The key to me enjoying Nona the Ninth and any of the locked tomb books are audio books. Normally I'd get so confused and frustrated at my confusion. To be fair, I'm accepting that reading Muir is always going to be that way. The Locked Tomb just requires so many brain cells and also each one manages to feel unique, but also connected? Don't even ask me how Muir does it. But the audio book narration always pulls me through. Although it was close with Harrow the Ninth.

But what saved me and pulled me through the confusion - and why I liked it - was the found family dynamics. We can see a found family forming around Nona. It was in the way Nona sees the world, loves the ones around her, knows so much and also so little. Yes there's the mystery around it, but it feels so startingly domestic? And I loved it. I loved seeing the routing of Nona's mornings, who picks her up, and what she eats. She felt like someone you want to protect, but has also no problem protecting herself.

Another great addition to the series. Fun energy and uttering confusing, but entirely worth it. A series that does require reading in order if you have a hope of understanding.

Thought I reviewed this, forgot to review this. Really engaging book, super fun, and excellent characters. Well worth a read!

Nona The Ninth is a wonderful surprise addition to the Locked Tomb series and leaves you yearning for the final chapter to the saga. Nona is a child-like character whose whimsicality and ironic comedy clashes against the serious characters from the rest of the familiar cast. As the story unfolds we also get the circumstances that led to the formation of the Houses and the fight against necromancy from "God"'s POV; an intricate war with more moving parts than we originally believed. While I'd argue this is one of the more confusing books in the series, it is not quite as twisting as Harrow was, and Muir once again does the series justice by wrapping it up incredibly by the end.

Such a great addition to this series. Tamsyn Muir does a great job at answering some questions while layering in more and keeping the reader engaged and fascinated with the world she's built. This book does such a great job at expanding the world and reminding readers why these characters are so fascinating.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for honest feedback. Another great novel in this series, very excited for book 4

I loved the first book, made it through the second book (lots of second-person in that book made it harder for me to read but the mystery and the content were good), and very glad I went for this one too! To anyone reading reviews that pan Nona’s voice, I would say read the sample opening chapters and decide from that. I found Nona lovely, and enjoyed this book possibly more than the first, or as much but in a bit of a different way. To any review that claims the first “half” of the book is not relevant to the second half I disagree entirely. All of it is relevant throughout.

Hmm, I'm not sure this series is for me anymore. I'm finding it harder and harder to engage with the text. I do think that I am in the minority because many others have absolutely loved this series, so I'd definitely recommend it for fans of fantasy and dark humor.

I love Nona I love Camilla and Palamedes I love Kiriona Gaia I love Noodle and I'll never be normal again

I love this series and this book is no exception. Every new installment is so completely different from the last yet retains the story arc. I have no idea where this is going and I love it!

Mind-blowingly great series, this book was maybe a little slower than usual, but so good and interesting overall. The characters in this are so fantastic, and the writing is just deeply unique.

The kind of book you need to read 5 times. Muir has ramped up the "what is happening?" a third time. Her work is exciting and fresh. It's also dense and gripping.

I feel like I'm in a perpetual struggle against Tamsyn Muir's books — trying to figure out which parts of them are meant to be opaque and mysterious, and which parts of them I'm just not grasping. Nona the Ninth was at least more manageable than Harrow the Ninth in that there was a more or less linear story to hang onto, and fewer questions about what was actually real and on what plane of reality any of it was taking place. But Nona is so fundamentally built around the mystery of who its central character is — and once that becomes clearer, what it actually means — that it's very hard to emotionally connect with anything that goes on in this story. Much as with Harrow, I kept having to ask, "Are these characters alive or dead? Does it matter? Is death meaningful in this universe? Is any of what's happening on the page right now meaningful in this universe? What am I meant to be asking here, instead of the questions I am asking?"

I wish I could say that made for a challenging and exciting experience, but instead, it kept bumping me out of the story. With Nona I was at least more able to go along for the ride and try to take events at face value until something changed enough to reveal that I shouldn't. Nona is a difficult character to relate to in some ways, because she's so human until she profoundly isn't, and trying to pick up her many unexplained ins and outs (for instance, around food) raises the difficulty level of the experience. So many aspects of her existence are relatable and even sweet, but the way she's surrounded at all times by adults with mysterious agendas who are deliberately hiding major truths from her is frustrating, and feels like a metaphor for reading this book itself — there's the perpetual feeling that the author is withholding everything we need, and saying it's for our own good, to make a better story. But much like Nona chafes against those restrictions, I did too.

Best yet of the series. The author continues to expand her characters in marvelous new ways! All Nona wants is a birthday party. However, everyone around her is trying to figure out exactly who she is. It kept me guessing throughout the story and I already crave the next book!

I mean this series doesn't disappoint! This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year and it gut punched me. I have been on this roller coaster of a series and I don't want to get off. If you enjoyed the first two books in the series, this one will be no different!

Both a sequel and a prequel, Nona was everything I wanted and more. I absolutely adored Nona as a character and finding out who she was, was shocking and a little devastating. This book was so full of love and found family and I'm so happy we got to see some of our beloved characters from previous books. I've seen a few reviews that felt Nona the Ninth was unnecessary for the series, but I disagree. Seeing who Nona was as a person, who Nona *could* have been is simply going to drive in the knife during whatever events take place in Alecto the Ninth.

Just like previous books, the ending of Nona was action packed and had me gripping my book, desperate to know what was going on. I'm eagerly waiting for Alecto.

This is the third book in Tamsyn Muir's Locked Tomb series. While it has its own uniqueness, this book's style is closer to the first in the series, "Gideon the Ninth." I enjoyed seeing familiar characters (although it takes a bit until their identities are revealed) in this new location. The answered mystery of who Nona actually is left me counting down the days until the fourth book is released.

I’ll be honest, I’m still not 100% what happened at the very end of the book, but the vibes continue to be impeccable! Nona was a wonderful POV character. I can’t believe we have to wait all the way until 2024 to find out what happens next 😭

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2023 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2023/01/2023-reading-list-announced-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

"...The excellent "Nona" brings Muir’s space opera down to not-earth, leaving behind the haunted gothic palaces, space stations and graveyard-dormitory hybrids of the first two novels to explore life in a city far away from the godlike necromancers called Lyctors (and the godlike God named John.)

Nona doesn’t know who she is, both literally and metaphorically, but she’s a quick study — and more importantly, she knows who she loves. She loves the people who care for her (people readers know well, who have secrets to keep and lives to save). She loves her gang (a pack of wild schoolkids with names like Hot Sauce, Beautiful Ruby and Kevin) and her teacher (a one-time veterinarian the kids call the Angel). She loves the dangerous rebel leaders she encounters every so often, even if Commander We Suffer And We Suffer and Lieutenant Our Lady Of The Passion don’t exactly return her affections. (Lieutenant Crown Him With Many Crowns, at least, is firmly Team Nona.) She even loves the menacing blue circle in the sky. And she really, really loves dogs — in particular, Noodle, a six-legged wonder who doesn’t like to wear little booties on his many feet even though the pavement is really hot."