The Locked Tomb is a series that works for some people and doesn’t for others. If you’re in the former category, good news! Nona is a delight. If you’re in the latter category, there’s nothing here that will change your mind.
Confusion and obfuscation is a tricky thing to get right in a book. It’s very easy to confuse readers by throwing in random nonsense, and it’s very easy to keep them completely in the dark. But presenting them with just enough information for them to have a sense of what is going on, and manage to have things snap into order when the key pieces of information are filled in? That’s a challenge, and it’s one that Muir is a master of (as those who have read and appreciated both Gideon and Harrow probably already know). Those two books are both totally different on a re-read, and I expect Nona to be the same.
The tone of Nona is as strikingly different from Harrow as Harrow was from Gideon. It all comes down to the narrators: Gideon Nav is pure braggadocio, cocky as hell and with the biceps and aviator glasses to back it up. Harrowhark Nonagesimus, by the time we get to book 2, is fear, and exhaustion, and trauma, and unhealthy coping mechanisms. Nona? Nona is, somehow, a cynical world-weary optimist. She’s fully aware of what kind of place the world is, but at the same time she finds joy in all of it. She’s “childlike” in the purest sense of the world; she looks to others for guidance and accepts what she’s given, but however harsh things are she still sees the potential in everything. It’s (somehow) very refreshing to read.
The book features a series of interludes from the perspective of the King Undying. For those who have been wondering about the Resurrection and how we got from the world we know to the Nine Houses, there are answers. We also learn how exactly a ‘90s kid became God.
I don’t think I can really comment on the events of the central plot of this book without spoilers, so suffice it to say I have Thoughts and I have Feelings. Lots of both. Looking forward to being confused by Alecto the Ninth when it comes out.
Comments