Nona isn’t sure who she is and neither are the people looking after her but everybody is making a plausible guess that she is either Gideon or Harrow. So yes, it is another puzzle box but the puzzle is clearer. Nona also doesn’t know what is going on but the central character is both innocent and curious and not afraid to ask questions. Harrow was paranoid, secretive and actively leading the reader astray so as to hide their own vulnerability. Gideon was a brash, swashbuckling story with a protagonist who was fun to be with but who never really paid attention to the complex puzzle she was entangled with. That’s a shallow criterion for judging a book but part of Muir’s writing genius with the Locked Tomb has been to pitch the style and structure of each volume to the titular character. The big advantage Nona has over Gideon and Harrow is that Nona herself is just a lot more likeable. Which is pretty good for a book that takes both war and Catholic theology seriously. There are some good quips in Gideon the Ninth, and some disorientating pop culture references in Harrow the Ninth but only Nona the Ninth made me laugh out loud multiple times. The third but not final book in the increasingly inaccurately named Locked Tomb Trilogy is also, I believe, to be the most accessible, interesting and funny.
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