8,5/10 - 4,25/5 Do you know that meme where people in literature make deep analysis of why the author made the curtains blue and then the author says they just made them blue for no reason? And this sparked a discussion about whether the curtains are really just blue or not? Yeah, this is the kind of book (series) where you go: “WHY THE FUCK ARE THE CURTAINS BLUE!??!?” I kept analyzing every little sentence because every little detail could actually mean something extremely important. I feel like I’m going crazy. Especially since the book made me so unsure of whether *I* was going insane and totally delulu about my theories I came up with. The book was different from Gideon, while in some ways similar. It also took forever for the plot to start going, even more than in Gideon, I’d say that only at 50 % the plot was consistently moving forward. Before it had been a lot of exposition and some small conflicts that were quickly resolved. This doesn’t mean that I wasn’t having a good time, I understand that all the foreplay was important to put all the puzzle pieces on the board so they could be arranged later on. Still, it did take a bit to hook me plot wise. The mystery was also done in a different way than in Gideon. While Gideon was more or less a whodunit with some additional mystery, this one was more about the grand scheme of things and getting to understand wtf was going on. The mastery of the book lies in its writing. The way Tamsyn plays around with narrative and writing devices is just *chefs kiss*. You notice while reading already but when it finally all comes together it’s just absolutely delightful. <spoiler> This series seems to be feeding my delusions because my insane theories end up being right. Yeah I was so convinced Gideon was alive that I had a multiple hour long discussion with a friend trying to convince them I wasn’t insane. Recap: You open this book and in the dramatis personae where Gideon’s name is supposed to be there’s rubbish?? While Harrow is miserable she doesn’t mention Gideon at all, which is already weird, but then the mf John starts talking about ORTUS. Nobody seems to recall Gideon at all, Then comes along the second person perspective (and guys I immediately clocked that it was Gideon and I spent the entire book waiting for “you” to become “I” and the moment it happened was the best thing ever) and sometimes the narrator makes comments outside of just describing what is happening Ianthe and Harrow have a deal of sorts and Ianthe sometimes mentions SOMETHING that she isn’t allowed to talk about A NEW ORTUS APPEARS (and harrow faints) and tries killing Harrow all the time There’s a perspective which retells the first book but now Gideon isn’t there, all the characters are dying in the wrong order aka people who didn’t die at all are dying but suddenly og Ortus slips up and says SHE when talking about a cavalier (I hope that wasn’t just the translation) CAMILLA appears out of the fucking blue and Palamedes too who is the first person who actually acnowledges Gideon’s existence THE second person perspective makes a self aware comment, barely confirming its gideon It was just delicious trying to put together all the puzzle pieces and while yeah I guessed that Harrow erased her memories (although the book was slowly gaslighting me into believing it was all wrong) I didn’t guess she actually gave herself a LO)BOTOMY. And her realizing new ortus was actually called gideon was sooo good (guys I clocked that on like the second page in Gideon, I guessed her name wasn’t “hers” but someone elses the mother was calling). The way Tamsyn played around with the writing as a story device was immaculate. E.g. the chapter where Harrow plants false memories and Abigail suddenly interrupts it. Another thing that made me go crazy was guessing Gideon’s parentage. In Gideon I guessed she had to be “special” because of her incredible recovery speed + her name on a scrap of paper, which we now know was gideon 1. So when the commandant was mentioned for the first time I immediately guessed she was the mother (being pushed out of the airship in a life suit…) and then I spent the entire book believing Gideon 1 was the father, concocted a full theory of him trying to save the commandant because of the baby, him having red hair like Gideon, him wanting to kill Harrow out of revenge, etc etc. BUT IT WAS GOD?!?! Shit is hitting the fan, Gideon in Harrows body (literally crying, Gideon I missed you), God kills Mercy and is fighting Augustine and then you the reader are ripped out of the book, not knowing whether Gideon survived and with a super cryptic scene of Harrow climbing into the girl’s tomb and an epilogue follows with an unkown person and Camilla. </spoiler> Needless to say, I had to pick up Nona minutes after finishing this one. I quite enjoyed Harrow as a protagonist. As much as I love Gideon, I think Harrow's personality is more closely aligned to mine, so it’s easier to get immersed in her perspective. I also found her very intriguing and surprisingly funny. Genuinly, this book was very funny. <spoiler> When Harrow made the soup for the group and only put in vegetables Ortus/Gideon didn’t like I was already cackling but when she revealed she put in BONE MARROW and made it explode I had to laugh for a straight minute </spoiler> John is a difficult one, don’t want to say too much <spoiler> I was side eyeing that mf since the beginning, I always thought he lied about his cavalier being dead. And him not protecting Harrow from Gideon 1 was massive asshole behavior. But then he also said he wished Harrow was his daughter and is generally so nice to her?? I still believe he’s an ass after finishing the book, but while reading sometimes I wavered. But after finding out he manipulated his friends into killing their soulmates to serve and killing Mercy and Augustine he can just walk back into the trash can he walked out of. </spoiler> Ianthe was terrible but also funny. In a way I’ve come to enjoy her a lot. Augustine and Mercy are fun and interesting, but idc about them. Overall a great book. It’s weird how it took forever to pick up and stil I end up absolutely obsessed with it. Top tier writing.