Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

47 reviews

literarybitch's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.5

We love a gentleman bastard, a dashing rogue doing heists and dodging the law! That said, this goes to some very dark places, so fair warning: it starts out with a guy selling orphans, that's a rough place to begin.
I enjoyed myself throughout this one and I have no major complaints. The various nobles' names were hard to tell apart when they were all together in the thick of it, but I was so far in that I decided not to care and it didn't diminish my overall understanding.

Comparisons between this and The Thousand Deaths of Ardor Benn are obvious: they're both quite lengthy, vaguely Rennaissance-era fantasy heists starring a clever antihero and his bestie(s). Between the two, I find Ardor Benn much more fun so if you only have room in your life for one, I recommend that one. But if you don't mind the darker and sadder tones of this One Last Job gone sideways and can't get enough debonair con men, this gets the job done.

7.5/10
#WhatsKenyaReading

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Child death and Death

Minor: Slavery and Death of parent

davonysus's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Cursing, Murder, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Body shaming, Vomit, and Fatphobia

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Cursing, Excrement, Death of parent, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Drug use, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, and War

mooka's review against another edition

Unfinding multiple members of the found family is an act I can not forgive

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Death, Violence, Death of parent, and Child abuse

luise96's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Murder, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Death of parent

kiwij96's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

It took a moment for me to get used to the structure of the book: chapters written in parts with an interlude at the end of each chapter which is like a flashback. Once I got used to this stule of stroytelling, it became easier to engage with, however, there were times when the story was engaging and I couldn't put it down for like 100-150 pages, and other times where I struggled to get to the next part. It also felt like some of the paragraphs had been very heavily attacked by a thesaurus which meant I had to reread sections just to understand what was going on.

Criticisms aside, the story was full of twists and turns and more deaths that a season of Grey's Anatomy. The worldbuilding was full of description and even had its own calendar system. The characters were fantastically written, both good and bad characters. They brought me joy, anger, and heartbreak at times. Locke is an interesting character to me because as someone who is supposed to be the brains of the operation, he sure does make a whole bunch of mistakes and then continues acting like he is the cleverest being known to man.

I am unsure if I will continue the trilogy as this one felt like it could be a standalone, but we shall see.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Blood, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, and Vomit

Minor: Classism and Animal death

ijustreallyliketrees's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, and Torture

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Vomit, Death of parent, Excrement, and Cancer

kazzerdam's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Body horror, Death, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Minor: Death of parent

dragonaion's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is brilliant, a wild ride, and I was delightfully surprised. I thought this would be a story of a petty thief who would get caught and end up escaping in a new Robin Hood retelling. What I got was something completely in a world of its own that has almost made me cry repeatedly. What can only be described as "grunge fantasy" (high fantasy 1,000 years post societal collapse in the slums of New York) this has more heart, love, and sheer brilliance than almost any other book I've read to date. Every moment, every interlude, weaves together in such a way that turns this from a story into art, following a batch of characters that are relatable, lovable, and wears no plot armor. I cannot gush more about how amazing and unique this book is- if you have fond memories of the concept of the brotherhood in Theives, this is just the story for you.
"Liar... Liar... Liar... Bastard!"

Edit: I've found another book that is a sibling-story to this. If you enjoyed The Lies of Locke Lamora, you will absolutely feel right at home with Nevernight by Jay Kristoff. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Blood

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Torture, Violence, Sexual content, and Gore

Minor: Gore, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Bullying, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Medical content, Slavery, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Alcohol, and Medical trauma

This is intended for adult readers, starting at the end of an epidemic sparing only children, contains sexual content, violence, gore, animal cruelty, graphic animal death (only at one point), and mentions slavery all in a realistic lense.

gremlin_with_a_biscuit's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Violence

Minor: Drug use, Death, Fatphobia, Death of parent, and Body shaming

madamenovelist's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Xenophobia, Torture, Misogyny, Cursing, Medical trauma, Fatphobia, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Ableism, Abandonment, Blood, Sexism, Slavery, Death of parent, Confinement, Classism, Child death, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Sexual content, Police brutality, Gore, Grief, Excrement, Death, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail