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thewhitefluffyhat · 2 years

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Concluding Thoughts

Nona the Ninth liveblog complete! …Which also means I can’t put off writing my usual review-like thoughts post any longer.

And so: in the end, what did I think of this book?

Well. I’d say my personal ranking of the series goes something like HtN > GtN > NtN. But that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy Nona!

Things I Liked

-Once again, Muir’s unique writing style is a highlight in and of itself - a wonderful blend of humor and horror that enhances both modes. As evident in the liveblog, I found this book just as much an engaging page-turner as the previous two. I was able to put it down, but only just barely, and only because I didn’t want the quality of my notes to suffer toward the end!

-While in hindsight I’d argue GtN’s strength was in its tighter plot and HtN’s in its ambitious structural experiments, NtN’s strength was in its worldbuilding. I’m hardly the first to make this observation, but the combination of Nona’s shameless love of life as a narrator as well as the more reality-adjacent setting of a non-Empire planet led to a book that feels tonally very different from the previous entries. In a series about death, Nona is a fascinating burst of life between the cracks. It’s jarring in many ways, but not wholly unwelcome.

-My favorite new addition to the cast was probably Hot Sauce. I was impressed with how well the narrative built her up as a figure to be respected (even in spite of her name)! And in the end, she really seems deserving of that respect. Kid’s barely hit double digits and she had the guts to try to attack the most powerful zombie in the universe! And even more importantly, the maturity to accept Nona anyway despite her suffering at the hands of the Nine Houses. I’m not sure I’d want Hot Sauce to make any future appearances (her plot ended on a nicely conclusive note), but I suspect her actions will have echoes even if she isn’t physically present to shape events.

-I’ll also call out the writing of the child characters in general. They reminded me - in a very good way - of how children are portrayed in the Discworld series. They felt realistic rather than pwecious, simpler in their concerns but not in a way that implied they’re stupid. And they managed to actually hold my attention, which is no mean feat given that I am very much not a kids person.

-My favorite of the returning cast was… ooh, this is a toughie. Pal and Cam were great as always, as were Gideon and Harrow in their brief appearances. However, in terms of the character I most enjoyed here, I think I have to give the crown to Ianthe! Really, she’s been on a roll ever since that ridiculous villain speech she gave near the end of GtN. I fully expected her to keep getting worse, and I was not disappointed. Her genre-savviness continues to be a delight, and the reveal that she’d somehow managed to become BFFs with Gideon might be my favorite moment in the book! Friendship bracelets and secret handshakes. My god.

-Speaking of God, and the subject of characters being entertainingly terrible: I thought the John backstory came together surprisingly well! An extended flashback to the modern world (or as close as this series will get to it) narrated in a rambling, self-justifying monologue doesn’t seem like it should work, but here it does. Despite the initial premise being absolutely stock - the environmental catastrophe, the uber-wealthy choosing to damn humanity so they could save their own skins, the looming threat of thermonuclear war - the addition of John’s burgeoning necromancy and the morbid hilarity of him acting like he just ~accidentally~ fell into founding a cult, you know, as you do - kept events fresh and interesting enough that I was never bored and never quite sure where this bizarre story was ultimately going until it ended.

And what an end! John Gaius is as awful as he is eerily believable.

Mixed Feelings

I feel really bad saying this, but I thought Nona as a character was… fine. Just fine. Despite the hype (or perhaps because of too much hype?), I didn’t especially love her. (I’m sorry!)

I guess I felt the same about her as I did with Isaac and Jeannemary. She’s a sweet kid who 100% deserved better. And I wasn’t particularly annoyed by the blindfold of naivete she placed over the story. Indeed, I thought her sincerity, confidence, and amusing quirks made her a very endearing narrator to read. And I thought the story-wide challenge of picking out the places where Alecto shone through her, or where I had to rely on my past knowledge of the series to understand what was going on made the book more fun and immersive rather than less.

But at the end of the day, Nona was blatantly around just to die tragically, and… I just didn’t really get attached. I wasn’t even especially sad when she died, the moment got kind of lost amid all the other zillion important things happening around her. And as much as I enjoyed the active analysis required to parse Nona’s narration, I suspect it may have had a subtle effect that made me engage with Nona as less of a person and more of a puzzle to dissect and solve.

(Would I have been more sympathetic to Nona if I’d been seeing her from an outside perspective? I can wonder, but I’ll never know.)

Also, I can guess at why Nona exists from a thematic/structural perspective - to endear the reader to Alecto while having Alecto experience love/forgiveness/death which will almost certainly be relevant later. But in-universe, the mechanics of Nona’s existence are utterly opaque, which doesn’t do her any favors in the emotional impact department. How and why did Alecto lose her memories in becoming Nona? Why does Alecto lack Nona’s memories and experiences when returning to being Alecto? These are the driving reasons behind Nona’s tragedy being a tragedy, and yet, even after finishing the book, I didn’t understand them. And it’s difficult to be affected by a tragedy that can’t even be clearly explained.

Like Nona, I also didn’t have any strong feelings either way about Paul. (I mean, aside from being thrilled to have more nonbinary representation in TLT, from that angle they’re awesome!) They seem cool and very competent. They’re a touching end to Cam and Pal’s characters. But they barely had any time to show off what makes their personality unique because the second they arrive, the plot kicks into high gear. I suspect Paul will probably grow on me once we see more of them in Alecto, but for now, I don’t really know what to make of them, if that makes sense?

I’ll be curious to see how they get used in fanfics. And that actually goes for Nona too! The circumstances that allow both characters to exist seem like they’d be hard to plug into the Modern/College AUs that are extremely popular in this fandom. They also don’t have one obvious pairing that springs to mind - you could argue for a lot of different ships, especially for Nona. As a result, I can’t see either of them making much of a dent compared to the oodles of Gideon and Harrow fics, but who knows?

Things I Didn’t Like

I’m almost tempted to leave this review wholly positive, just lop off this section and leave the top two. But that feels dishonest. The truth is that while I greatly enjoyed NtN in the moment-to-moment of my read, the more I think about it afterwards, the more I find aspects that give me pause.

-I mentioned in my Day Four comments that NtN feels in many ways like a retread of HtN’s structure. Except in NtN, the extra voice in Nona’s head is just another part of her, and the dream sections really do take place nonlinearly with no(?) relation to Nona’s unconsciousness. “What if the previous novel, but the twists are red herrings that go nowhere?” seems like an idea that probably looked great on paper, but it didn’t make for very compelling reveals in practice. It just invited comparisons to some of HtN’s standout moments, which can sometimes work, but here it only made me remember that I liked HtN more.

-GtN and HtN are very intimate stories of Gideon and Harrow’s relationship with a space war going on in the background. Nona is a story about a space war, with Gideon and Harrow’s relationship and even character development pushed to the background. This was something I fully expected, but in execution it was more disappointing than I had braced myself for nonetheless.

In particular, the tease in the Epilogue - Gideon and Harrow are both in the same room and then Harrow gets teleported out before they can even acknowledge each others’ presence - is edging right up against the specter of tedium. I’m used to initially convoluted narratives and slow burns that eventually do pay off in the long run. But for those already frustrated by the leads’ total separation in HtN, having to wade through another 500 pages of essentially the same thing only to end on another “better luck next time! ;P” …probably wasn’t very funny. It makes the series overall just a smidgeon more difficult to recommend without caveats.

-Compounding with the above “this was certainly A Choice, but I’m not convinced it was a good one,” NtN’s ending was… not an ending. There’s cliffhangers, and then there’s a lack of closure for basically anything or anyone. We don’t even get the ramifications of Nona being Alecto! Or Nona fully understanding what is happening to her! It felt like the book just abruptly stopped when the narrative finally felt like it was progressing after so long in stasis.

Obviously, a large reason for that can be chalked up to NtN’s origins as the first act of Alecto the Ninth, but it’s not a very encouraging pattern. In hindsight, I’d really only consider GtN to have a satisfying ending, one that genuinely feels like the conclusion of a character and plot arc (even if it is a wholly tragic conclusion). After that, I was willing to take HtN’s ambiguous, symbolism-overdosed ending on faith. But NtN repeating the same issue? That makes me just a little bit worried.

-Much like some of the other series I discussed on this blog, TLT demands more trust than usual from the reader given the loaded tropes and grueling events it plays with. And when that trust is deserved and the themes and the plot and the character arcs all tie themselves off with a bow, the result can be incredible. But sometimes that trust isn’t deserved. Sometimes the author just keeps writing emotional and narrative checks that their conclusion can’t cash. And as fans, we will follow them right up to the brink… only to realize too late that the story has fallen apart, and that the catharsis or satisfaction or even resolution that we all craved is nowhere to be found.

Whether the Locked Tomb series can end on a strong note was always going to make or break it, but after Nona, the series looks to be resting on Alecto (the Ninth)’s shoulders more than ever before.

Conclusion²

TL;DR: Nona the Ninth is a very good book, and one I’m very glad to have read. It has some delightful moments from both new and old characters alike. However, in my opinion, it doesn’t come together quite as neatly or pack quite the same emotional punch as the previous books in the series.

GtN left me intrigued. HtN left me inspired. NtN leaves me… indecisive. Do I trust this author and this series, or do I not?

#the locked tomb #nona the ninth #ntn spoilers #tlt analysis #my ramblings #my tlt stuff #read more #thoughts on ntn #anyway now to catch up on two weeks' worth of fandom analysis!#or just go read a bunch of fanfics #where everyone is alive and not suffering #...okay yeah after nona I think I'm in the mood for the latter first

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btsinspirationtakesme · 7 years

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Fall Forward (Intern Series 2)

Summary: The shy but determined intern at BigHit catches Taehyung’s eye.

Genre: RomCom angst.

Part 1

The next morning you decided to make it up to Taehyung, who you hoped hadn’t suffered any physical injuries from the screaming girl. You noted how Ms. Ryeri said he like sugary iced coffee, so popped into Starbucks on your way to work to get him his favourite special.

“You know how much sugar is in this, that’s not gonna be good for your waist line.” The barista said after you paid for the order.

“Thanks for your concern.” You muttered, not quite giving a shit about why it concerned the frat dweeb serving coffee.

“Here you go.” He said after a while of your fiddling on your phone trying to look busy waiting for your order.

You shot him a look, and sipped the drink in defiance.

How could Taehyung drink coffee so sweet, your scowled as the syrupy taste and sugar reached your mouth.

You made your way to BigHit ready for another day of work, clocking in your personal access code like every other day and shivering slightly at the air con that was always too cold.

You checked the ipad again for Taehyung’s schedule, he was supposed to be at one of the recording rooms in twenty minutes on floor two. Having more time, you decided to get there early so maybe you could prep your apology in advance. You tried to memorise his schedule once you had settled down again, and gave yourself a mental pep talk not to freeze up like you did yesterday, or spew stuff you didn’t want to say. You could do this. You could do this. You kept prepping yourself. You were a little shy, that was all. He didn’t need to see that.

The door creaked open.

Oh god, you didn’t want to see his beautiful face.

“Hi.” He said, smiling. He was too good. You expected a burst of outrage, but he gave a polite smile.

You couldn’t erase the look of worry on your face.

“Don’t you speak?” He laughed.

You nodded furiously.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left you there. It’s just that the girl screams, like she yells the house down and I was mortified i bumped into you!” So much for spewing stuff out.

Taehyung took a seat right opposite you, that smile still edged on his face.

“Do you always get this nervous?” He asked.

Your eyes widened and you felt the tips of your ears burn.

“No.”

You sipped the ice cold sugary concoction in front you.

“Oh shit! This is for you.” You pushed the beverage in his direction.

Oh shit, he wouldn’t drink that would he? You had already taken a sip, not once but twice.

“Ah, it’s yours.” He said, as if it was the most obvious thing ever.

“No, I got it for you but here’s the thing. This dweeb, actual frat boy dweeb at Starbucks was all like ‘you better watch your waist line drinking that’ and I got annoyed so I had a sip in front of him to piss him off, so I hope you don’t mind. It was all in the interests of annihilating frat boy dweeb smiles.”

Your cheeks were burning. Where was your verbal filter, you were supposed to have one like every other sane human.

You really weren’t sane, not around this guy clearly.

Taehyung didn’t say anything, but simply smiled and took a sip. The sound of his sipping nerved you.

“Mmmm, I also taste cherry.’

You licked your lips instinctively. You were wearing cherry gloss that probably transferred onto the straw.

Kill me now. You begged from above.

Your cheeks were probably on fire, they’d have to call the fire brigade.

“I’m so sorry.” You squeaked. This was going to haunt you for the rest of your life.

“Don’t be, I love cherry.” He winked, finishing the drink in what seemed like one gulp. That was a lot of sugar down in one go. Your cheeks felt like they were swelling, your were close to hyp-

“Ahhh…time for work.” He said casually streching his arms getting up.

“Hyungs are getting here a little later, which is why I’m going to be doing a bit of recording for some songs myself.” He said, getting up and stretching his arms.

“I-is there anything I can get you?” You asked, trying to press down the red on your cheeks.

“Just stay by my side at all times, that crazy intern might come back.” He said seriously. That reminded you of your biggest task that you were preparing yourself for, the apology.

“Uh, I’m sorry for leaving you like that. She just…pounced.” You blurted.

“It’s okay. I heard you called security, it was the right thing to do.” He said.

“I promise it won’t happen again.” You said trying to re-assure him he wouldn’t have to be worried.

“I don’t expect it will, unless you’re hiding something.” He joked.

You followed his instructions diligently, making sure to follow his every step from room to room. You observed how he worked, often sporadically. It was interesting, Taehyung was very dutiful which threw you off. You expected him to be forgetting things, making mistakes but on his own he was really a professional. He had all his lyrics ready, made amendments to them, the complete opposite of his camera personality.

His workflow was pretty impressive.

“Ah, took you guys long enough!” Taehyung joked, as the door opened to reveal the rest of BTS.

“Ahh, there’s so much traffic downtown we literally couldn’t move.” Yoongi, dressed in slacks and a cap said as he took a seat near the studio.

They all gave you polite smiles and hellos on recognising you were in the room and you reciprocated. Strange, you were perfectly normal if not your usual shy self with the others.

Taehyung threw you off.

You continued to work pretty comfortably for the rest of the morning, avoiding having to speak to Taehyung and it was only after 4 where his next activity would be without his members.

“You have a script reading.” You muttered, trying to get his attention away as he conversed with Jimin.

“See you guys at home. Don’t wait up for me.” Taehyung said pushing his chair back and walking ahead of you. You followed him out of the room and towards the elevator.

Floor 12. That was an awfully long elevator ride.

“So, what do you do…apart from interning?” He asked, making conversation. You were both at opposite ends of the elevator, more of your decision than his.

“I’m an English major.” You replied.

“Smart. Namjoon hyung would love to ask you about some of the books he picked up from this english book store.” Taehyung was really social, you wanted to ask him more but figured you would probably say something you’d regret.

You simply smiled.

Floor 12 really needed to hurry up.

“That’s weird.” You muttered, it shouldn’t take a minute to get to floor 12. It was far, but it wasn’t that far.

“Everything okay?” Taehyung asked.

Your furrowed your eyebrows. “Yeah, it’s just…” You moved towards where Taehyung was, which was behind the buttons on the elevator.

You were about to press the buttons again, but a sudden jolt of the elevator sent you right into Taehyung’s body and the floor suddenly started shaking. You gripped whatever you could to steady yourself, resting on something that felt like…fabric and hardening fabric?

Weird.

“Ow!” Taehyung yelled, and you shot your head towards him. His hands had gripped your shoulders steadying himself but that still didn’t erase the look of pain on his face.

“What is it, are you okay?” You asked, panicked.

“Fine…” He said slowly, face contorted in pain.

“Your hand’s squeezing my dick.”

You gasped, realising what your hand was gripping onto. You looked down, seeing the evidence for yourself and found your hand was so tighty gripped on it, your knuckles had a difficult time flexing to remove your hand.

“Ouch.”You said removing your hand.

If anyone, Taehyung was the one in pain.

Once again, mortification washed over you. No, screw that. Mortification was a light word for this situation. You didn’t deserve to be moritified. You needed help, the reason why was taken out from your mind before you even thought of it.

“How the hell did you manage to grab my dick when anyone else would have grabbed my arm?” Taehyung asked, eyes wide in shock as he looked at you.

“Are you one of those girls, the ones that are all coy until they find a guy alone?” He pressed further.

You slowly backed away.

“No, no running this time.” Taehyung blocked your path.

“It…was just…I mean it was just there and really hard like a handle pointing out.”

Verbal filters did not exist when it came to Kim Taehyung. Your reply was met with more incredulity from him, and a freaked out ‘hey!’ was what Taehyung could manage. His eyes widened in shock, he put his hands on his hips as he tried to contain his shock and anger.

You’d be offended too, if your PA just told you your dick was hard in an elevator pointing towards you.

-End of Part 2-

#bts reactions #taehyung #taehyung fic #bts scenarios #kim taehyung #jungkook #yoongi #jimin #hoseok #namjoon #bts fic

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