth?

As emotionally frustrating as this is, I think this is probably the most interesting way to answer the mystery of finding Gideon again. That we find her, but she's not who we wanted her to be anymore. And the question of who Nona is can be something more complicated than just, Gideon or Harrow. A simpler reveal would honestly just feel flat.

her motivation being just to kill the boredom could make sense, but like... she just doesn't feel right. Where's the Gideon that cared?

But did she really ever care about anything that wasn't hot girls, fighting, and Harrow?

Is this how she always looked from the outside?

I don't think so (she wouldn't have been so mean to Nona) but they're questions worth asking. And I believe Nona that Kiriona is lying.

Maybe it's not a real Gideon. Or is intentionally corrupted in some way by John. Maybe this is all part of a big plan to sabotage the attempt to get into the tomb. Give them who they think they need, but she'll betray them.

hmm. can't take her blood. could just be a general defensive measure. or could be a way to force BoE to need to take the woman with them personally.

Honestly though, if we were building to a "not the real gideon" twist, if it was purely a fake, then it would actually try to hide it. I think that, like it or not, this is who John made his daughter into. Dick move ngl.

Nona had never seen anyone so sad in her whole short life. It made her nearly afraid to die.

damn

man this was some shit

[fortjester]

please say more about up the wolves on the playlist i beg

anon i am down on my knees asking you to marry me, of COURSE i will say more about up the wolves

while i feel up the wolves is probably more of a kiriona gaia song at this point, i hesitate to phase it out of the gideon playlist because the roots of it are in in gideon in the first place. here's a poignant quote abt the song before we kick off.

"...when people talk about triumph over adversity, adversity sounds like sort of a faceless sort of a thing that you don't need to triumph over so much as get around. This is a song about triumph over the adversary." - John Darnielle (of the Mountain Goats), at the Newport Folk Festival, 2013

first verse is pretty easy, because that's for sure gideon's inner monologue during htn act 5.

she's been trapped inside of harrow's brain for nine months, not really alive, not really dead, being systematiclaly drowned by harrow's brain, and yes she forgave harrow for her past behaviour, but it's clear by the time we see her again in ntn that she's letting anger take the wheel atm - and who could blame her? so gideon is the "ghost" in this case, but she is also the person finding it hard to forgive. dichotomous.

now, second verse is, to me, the first few chapters of gtn. the Ninth's closest neighbour is the Eighth, so that makes the first lines match up quite neatly. observe:

pg. 26 (paperback), Gideon the Ninth

but, ya know, obviously when the Eighth did catch wind of Ninth mischief, they ended up caring more abt gideon's mysterious dead mother than they did about her. additionally, as the song continues, we get these lines:

once again, reiterating that the truth of gideon's treatment isn't important even if they know, to which i gesture broadly at the following snippets:

pg. 19 (paperback), Gideon the Ninth

pg. 21 (paperback), Gideon the Ninth

so, it's a pointless endeavour, but as gideon later justifies it, says even with no ultimate gain she'd do it, because, "I completely fucking hate you, because you are a hideous witch from hell. No offence." (pg. 27) what a lady. spite really can fuel you to do anything. furthermore, the next line is a sweet little mic drop on the moment to me:

pg. 19 (paperback), Gideon the Ninth

up the wolves is one of the Mountain Goats' many "anti-revenge songs", this theme of useless rebellion and spite really intertwines nicely with gideon's early character arc. i also snagged this quote abt the song off the genius lyric page because it sums up my early thoughts really nicely abt why this fits gideon.

like, does that not scream "gideon" to everyone? am i alone here? hello? is it just me and mr. darnielle and gnav?

to finish up, here's some nice comparatives/parallels from the chorus:

pg. 23 (paperback), Gideon the Ninth

this (of course) refers to the story of romulus and remus (the former of whom would later found rome) being abandoned to die of exposure by their mother. gideon wasn't so much abandoned as put on a backburner, as wake was briefly inconvenienced from her main goal by dying. nonetheless, gideon's mother exists only as a story to her, and she grows up almost completely alone, like romulus and remus.

pg. 456 & 457 (paperback), Nona the Ninth

the "party" referred to here in the story of romulus and remus is actually the murder of their father (who ordered them to be killed so that he might avoid them ever inheriting his throne) and the reinstatement of their grandfather to the throne. romulus then went on to murder remus over a disgreement over where to build their own city (rome). in gideon's case, the murder is of crux, but could also extend to whatever's going on w her and john both before the events of ntn and whatever's gonna happen in atn. in either case of where the party of her coming home is, it's a bitter return, and i don't think she enjoyed herself, which sucks.

last one, i swear

pg. 20 (paperback), Gideon the Ninth

[avvidstarion]

12, 13, 16, 17, and 25 for the book asks!! 💕

12: Any books that disappointed you?

the second book in the "her majesty's royal coven" series....the first one was alright and i wanted to continue the series but man i just could not get through the second book. I was also a little disappointed by foe and we spread, which are two books by ian reid, bc i loooooved his debut novel and these two just weren't as good

13: What were your least favorite books this year?

FUCK THE SECRET HISTORY ALL MY HOMIES HATE THE SECRET HISTORY. ALSO NORWEGIAN WOOD BY MURAKAMI IF I COULD KILL A BOOK I'D KILL THAT ONE

16: What is the most overhyped book you read this year?

the atlas six probably. I liked it alright but idk i don't think it deserves all that hype. its sequel was kind mid too from what i can remember (i'll still continue the series though)

17: Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

HARROW THE NINTH???? HARROW THE NINTH. I knew it was gonna be good bc gideon was good but holy shit that was LITERARY. best sequel i've ever read

25: what reading goals do you have for next year?

read more books than i did this year, read the stormlight archives (i'm like halfway through the first one), finish the murderbot books, reread annihilation and finish the series, read all of the books i've bought but haven't read yet, and maaaaybe finish the wheel of time series (i've read the first two) but that's a big ask

[buildarocketboys]

5 + 6 + 24 for the books!

5. What genre did you read the most of?

Prooobably horror, at least that's definitely what I sought out the most!

6. Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to?

Current TBR that I probably won't get to by the end of the year:

Plus a bunch of others on my TBR that I don't physically have in my possession. Oh I also wanted to reread Frankenstein but never got around to it - next year for sure!

24. Did you DNF anything? Why?

Gideon the Ninth but only because I only started it when it was already a month overdue at the library and I couldn't get into it, so I returned it. I'm sure I'll get round to it at some point!

I definitely want to be more aggressive when it comes to DNF-ing books next year if I'm not enjoying them - there's definitely a couple this year that I should have DNF'ed but I persevered because they were for book club (but I'm gonna be more picky about which book clubs I attend next year too)

[cogentsummoner]

9 People You'd Like To Know More

I was tagged by @ankhsapphic

Last song: Flow from FFXIV, the orchestral version specifically!

Currently watching:

- Kamen Rider Ex-Aid: it was my best friend's first kamen rider, and since they're the one that got me into the series, i really wanted to watch it with them. we're on episode 10 rn and having a blast

- Kamen Rider Kuuga: i've heard nothing but good things abt it so im giving it a shot! im only on like, episode four tho

About to start:

- prax and i are gonna be watching gotchard together as it airs so there's that!

- i've heard ooo and w are really good so i'll probably be wanting to watch them next. also kiva looks fun...

- do podcasts/dnd shows count? im going to count them. i need to catch up on mentopolis from dimension 20, and by catch up on, i mean...i need to start watching it. i also really need to get working on setting up my little mp3 player with naddpod episodes so i can listen to them at work

Just Finished:

- Kamen Rider Den-o!!! i will never emotionally recover from that. good fucking lord. i'm genuinely so happy it was my first kamen rider series and that i got to watch it with my best friend

Currently Reading:

- well, I just finished the novelization for Transformers: Dark of the Moon, and I'm about to start Gideon the Ninth since i've heard nothing but glowing praise for the series

Current Obsession:

- Kamen Rider, D&D, and maybe FFXIV now that i'm probably gonna be playing it regularly again when the Mogtome event hits.

I'm tagging @darkxyzdragon, @praxvidence, @jellijeans, @verraisemacro, @faterunes, @knightmareframe, @riegantabby, @kingofthenorth, @originiumdust

[taylorrama]

The Locked Tomb + mewithoutYou pt. 4/17

And she'd always weigh me down But, afraid I might need her I dragged her around

Song: My Exit, Unfair Album: Catch For Us the Foxes

Several mewithoutYou songs have long, slow intros that would make good music for a trailer for a TLT adaptation, just saying.

I think from the title, we can get several TLT vibes if we interpret "exit" as death. Unfair exit. Unfair death. Even taking "exit" to mean "exit," the only way Gideon gets to leave (exit) the Ninth House is by an agreement with Harrow that really isn't on her terms. Unfairness all around.

My exit unobserved And my homesickness absurd I said "water" expecting the Word would satisfy my thirst Talking all about the second and third When I haven't understood the first

Something something the various unfair exits/deaths of characters in a world where one soul consumes another to attain immortality might be "unobserved" if we think about off-screen deaths in Canaan House, but also the way that certain people (Harrow) refuse to accept or allow certain other people (Gideon) to be truly gone.

Homesickness. Not sure anyone in TLT really feels homesick with the exception of Nona.

Something something, more about water and the River. There might be some ways I could tease out some connection between the River and this concept of metaphorical water (scripture) being something that might promise relief, but ultimately doesn't; however, I need my reread to help me figure out the River better so I get something more than "it's Purgatory/a wormhole" out of it.

But here's a funny joke. The last two lines in this section are probably talking about some philosophical concept, but in a TLT context, it actually makes fun of all of us for not understand wtf is happening in these first three books.

I'm gonna jump now to the chorus because that's the next place where we have some interesting lines for TLT purposes.

And just like the clouds They bring a darkness And a hard rain's going to fall I felt the crowd Bring a loneliness and a hard rain A hard rain's going to fall And she'd always weigh me down But, afraid I might need her I dragged her around It's best to keep close sackcloth and ash In a whitewashed town

There's so much rain in Harrow the Ninth, but not really a crowd. Though maybe you could argue that even the small cast of characters around Harrow could feel like a crowd to her and it probably would since she finds Ianthe's and the Body's constant presence unsettling enough.

Speaking of the Body, the second half of this chorus is Harrow POV about the Body. The sackcloth and ash imagery is especially fitting given that in a Biblical context, those are used in times of mourning, and Harrow is mourning through the entirety of book 2.

She wore that phony smile on her face I guess like a bandage on a wounded place While I kept the keys to every old lock just in case

This...is Harrianthe LOL. And do we ever find out if people still have their keys from Canaan House?

Rehearsed indifference tossed aside Our narrow arms spread wide What unseen pen etched eternal things On the hearts of human kind But never let them in our minds?

"Rehearsed indifference" is totally Harrow. In general, I love these last three lines, but I've got nothing at the moment in terms of connecting it to TLT. It could be about the quest for immortality vs. the mechanisms for achieving it being so elusive, but it's not clear to me after a first read that John had initially set out to defy death before he had his powers.

The chorus again, with some differences.

Oh, the clouds they brought a darkness And a hard rain's gonna fall And all my laughter ends in emptiness And a hard rain's gonna fall My every medicine causes more illness And a hard rain's gonna fall And until I let you go Oh, I didn't know You were never mine You were never mine at all

"All my laughter ends in emptiness." If Harrow ever has any joy, this is how she feels about it and what she's experienced whenever she's had something (Gideon) that genuinely makes her happy.

"My every medicine causes more illness." I see this working in TLT in a few different ways. What is the "medicine" that Harrow gives herself to prevent herself from devouring Gideon's soul? A lobotomy that fractures her consciousness and sense of reality. Did John initially believe that his necromantic powers were some kind of medicine that could help others? Sure, a little bit. And what did that cause but a 10,000 year life that he's disillusioned with, and a paradigm that probably isn't better than the pre-Resurrection solar system.

"Until I let you go, I didn't know you were never mine at all." Lots of ways this could apply. Mostly, I think of it as a lyctor lament, but if Griddlehark ends in some type of mutual release of one another–to oppose the possession/destruction that's inherent to the lyctor state–then it could be their finalized albeit sad realization.

There's a bit more to the song after these lines, but nothing super specific comes to mind right now with TLT. Rereads and Alecto might make me go 👀 but for now, this is all I've got on this song.

---

TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 1; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 2; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 3; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 5

[xellandria]

We’re approaching five? months since I started Spravato, and today was my third Time Of It. The very first time I felt something (beyond being dizzy) I was listening to Gideon the Ninth and part of my brain became absolutely convinced that The Locked Tomb fandom was gonna be the next Big Thing and it was super important to get in on the ground floor of it and everything.  That lasted for like, five minutes, but I was like “nah this is not a real thing, wild that I’m so partially convinced it is though.” The second time it was just a huge amount of nausea, though thankfully the nurse noticed me being weird about it on the camera and brought me a damp washcloth and a fan and stuff and that helped til it passed.

Today it was both at once, which was wild.  I feel like the nausea came on pretty quickly and the dissociation came right on its heels, but apparently I was coherent enough to a) hit the call light (first time I’ve done that, rip) and b) ask for what I wanted (the fan again, and I either mentioned I felt nauseous or implied it cos she brought a bag for me too, heh).  I was at the point in early Nona where we’re first introduced to Hot Sauce and her friends and I remember feeling this absolute certainty that New Rho was “the real world” and all the shit with raid later today and having an actual physical meat form and stuff was the story, and part of my brain was like “no, this is Definitely Not Correct, we need to put a stop to this” and yanked my earbud out of my ear and I spent the next like 40-60m just kinda sitting there without audio input.

Not having partaken in drugs recreationally I can’t really compare it but it wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience (though the nausea part probably had something to do with that).  It was definitely different from what I’d previously been calling dissociation, though; in what I’ve experienced in the past I’ve been vaguely aware that time was passing and if I chose to look back in my memory closely enough I could mark it (there is just usually nothing going on upstairs at the time).  With the reaction today, there are sections of time that are just... gone. They weren’t there in the moment, and they aren’t there looking back.  It’s not a stretch of time in which the only things my body did were the things my body does without me having to attend to them, those stretches of time just don’t exist.  How long were they?  I couldn’t tell you.  I mean, obviously the whole thing lasted about an hour, but in that span of time where I was staring at a chair and thinking it was a really boring painting and I should change the channel, there are just... bits missing.

I don’t know.  The first time I could vaguely understand why someone might want to induce that feeling (even if the results in me were kind of boring), but the missing time of today is just... really unpleasant.  And yeah, the nausea part probably isn’t helping, but it was bad enough that I posted out of raid for today (despite our numbers already being desperately low) cos I’m exhausted now.

I dunno.  Three weird reactions in five months of treatments isn’t so bad, but I’m really hoping I don’t run into a fourth...