~~the locked tomb series~~

oml what a series. the locked tomb series followed the fucked up lives of some lesbian necromancers and people with swords. there is mystery and chaos and suspense and a bit of gore and a lot of frustration. you will get attached to characters only to not see them, really see them for hundreds of pages, if at all. and i loved it.

i think that my favorite aspect of this series is the way the author is able to capture the characters and the way they perceive and experience the world perfectly and so distinctly. each of the current three books (one on the way later this year) follows a different character's pov, allowing us to experience their world through different eyes and varied contexts. it is pretty jarring with each book, as you have to adjust completely to a new perspective, often being pulled into a new part of the story while still longing for closure from the last. but it all comes together eventually, for the most part lol. my favorite perspective is definitely gideon's. she is so funny and quick witted and arrogant. she feels incredibly human. BUT i think harrow the ninth was my favorite book. eventually. things had to go to shit for me to get there but it really is truly a good read lmao. and the source of most of my favorite quotes!

i am definitely going to have to reread this series and look forward to that fourth book ^>^.

here's some of my favorite quotes from the series! **spoilers ahead**

gideon the ninth

“she tried to turn gideon’s face up to hers by force, fingers grasping beneath the chin, but gideon promptly bit her” (59)

get her harrow lol
lol when is it my turn D:

“‘i’m not anybody’s son or daughter,’ said gideon firmly, now in no small panic.’” “‘i need you to trust me.’” “‘i need you to be trustworthy.’” (209)

something something nonbinaryism meets estrangement meets an untrusting frustrating love, though maybe i am projecting

“harrow,” said gideon, “if my heart had a dick you would kick it.” (349)

jdkfalfd;w;jgs yeah D:

harrow the ninth

“she was nine, and she’d made a mistake. she was seventeen, and she’d made a mistake. time and repeated itself. harrow would be tripping over herself for her whole existence, a frictionless hoop of totally fucking up.” (54)

ughghhghghhghghgh yeah.

“‘how must we understand potato?’ ‘as your closest vegetable relative,” said harrowhark, who’d never seen one in real life.” (134)
“as i’ve been told tiresomely often, a half-cocked version of something is significantly worse than not being cocked at all” (148)
“you did not examine eat it dripping as you maybe should have done” (165)

“‘and this fog … i guess i might as well die,’ he concluded, something he now suggested hopefully at least three times a day.” (198)
"marrow" (232)

tasty. get em.

"understand i am insane" (292)
"you were an unfilled hole, but even a hole might be content in its emptiness" (300)

okay completely unrelated but can we talk about the comfort of loneliness?! the reliability in that emptiness, the comfort in the absence of someone's arms to embrace you. if nobody got you, loneliness sure does. ughhhgh. it is easy to be alone, longing for something more, someone more. it's a whole hell of a lot more hard to actually hope and try and fail and then find that you made your way back to the place of empty loneliness that you started. even worse that you have not changed AND you find yourself without at the very least the unfounded hope for something more. god, that is depressing.

“harrowhark, i gave you my whole life and you didn’t even want it” (391)

she's just silly like that.

“you could always leave everything else behind, but you never got rid of being so absolutely fucking goddamn sad” (392)

ughghghhgghh

“i am sick of roses, and i am horny for revenge” (417)

i want to enter this era.

“i wanted you to use me, you malign, double-crossing, corpse-obsessed bag of bones, you broken, used-up shithead! i wanted you to live and not die, you imaginary-girlfriend-having asshole! fuck one flesh, one end, harrow. i already gave my flesh to you, and i already gave you my end. i gave you my sword. i gave you myself i did it all while knowing i’d do it all again, without hesitation, because all i ever wanted you to do was eat me./which is, coincidentally, what your mother said to me last night.” (434)
“‘like i said before. she’s just not into you. she’s into bones … she can’t love me, even if i’d wanted her to. she can’t love you. she can’t even try.’” (435)
“i died knowing you’d hate me for dying; but nonagesimus, you hating me always meant more than anyone else in this hot and stupid universe loving me. at least i’d had your full attention.” (436)

AT LEAST I'D HAD YOUR FULL ATTENTION dskla;ghksagh

nona the ninth

i am boobs *and* hair *and* talk *and* a hell of a sword hand. (157)
talk about a word that needed an antihistamine (282)/mark>

i really like the idea that a word would need an antihistamine lol. the word in question was phthinergy btw.
some words really do though ya know?? antihistamines are drugs that target certain histamine receptors in the body, often associated with reducing allergic reactions.
can we be allergic to certain words?

nona couldn't quite believe that they couldn't see all see it; but they weren't watching, goggle-eyed, they hadn't even seemed to notice. it was in kiriona's every movement - the bright, swift flexions of her arms, and the way she swung her legs, big and brash, and the weirdly easy, light grace with which she moved her dead body. nona had never seen anyone so sad in her whole short life. it made her nearly afraid to die. (374)

again, not particularly related lol - it's the infinite sadness that you can't quite put down, that follows you forever, that shadows the joys and dims the lights behind your eyes and reminds you that this won't last. and yet so few, if any can see it. what do you do when you are found out? what do you do when someone sees and honors it all?