#react to nona the ninth

[adearqueer]

My partner sent me her reactions while reading Nona. It brought me immense joy (and immediate tears towards the end) to receive them, see her theories, and get into them with her. <3

[dabblingreturns]

On one hand censorship is bad.....and trying to controll your roomates is bad.....and all that jazz

But gid I felt it when Paul told Nona that Camilla wouldn't have allowed nona to wear the "mustache rides" shirt in the apartment.

Because can't an very tired ace women be in her own home without constantly being shown a crass innuendo.

I get that there is humor in a rude T shirt. And I get that thier is humor is that shirt being worn by someone who it seams wildly inappropriate for. But a joke can be funny and also in poor taste. And jokes in poor.taste can be so very tiresome

And it's also very much a joke between Pyrrha and Nona from which Camilla is excluded. And Camilla without Palamedes probably always feels about like an inside person now out in the world alone. And that's very tiring as well.

And so without yucking anyone's yum, or killing anyone's fun, I think camilla deserves to come home and not see Nona in the mustache rides shirt.

[xoshepard]

i will never stop thinking about gideon seeing harrow again and wanting to be kissed by her and then being kissed by her and i guess immediately going “ok who the hell was that??? that could NEVER be harrow”

[lemon-natalia]

Nona the Ninth Reaction - Chapter 25

Pyrrha really is committed to mentioning that she found Gideon’s mother attractive in every conversation that she has with her, i admire the dedication 

haha what the fuck is this. Kiriona Gaia Her Divine Highness

MUMFUCKER PRIME ngl the bad jokes are mostly the only reason i’m pretty sure this is actually Gideon and not some doppelganger. idk whether its all the trauma she’s built up over the last two books or just having to be in the general proximity of Ianthe and John for an extended period of time, but something is up with this gal

'Judith Deuteros for some reason’ i relate to this on a fundamental level given i genuinely didn’t realise that Judith was here until this moment

as much as it pains me that two of my favourite characters immediately Do Not Vibe with eachother, Gid being a dick to Nona makes sense given Nona is currently occupying the body of the person Gideon cares the most about in the world, who is themselves god-only-knows-where rn. props to Tamsyn Muir for making the bold creative choice to have her protagonists all just fucking loathe each other at some point

okay there is no way in hell that Gideon actually wants to go back to the ninth for nostalgia. unless it's nostalgia for dunking on Crux

‘it was not a very friendly smile [...] there was something a little bit hungry about it’ haha what the fuck. really said let’s dial up the ‘came back wrong’ trope to eleven here. what in the Jason Todd is this

well miss ‘I am the Emperor’s construct’ has come a long way since ‘Go to hell Pops’, this was NOT what i meant when i said i wanted more of Gideon and John interacting this book 😭😭

tamsyn muir really said ‘oh you want Gideon back? i’m going to give you what you want in the most painful way possible’ huh. this is uh somehow worse than her dying actually :)

Gideon actually knowing anything about necromancy is the most disturbing part of all of this. what happened Gid i thought you and me were on a team of this ‘necromancy is confusing as all hell’ thing. can’t believe you’d betray me like this smh

also given we last saw Gid finding out she was born as a ‘bomb’ to open the tomb, and how much she hated everything about the Ninth other than Harrow, i am very concerned about why she suddenly wants to come with to open the Tomb

the saddest girl in the whole world is Gideon??? GIDEON?? the presence of Noodle in this book lulled me into a false sense of security so that i forgot just how much this series loves breaking my heart over and over again 

i know everyone already knows from the broadcast (and possibly before if Pyrrha told them) but i do wonder how Corona, and Pal & Cam etc. reacted to finding out Gideon was God’s daughter. imagine having to deal with the revelation that the deity you are becoming increasingly disillusioned with has a kid that spent much of the time you knew her making terrible sex jokes

[swampsiren-piratefairy]

Nona the Ninth spoilers

When Gideon Nav, Kiriona Gaia, first lays eyes on Nona, in Harrowhark Nonagesimus’s body, she looks at her “in such a mute, helpless appeal” and Nona knows exactly what Gideon wants and gives it to her: Nona kisses her.

Poor Gideon’s want must have been deep and desperate and so clear to Nona. And Nona, kind and loving Nona, just wants to help and Gideon reacts with a face that is “ridged with shock and disbelief.” Because by kissing her, Nona immediately shows Gideon that Harrow is not here. Harrow’s body has been inhabited but Harrow is gone.

And Nona, always so perceptive, is absorbed by watching the way Gideon moves. She’s “never seen anyone move like that before.” And it’s not for many pages that we learn what’s so interesting about Gideon’s movements.

Gideon is so sad. She’s sadder than anyone Nona has ever seen before, and Nona lives in a war torn refugee city.

Gideon gave her life for Harrow. Harrow didn’t accept the gift, and Gideon was devastated.

She felt so rejected. And now, Gideon must have thought, “finally! here’s Harrow again.” And had that hope is immediately squashed. No wonder she’s so fucking sad.

[petit-sapin]

Hey guys my girlfriend got me to read Gideon the Ninth and I tore through it, followed up by reading Harrow the Ninth in about a week.

Given how fast I read it, my girlfriend didn't get to see or experience me reacting to it. So, get ready for lots of tlt spoiler tag posts as I no context react to Nona the Ninth for her (and your) viewing pleasure.

[paradoxcase]

Gideon the Ninth audiobook, rest of Part 1

One thing you can say for audiobooks, they go faster, especially since I'm not essentially reading everything twice now. But I don't feel like I would retain it in the same way I do when I read visually, if this were the first time through

I am getting used to the pronunciation of "Nonagesimus", as expected

More voices:

Teacher is not at all what I expected, I expected more disconcerting jollity and less creaky old person voice. The nonbinary priest I expected to be more creaky, but their voice is not creaky at all

Cytherea's voice is basically exactly what I imagined, though

Also, Teacher's pronunciation of "Naberius" doesn't match the pronunciation guide here, or the pronunciation in the Dramatis Personae, which is odd

More stuff I noticed:

Aiglamene said, when looking for a sword: "I'm looking for a blade in the style of [Ortus's] great-grandmother's." Is this the great-grandmother who owned Nonius's sword that Ortus was talking about with Abigail in Harrow the Ninth?

Gideon asks "How are you going to get Ortus back, anyway?" and Harrow has a moment where she reacts to that - originally I though this was just reluctance to break it to Gideon that she was replacing him, but I now I think it's that they have gotten the news that the shuttle exploded

Gideon makes a joke that by being Harrow's cavalier she would be responsible for aiding "Harrowhark Nonagesimus's fascist rise to power." But what historical reference does she actually have for fascist rises to power? Nobody remembers WWII anymore. Arguably the only fascist rise to power they have a reference for is John's if you want to label him that way, and certainly none of them objected to that (or, I think, even have much information about it). I don't think this universe has the historical and political depth for a character to be making a joke like this

Aiglamene tells Harrow that if she doesn't free Gideon after attaining Lyctorhood, she would consider it a betrayal, because she's trying to secure freedom for Gideon in order to get her to go along with the plan to go to Canaan House with Harrow. I think this goes a long way to explain why Aiglamene is very angry at Harrow at the end of Nona when she finds out that Gideon died

Harrow says "we're not becoming an appendix of the Third or Fifth House" when talking about why it's important to not reveal the state of the Ninth to anyone. I missed this the first time through, but it's making more sense to me now why Harrow didn't want outside help

Harrow says "I'll mix bonemeal in with your breakfast and punch my way through your gut" which I have seen other people comment on, although I can't remember if I ever said anything about it myself. But my thought is that the reason Harrow was able to conceive of and execute the soup assassination while incredibly sleep deprived was that she had already worked out and finalized the whole plan back on the Ninth when she was coming up with ways to torment Gideon. It was probably just lucky that that plan also turned out to be effective against a Lyctor

I know the sunglasses are mostly a meme, but I'm wondering now why there were sunglasses on Pluto for Gideon to find. That seems like the last place in the universe for there to be sunglasses

The description of Teacher's belt doesn't really resemble the friendship bracelets, I don't think, although it is described as being rainbow colored

The narration says "her legs ran as swiftly as her awful judgement" when Gideon is running to rescue Cytherea, which seems a bit like foreshadowing, since I think on the first readthrough the reader doesn't have a reason to find fault with her judgement here

[toweringclam]

After finishing Nona the Ninth, my theory on Kiriona:

We know that she isn't Gideon by the "Thou big slut" line being shouted from the other bank of the River. Like...this should be a settled issue by now, but the problem is, she does a very good job of being Gideon. Specifically, the Dark Side AU version of Gideon that lives rent-free in our heads. She's exactly what Gideon would be like if she were raised by Jod.

Because that's basically what she is.

The body influences the soul just as the soul influences the body. He had Gideon's body, which meant all her memories and the basics of her personality. He had himself. And I'm thinking he caught whatever remained of Wake's soul, too. So he took the scraps of Wake and a tiny sliver of his own soul, stirred it around, and poured it into her body. The result is Kiriona Gaia.

But like he fucked up the recipe. He put the dries into the wets. He let the batter sit too long. He underbaked it.

This Gideon doesn't make bawdy jokes. She doesn't react at all to Harrow's face. Hell, she barely does anything until the situation calls for it. Most of the time, she just shuts off. She's the saddest girl in the world because she knows how she should be feeling at any given moment, but she just doesn't. So instead, she plays the role of the arrogant, indulgent prince. She does what Dad tells her to hoping she'll feel something.

Because you can't take away loved, and you can't fake it either.

[maybecould]

"Ninth, really, I sincerely did not want to have to look after your bedamned water bottle.” -Palamedes, NTN

This is the locked tomb quote I rotate in my mind the most for three reasons.

1.

This is 100% a reference to this tweet and it makes no sense diagetically.

2. I have thought about this really hard and I am still truly am unsure who Pal is referring to. It could be Gideon, or Harrow, but it could also be some theoretically merged being of the two. Like, no amalgamation actually exists yet, but Pal and Cam are convinced throughout ntn that Gideon and Harrow, the Ninth, may have beat them to it. I think Pal could be addressing them as a unit here.

3. I will never not be emotional about the relationship between the Sixth and the Ninth. Camilla and especially Palamedes care about Nona no matter who she is but that love started with the completely unlikely alliance and genuine solidarity between those four.

And it is reciprocated! One of Harrow's first emotions once her brain gets sclorped back together in the Bubble is guilt over how she reacted to Camilla. Maybe the most striking action of Kiriona that makes her seem so UnGideon is how she treats the Sixth, even when it's a halfhearted dismissal (no pun intended). It genuinely reads as such a betrayal. And that shouldn't be the case, because of how little those four actually interacted, but those bonds were so important!!!

[theriverbeyond]

After the flame, when the stranger with strange eyes comes to her, Nona screams.

(or: missing scene of Nona reacting to Paul)

(or: the author was missing Cam & Pal and is now making it everyone's problem)

(or: what if the people who love you decided to commit mutual suicide to fuse and form one person who wasn't either of them anymore and you were upset about it)

Rated G | 1.5k words

[cognito-mode]

Hey! So, @tordotcom generously agreed to publish an essay I wrote. It's about The Locked Tomb series, how we define magic, and how (I think) Muir's conception of necromancy contributes to the themes of her books.

Tumblr makes a cameo.

Also discussed: Ursula K Le Guin's Earthsea series and ancient ideas of magic vs religion and science.

Give it a read if you're interested! And if you want to play a fun little game with it, try defining "magic" to yourself and see what you come up with. The essay references a definition of magic once proposed by the great Ted Chiang, so see how close your own definition comes to his!

[carica-ficus]

"Nona the Ninth"

14/07/2024

Reading progress: 274/477 (57%) Read through since last update: 158

Reading this book is such a joy. I keep surprising myself by how easy it is to read. I go through twenty pages without even realizing. it I missed reading such books. I missed being so immersed in a book. Man, it feels good! I decided to share some really CRAZY ideas in this post because my reading diary is meant as a brain dump. Don't take them too seriously. I just like thinking about all the possibilities. (I'm usually wrong, but it's fun to see by how much.)

So, notes:

I was so into these last two chapters that I didn't even remember to comment.

I love how Pyrrha calls Nona all these cutesy nicknames. And how sweet and gentle she is with her.

I audibly gasped when Palamedes needed to confess to Pyrrha that Cam sold her cigarettes. Literally 😮. Only for Pyrrha to take it as a champ. (She obviously took enough shit that day.)

So, blue dot in the sky. Earth or Uranus? Or Neptune? I'm guessing we're on some moon, but not sure which one. Considering they keep talking about how hot it is and that it's almost always day, they should be somewhere near the center of the solar system. Might as well be Venus considering how everything is VERY toxic and they need to wear gas masks outside. (Addition from future me: Bruh, I have no idea.)

Palamedes, my man. 🤝 This is a guy that knows what it's all about. (The nurse thing. I'm dating one, so yeah.)

Been thinking about Harrow and how she ruled on a dead planet and how John promised her new people when she succeeded with her task as a Lyctor. New people. New future. But where do all those bodies come from? So, my random thought of the day is that maybe she got promised some of the bodies transported in the Convoy? Speculating, speculating, I know. But I decided to write this down, so I can reflect on it later. (Future me: Still have no idea what the Convoy is for, but with everything happening, this idea really is a LONG SHOT.)

HAHAHAHAHHAA Palamedes calling Cam a hypocrite. Love it.

I keep forgetting to comment, and a lot's been happening. The "little" meeting Cam, Pyrrha, and Nona had with the Crown and the Comander was insightful, but difficult to follow. I got like? Half of it? But managed to understand the most important things - there's a craft in orbit and they have no idea what it is, there's some background for the first book and Cytherea's mission, then we see Judith and Crown realizes Cam is hiding Palamedes. Marvelous.

Millie? Lol, I'd be mad too. I have no idea why Palamedes didn't react. I certainly would.

Nona's the weapon. Cool. They're growing their own Lyctor. So, the body needs to be a necromancer that ingested the soul of a cavalier? Yeah, whatever, we'll see. My money's on The Body being Nona, but who even knows at this point. (Not me.)

But one thing I am excited for (after I finish Nona) is FINALLY going into the locked tomb tag without the fear of spoilers. Can't wait!

Fuck! That's true. Nona truly is Camilla's age. And Corona's. I keep imagining her younger because she is childlike, but I shouldn't. Granted, I think that's also the point of Muir writing her like that. Nona is constantly babied and talked down to because she doesn't understand the world as the rest of them do. She can't. At least not yet. Anyway, yeah, this sentence reminded me to adjust the way I imagine Nona. She definitely needs to be a little taller in my head. (Even though she is still shorter than Camilla.)

"Beef." 🙄

HAHAHAHAH crying again. Yeah, me too, John.

Yo. What the fuck.

Makes sense because Gideon has taken over Harrow's body, but still. Huh? (At least that's my guess. I don't know)

PYRRHA'S MISSING? NOOOO.

Oh yeah, ok. Are John and Harrow somewhere by the River like how Harrow's dreams were? Also, still guessing at this point, but I've been thinking about this ever since John's chapters started. (Primarily because their location is very surreal, very dreamlike.)

"I've carried you, Warden. And I've carried your memory... I'd rather carry you." AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Ok, so... If Hot Sauce didn't know Nona was a Lyctor, what was the secret Nona told her when they were lying next to each other at school?

Okay, wrapping off here because this post got a little long. I'll do my best to finish off this book quickly because I have a trip coming up next week and I won't have the time to read which will make me frustrated because I HAVE TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS. Anyway, I'm really, really loving Nona so far. It's very different and the pace was quite slow, but I love that about Muir's writing. Every book in this series has been a breath of fresh air, something so unique, but familiar at the same time. ❤

[goodluckdetective]

Finally I have finished Harrow the Ninth.

Thankfully, I also have Nona the Ninth at the ready to read.

Some thoughts below the cut. Spoilers for Harrow below:

-I figured the Emperor was going to be a bad guy cus, everything, but I really like how he’s both, 1. a humanly guy with a personality and traits other than being evil and 2. Even worse of a guy than you think!

-Like you know he’s gonna be a bad dude but when you get to the LEVELS, my goodness.

-This was a hard book to get through but I bet it makes a delightful re-read once you know what’s going on. Especially with the elder Lyctors.

-it’s really interesting that all the Lyctors we’ve met so far besides Gideon are against the man they claim to serve (and with Gideon that service is also complex)

-the fact John reacts to Gideon as his “daughter” and not “plot to destroy me” is kind of fascinating. Cus Gideon is essentially a plot to destroy him but he claims her as his, anyway. And i don’t think that’s a good thing (he’s gonna want to control her), but I’m curious why the logic went that way.

-Ianthe you big bitch (affectionate)

[lemon-natalia]

Nona the Ninth Reaction - Chapter 28

‘golden eyes like a dead animal’s’ you are sick and twisted Tamsyn Muir, sick and twisted (affectionate). also that is an interesting description of Kiriona's eyes. of course part of it is that she is quite literally in a dead body, but these are also the eyes that John got after he gained his necromantic powers

ohhhh my god. i don’t think my heart can take Kiriona asking after Harrow. she gave up her life for her, did the best she could to take care of Harrow’s body, and now she doesn’t even know if Harrow’s alive or not

oof both Pyrrha and Nona clearly know that she’s Alecto, but Nona really doesn’t want to remember. i wonder how long exactly Pyrrha knew who Nona was, even if she was hoping she was Gideon, i feel like part of her must have suspected since the beginning

hmm i wonder if there’s something significant about Alecto’s name? not in terms of its Doylist meaning i.e. being named after one of the Furies, but in universe. here Nona doesn’t want Pyrrha to say her name because it will make her remember, John (from what i recall) only ever used nicknames like A.L. and Annabel Lee etc. when talking to Harrow, and both he and the other Lyctors had a remarkably strong reaction to Mercy using it at the end of HtN:

'A ripple of ice over the face. A hardening of the mouth. He said quietly, “Don’t call her-” “Alecto! Alecto! Alecto!” repeated Mercy shrilly. The other Lyctors flinched each time she said it, as though it were an aural stab’

oh wow, Alecto’s consciousness (voice?) rising up to speak from Nona is very disturbing. once again, Alecto doesn’t seem like the nicest person. which makes sense i suppose given she is in actuality a Resurrection Beast herself and seemingly very pissed off about the whole ‘killing humanity and putting her in a human form’ thing

‘astonishingly, Pash, helping an extremely feeble and aged person’ i mean good on Pash for helping the elderly, i guess?

it’s gotta be so strange for Palamedes’ mother and the other people in the Sixth to be dealing with the ‘i’m dead and in Naberius Tern’s also dead body’ thing. it can hardly be what they imagined when he and Camilla went off to the First in GtN. speaking of, i do still wonder how everyone’s family members, the Cohort etc. reacted to the news of basically everyone dying after going off to try and be Lyctors

‘Palamedes was acting as though he were a tiny at show-and-tell’ is that not how Palamedes always acts about everything

Pyrrha Dve queen of ill-advised romantic relationships. poor her, she’s lost basically everyone she cared about before (G1deon, Wake, and now Pal and Cam, Nona is dying) now as a result of Lyctorhood to some degree

oh why does everything they’re saying here feel like a goddamn funeral, i categorically don’t like this

'something white and grey and powdery [...] Camilla [...] - to Nona's horror - ate it' i’m assuming that’s Palamedes’ skull goop making a reappearance. ew

ohhh wow this is a lot worse than i thought it was going to be, they’ve actually just straight up merged themselves into a single person. i suspected the whole Camilla-and-Palamedes thing was going to come back but not like this. it’s not like they had a lot of choices, and i mean i guess it’s better on an emotional level than one of them dying and the other having to live with it, but still, yikes

wdym i am categorically not crying about the fact that Kiriona is apparently totally disinterested in this whole situation, but her first instinct is still to want to hand over her jacket to … Cam/Pal. (Pam?)

listen i get what Palamedes is trying to do here, encouraging Ianthe to accept Lyctorhood as a mutual loss & rebirth rather than a sole sacrifice of the cavalier, but quite frankly i think poor Naberius would like being merged into a single person with Ianthe even less than being murdered

[griseldagimpel]

Speaking of The Locked Tomb interpretations, my takeaway from Nona the Ninth was that all the instances of Kiriona seeming like a corpse were Kiriona's doing, rather than something Ianthe had done to her.

My reasoning for this: when she sees Nona mocked up as Harrow, she looks like she wants to be kissed. If Kiriona was actually "turned off" in that scene, she wouldn't have reacted to [seemingly] Harrow coming to her.

And also because Kiriona is on a secret mission that Ianthe doesn't know about and objects to. John giving Ianthe the power to turn Kiriona off would interfere with Kiriona's ability to do that mission. In fact, note that at the end of Nona the Ninth when Ianthe is trying to stop the Tomb from being opened, she doesn't just turn Kiriona off.

[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