Book review by Corey
Nona the Ninth
Nona the Ninth shifts the focus to Nona, a strange, cheerful young woman living on a war-torn planet with Camilla, Palamedes, and Pyrrha. Nona has no real memory of who she was before, but everyone around her seems to know there is something unusual about her, and the mystery of her identity slowly becomes the centre of the story.
The book feels much warmer and more human than Harrow the Ninth, but underneath that lighter surface there is still war, grief, death, and a huge amount of Locked Tomb weirdness. Nona is incredibly easy to care about, and watching the larger mystery slowly connect back to Gideon, Harrow, and the history of the universe makes the emotional payoff much stronger.
The Goods
- Nona is an incredibly lovable main character
- Strong emotional relationships
- Much easier to follow than Harrow the Ninth
- Great mix of humour and sadness
- The larger series mystery keeps expanding
The Bads
- Still confusing in places
- Some answers create even more questions
- The middle can feel slow
- Requires a strong memory of the earlier books
- The ending leaves a lot unresolved
My Recommendation
This is a great choice for readers already invested in the Locked Tomb series who want something more emotional and character-focused after the complexity of Harrow the Ninth. Nona brings a completely different energy to the series, and her relationships with Camilla, Palamedes, and Pyrrha give the book a lot of warmth even while everything around them is falling apart. If you enjoy LGBTQ+ science fantasy with lesbian and sapphic characters, strange identities, found family, and mysteries that keep getting bigger instead of simpler, Nona the Ninth is a very strong third book in the series.