Pondering the fact that Harrow spent her life looking after a corpse that she loved, and was willing to do that forever to see if she would ever wake up.
Pondering the fact that her biggest act of devotion to Gideon was preserving her in a corner of her mind she couldn’t access, and was willing to live like that forever just to keep her somehow.
Pondering how to Magnus, her plan to keep Gideon is seen as somewhat selfish and childish.
Pondering how to Harrow, a tombkeeper, making her own body a mausoleum is probably the closest thing she could ever think of to a monumental act of love.
as a lesbian who didn’t realize my sexuality until i was 17 and didn’t even start accepting it until i was 19, reading tlt has been so extraordinarily healing for me. i spent years experiencing deep shame over my attraction to women,
especially sexual attraction, so it was revolutionary to be put inside the head of gideon nav, who has never, not for one day, been ashamed of the way she wants other women. it made me realize that i had never, ever seen a protagonist quite like this, especially one who is not punished by the narrative for her sexuality in the slightest. the books are extremely well written and deserve every bit of emotional investment, but i can’t help but wonder if the reason why so many of us reacted so strongly to gideon and harrow’s story is because we’ve never quite read a series that is so fervently about us. it’s a world where there never had to be shame in the first place, and where someone like me can be the protagonist of the tragic love story without changing a single thing about herself. it’s making me tear up just writing this, because fuck.
there’s nothing wrong with me. there’s nothing wrong with us.
