Harrow chose not to go to her body because she KNEW Gideon was in her body currently and this would displace her, leading to Gideon’s consumption and making all she’s done to keep Gideon alive for naught. I doubt this mainly cuz as above I don’t think Muir would kill off Gideon like this and if it were Alecto then where’s Gideon? I suppose it COULD be a triple-soul bodysharing and/or merging situation though. The last possibility is that it could be Alecto in Harrow’s body there is that vision, and the necromancy(and given Alecto’s ease navigating The River, I’m assuming she’s Necromantic).

There IS the implication that the person can do Necromancy, which points in that direction, but the above, combined with my reading of Harrow’s situation, makes me doubt this outcome. More practically tho Chapter 52 brings up the concept in discussing “ life flashing before your eyes” and dismisses it. To begin with the treatment here isn’t nearly commiserate to that particular development, and I trust that if Muir went in that direction, she’d do it justice(I mean: Look at Harrow the Ninth it’s all ABOUT doing justice to characters and premises). It could also be a merger of Gideon and Harrow’s souls, but I don’t think that’s the case. Also as I’ve written before(and wrote after reading Gideon the Ninth but cant seem to find X| X| X| probably did it on Twitter their search function is CRAP >:( >:() I really don’t see Muir killing Gideon off. Instead, she sees a fading visitation by Alecto(did Alecto perhaps come back to her in those final moments and push her out of The River?), and then Camilla trying to save her life(and apparently succeeding).

“ …if you die by drowning your whole life flashes before your eyes?”Īnd that doesn’t happen for Gideon. I feel like the last bits of Chapter 52 are clear that Gideon didn’t die even if she THINKS she did, if you read between the lines.

I’m pretty sure it’s Gideon, but with amnesia from the trauma of being deep within, and somehow exiting, The River. Camilla(the one who looks after me), Corona(the one who works for me), and Judith(the one who teaches me), are taking care of Harrow’s body and whatever/whichever soul(s) are currently inside it. So we’ve got two bits: we’ve got three people taking care of an invulnerable amnesiac in a conflict-ridden city on a world with a carbon economy, and then we’ve got Harrow in the River. OK this one’s pretty short it’s just a breakdown of how I read the ending.

Alecto nona the ninth