It’s a slow-burn buildup to the realization of their romantic feelings for one another, but the journey is so worth it. I’ve rarely seen a true enemies-to-lovers relationship with lesbian characters, and Tamsyn Muir does it so well! You can feel the enmity and the years of history they share right from their first interaction with each other. The relationship between Gideon and Harrow immediately captured me. The cover’s tagline promises that "lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!" It delivers on every word of that promise. Gideon and Harrow are both mixed Māori, and many of the supporting cast are people of color as well! LGBTQ+ Representation: After this blog post was written, Tamsyn Muir wrote a Tumblr post elaborating on how she imagined the characters while she was writing them.
*Edit: This blog post was posted on the date of Gideon the Ninth's release and was solely based on the physical descriptions of the characters in the Advance Reader Copy of the book. I found his character intriguing, and I will say that Jeannemary was my favorite character after Gideon and Harrow. A white man leeching a POC of their life force was disturbing, but it is at least portrayed as a huge taboo, and Colum gets his comeuppance. The “mayonnaise uncle” is Colum’s uncle, and he is a soul siphoner who quite literally drains Colum’s essence to enhance his own power.
She should be on the cover of the second book in the series, so I suppose we'll see! Given the size of the cast, I was disappointed that it was so white - although I did find the phrase “Why do you have such a baby uncle, one the color of mayonnaise?” hilarious. She has black hair and her naked skin is tinted grey most likely she's white, but she could be fantasy East Asian. Gideon is white*, and Harrow's race is ambiguous, especially given that she is covered in face paint for the vast majority of the book.
Out of 25 characters, only two are explicitly portrayed as people of color – Jeannemary Chatur and Colum Asht.
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