Nona the Ninth, the third book in this series, was just released and it was amazing. It's kind of hard to describe this series since each book is much different than the last, and any notes about books 2 and 3 will horribly spoil book 1, but it's mainly about space necromancers and their sworn swords(wo)men. Many of them are lesbians, and in general the series is very queer. It's got silly lighthearted jokes, romance, and also people getting horribly murdered. There are spooky skeletons and flesh monstrosities, soul transference and body swapping, and in general just a lot of cool and weird shit. Gideon and Harrowhark are the main characters and are both delightful, but there are tons of interesting side characters too. Also, just look at this fucking cover. Skeleton face paint and aviator sunglasses, bones flying everywhere, just delightful:

Thanks for the rec! Sounds fun and interesting. I just saw the first book is free to read with Amazon Prime so I'll give it a look!

I don't mind grim and gore too much, but does it lean heavily into the horror...? I could barely even get through Otherside Picnic sometimes...

First book was amazing but i am struggling a little in the second since Gideon seems to be gone?. I know i should just stick with it.

edit: Don't click on the spoiler box till finishing the first book.

last edited at Sep 22, 2022 7:52PM

I don't mind grim and gore too much, but does it lean heavily into the horror...? I could barely even get through Otherside Picnic sometimes...

I wouldn't say so (though, admittedly, I absolutely love the horror aspects of Otherside Picnic). I think it leans more towards suspense and gore than it does to horror. I actually had trouble reading some of the more graphic parts... And not even because it grossed me out, I just literally didn't understand what I was reading lol. The author just loved throwing in descriptions of specific muscles/body parts that I'm not entirely sure I'd recognise the names of, even if English was my first language. At some point I just gave up and imagined whatever I wanted XD

Anyway, it's an interesting series, not really what I'd usually read (as a genre), but I quite liked it even so. This actually reminded me that I haven't yet got around to reading the 3rd book, I should definitely do so soon.

(Also, good call on —I'm assuming— covering up that part on the previous post.)

I put a warning there now, just in case....

First book was amazing but i am struggling a little in the second since Gideon seems to be gone?. I know i should just stick with it.

edit: Don't click on the spoiler box till finishing the first book.

I won't spoil anything, I'll just say I felt the same way when I started the second book, but I came to really enjoy the direction the author took the story, and ended up liking the second one even better than the first.

I don't mind grim and gore too much, but does it lean heavily into the horror...? I could barely even get through Otherside Picnic sometimes...

It's almost more horror-themed than actually horrifying, it never scared me but it did occasionally make me cry a little (I laughed much more often though). There's some tension, and a lot of gore, but it's nothing like some of the books I've read that made it hard for me to sleep afterwards. I've not watched or read Otherside Picnic, so I can't really compare it.