Sam Strives For 55 - Week 20

Here is week 20 of Sam's reading journey, the metrics and first week can be found here

Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb #1) by Tamsyn Muir 

1. Intrigue:
   1. This is a fun Young Adult book that young adults, aka teenagers, should enjoy. I’m not particularly sure how much of the “New Adult” age bracket this book is good for. It might be a risk to get it for a college student just because of how immature the characters are in the book. 
   2. Essentially this is an enemies-to-friends story where you’re supposed to be constantly guessing if the enemies will stay enemies or become friends. There’s plenty of high fantasy, magic, violence, and attempts at cute characterization. Teenagers will love this book, but those who get frustrated with adolescent reasoning might not. 
2. Writing style:
   1. It’s typical YA at a sentence level. There’s a bit too much exposition for my taste, but the characterization of the two most important characters can be clever at times, and the physical description of the violence in the book is phenomenal. But more physical description to ground the scenes would have been nice. 
   2. Juicy quote: 
      1. “I cannot conceive of a universe without you in it.”
3. Flow of storytelling:
   1. Outside of the dynamic between the two main characters, the story drags. For me it was to the point of boredom. However the dynamic between the two main characters is fun enough to push you along to want to hear or read how it ends. 
4. Re-Readability 
   1. I won’t re-read it based off the previous complaints, It’s probably around a 5 or a 6 on the re-readability scale of YA Lit. 
5. TESS
   1. Does not qualify. 

Final rating:   ★★★ = Give it a go. It’s good! It didn’t quite make it into the For Sure Absolutely Read This category, but hey, it’s all subjective. ​

​​J. Sam Williams is an illustrious black-tailed hawk, longing to eat as many vegan mice as possible. In his human form, he is a High School English Teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he lives with his wife, one dog and two cats. A somewhat retired breakdancing teacher, he is now a co-host on the Alohomora Podcast! He has been published on Lunch Ticket, immix: a journal for justice, Mugglenet, and a slew of small sports journalism publications. You can find him on twitter @Jabbernator.