im going to long post here about tlt because almost no one is going to see it here and i am mad about people being wrong on reddit and too old to voluntarily fandom post on tumblr
ok I specifically came back here after I finished Nona. I finished Nona. let's rap
I agree with basically everything here; the thought that John might be (literally as well as figuratively) grooming Harrow had not occurred to me but it completely fits, in a weird way - they make a lot of hay in the book about John being a cult leader, and if there's anything that cult leaders tend to be known for, it's "grooming young women"
I should really put a few more unrelated paragraphs between that first one and this, though, because despite that I still think he's like... my favorite character by a mile. he's awful and does objectively bad things for terrible reasons, but Harrow's worshipful love for him is genuinely infectious.
anyone who says that John is lying in those segments of the book has never been through a breakup. it feels exactly like "the stories that you tell someone unrelated about a breakup that are basically true, but also omit details here and there that make you look worse, because those details aren't important, but also because those details make me look worse"
re: ianthe (my beloved) honestly I think ianthe is way more, like... trustworthy, in a way, than coronabeth. the latter is unpredictable because she has a chip on her shoulder and a feeling like she has to prove something, and even now I'm not sure how much I believe her "dear sister" stuff. I think we spent enough time in HtN with ianthe to understand her; I definitely don't feel the same way about Crown
I love Paul but palamedes is one of those characters that I just fell in love with from the word "go" and I miss him terribly.
good book. the more I think about it the more I like it tbh