Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Die Lügen des Locke Lamora: Roman by Scott Lynch

83 reviews

vividpenguin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, Vomit, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury

orionmerlin's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

Oh, Lies of Locke Lamora, you chaotic little bastard of a book. You lured me in with promises of a slick, clever heist, and then blindsided me with a full-course meal of torture, maiming, and casual murder. Somewhere between the Ocean’s Eleven vibes and the “let’s remove this guy’s fingers one by one” energy, I had to ask myself: Am I enjoying this? The answer? Mostly.  

📌 Characters - 8/10 

Locke Lamora is an arrogant, overconfident con artist with a talent for thinking on his feet—and a terrible survival instinct. His best friend and right-hand man, Jean Tannen, is the brains and brawn that holds the entire operation together, delivering some of the book’s most satisfying moments (and best beatdowns). Their ride-or-die friendship is easily the strongest relationship in the book. 

But the supporting cast? A mixed bag. The Sanza twins are entertaining but underdeveloped, Bug is mostly there to die tragically, and Capa Barsavi is a textbook example of a man who thinks he's in control when he absolutely isn’t. The Grey King and the Falconer make for decent villains, but their motivations are just functional—they work for the plot, but they don’t feel particularly deep. 

And then there’s the glaring gender imbalance. Nazca Barsavi, the one woman who seems like she’ll play a major role, is killed off before she even gets a chance to be interesting. Vorchenza, the aging spymaster, is a great late-game addition, but she only enters the story near the end. And Sabetha? She’s referenced endlessly as Locke’s biggest regret, but she never appears, making her feel more like a plot device than a person.  

📌 Atmosphere/Setting - 9/10 

Camorr is Venetian fantasy meets brutal crime syndicate, dripping with grime, danger, and Elderglass towers that gleam like ancient relics of a long-dead civilization. The city breathes. From the floating black market of the Night Market to the shark-infested waters where debts are settled, Camorr feels alive in a way that many fantasy settings struggle to achieve. 

That being said, Lynch sometimes falls into the Tolkien trap of describing everything in excruciating detail. The canals? Filthy. The nobles? Ridiculous. The torture? More detailed than it needed to be. At times, I felt like I was reading a guidebook instead of a novel.  

📌 Writing Style - 8/10 

Lynch’s prose is fast, witty, and loaded with personality—when it isn’t getting bogged down by its own indulgence. The dialogue crackles, and the humor genuinely lands, which is impressive given how dark the book gets. 

But the structure? A bit of a mess. The book constantly jumps between Locke’s past (flashbacks with Father Chains and the early days of the Gentleman Bastards) and the present-day heist. Sometimes, this adds depth. Other times, it kills momentum right when things get interesting. 

Also, every single plan Locke makes goes off without a hitch… until it suddenly explodes in the most catastrophic way possible. There’s no in-between.  

📌 Plot - 7/10 

The first half of the book delivers exactly what was promised: a high-stakes, well-crafted heist. Locke and his crew are conning Don Lorenzo Salvara and his wife Doña Sofia, posing as foreign merchants while stealing everything they can. It’s smart, it’s engaging, and it’s exactly what I wanted. 

And then the Grey King shows up, and suddenly it’s less about a heist and more about Locke and Jean trying to survive a city-wide bloodbath. 

Don’t get me wrong—the stakes escalate beautifully. But the shift from elaborate con artistry to full-scale revenge thriller is jarring. We go from charming deception to graphic torture scenes, and while that can work, the transition is too abrupt.

📌 Intrigue - 8/10 

Even with the pacing issues, this book is incredibly engaging. I wanted to see how Locke would weasel his way out of certain death this time. The elaborate scams, the double-crosses, and the sheer audacity of the Gentleman Bastards kept me hooked. 

That being said, the torture scenes killed my momentum. They’re long, brutal, and relentless, and they don’t add much beyond shock value. There were moments where I actively needed to put the book down.  

📌 Logic/Relationships - 5.5/10 

Locke’s scams are clever, but are they believable? Not really. He and his teenage friends are somehow running elite-level cons on the most powerful people in Camorr—and getting away with it. The idea that no one has caught onto them before now stretches credibility. 

Also, the worldbuilding is excellent, but the gender imbalance is impossible to ignore. The lack of women is especially frustrating because the world itself doesn’t seem to have any built-in sexism. There’s no reason why there shouldn’t be more women in the underworld, but for some reason, there just… aren’t.  

📌 Enjoyment - 7.5/10 

There’s a lot to love here, but also a lot that wore me down. The heists? Fantastic. The cons? Brilliant. The action? Tense and well-paced. But the sheer brutality of the violence and the abrupt tonal shifts made this a more exhausting read than I expected. 

I had fun, but I also needed a break.  

📌 Final Verdict: 3.75 Stars (7.5/10 Final Score) 

Is it a fun, immersive fantasy heist? Yes. Is it also way too violent for its own good? Also yes. 

📌 What Worked:
✅ Fantastic setting & worldbuilding
✅ Clever cons & strong banter
✅ Locke & Jean’s dynamic was fun 

📌 What Didn’t Work:
❌ Pacing whiplash (from fun heist to full horror movie)
❌ Over-the-top gore & torture scenes
❌ Glaring lack of gender diversity 

🔥 Final Take: If you love elaborate heists, fast-talking criminals, and don’t mind extreme violence, you’ll probably enjoy this. If you prefer a bit more balance, chaos, and female characters that exist, you might find it frustrating. Still a solid read, but not without issues.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Drug use, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Excrement, Kidnapping, Alcohol, and Classism

The violence is pervasive and often quite brutal, with detailed descriptions of torture and murder. The book features themes of grief, revenge, and childhood trauma, particularly in Locke's backstory and the ruthless nature of Camorr’s criminal underworld. While there is no sexual violence, misogyny is present within the world’s structures, and female characters are notably absent from the main story except for a single major one late in the book.

plotsandplants's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual violence and Death of parent

arcticjinx's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

• 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

This is my favorite book. That said, I can't stand here and tell you it is flawless. As some other reviews have stated, there is a distinct lack of characters that are both women and are either alive or have any agency, despite the author making it clear that the devilish underground of Camorr is very evenly split among genders. The main cast is loveable, and in my opinion, believably flawed. I won't say their luck isn't a bit unbelievable, but I suppose that when you have the god of thieves on your side, anything is possible. I would recommend this to people who enjoy worldbuilding, lengthy descriptions of clothing, heists, being sad, alchemy, and a sprinkle of magic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Vomit, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Trafficking, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pedophilia

breezer's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny sad 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

Surprisingly heartbreaking

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Torture, Excrement, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

pbcle's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Torture, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Child death, Excrement, Vomit, Death of parent, and Alcohol

silentquercus's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Animal cruelty, Pedophilia, and Medical content

gisl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

4.75

This book is both incredible and incredibly difficult. I remember thinking at one point that I was nearing the end of the book because the stakes were so high, it must be about to wrap up! Wasn’t even halfway. The stakes just kept getting higher and the situation kept getting more dire. I almost couldn’t finish it I was so tense and scared. Overall very good read. My only gripe is the villains were built up so incredibly, and the protagonists were shown so out of their depth, and then the plot wrapped up way too quickly and easily. I feel like the

Falcon would’ve had the anti-attack spell on himself that he was said to have had earlier so Locke couldn’t get the jump on him. I feel like the Spider wouldn’t one-on-one confront a healthy young man as an old lady and taunt him by waving the real antidote he needs without guards in the room, and not expect Locke to do what he did and just punch her, steal the potion, and escape. And I feel like the clever Grey King who escaped and waited and plotted over 20 years to avenge half of his family wouldn’t simply accept defeat and wait for the Gentleman Bastards to kill him; He would escape and plot however long he needs to in order to avenge his sisters

. My only problem is the author made the antagonists too smart for them to be defeated in a single book, but even with that this is an amazing book. The way the timelines were written was incredible. I’m not going to continue bc this is too long already but great book!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Torture, Violence, Murder, and Classism

Minor: Fatphobia and Blood

I would say a tiny bit of fatphobia because when the main character, who

grew up starved and poor and had stunted growth because of that, first had the son of wealthy merchants introduced to him as a teammate in thieving when they were both kids, he insulted him and said he couldn’t be a good thief because it’s obvious looking at his size that he’s never wanted for anything and stuff like that. They fought but then made up as kids and became best friends, and Locke never said anything like that again.

lindzboots's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny inspiring tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

Absolute perfection. 

The atmosphere - so unique and immersive, the world - so complex and riveting, the characters - so horrible and wonderful; I fell in love with it all. 

And the storytelling, my gosh, the storytelling - beautiful and hilarious and eloquent and descriptive down to the tiniest, most delectable detail. I was there in this fascinating and unique (I know I’ve used the word twice but I can’t think of a better way to express how I’ve never seen anything like it!) world; I felt it, saw it, heard it, smelled it. 

I laughed and I sobbed and I felt terror and horror and pride and vindication. 

Genuinely one of my new favorites, by far. I can’t say enough. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Gore, Torture, Excrement, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

Animal death is one of my biggest triggers; I will say that this particular animal death did not affect me the way it usually would. For more detail, see the spoiler:

A main villain has a pet mutant bird. She is incredibly intelligent and actively malicious. She is killed quite violently and it is described in detail (though not more than necessary) toward the latter fourth of the book; later, her body is delivered to someone in a burlap sack. While any pet death is usually enough to turn me off of a book entirely, I will say that she is painted throughout the book as MORE than knowing what she's doing; she is treated more like a villainous character than a pet that's been "taught to be bad." She's Malificent's-Crow-Level-Evil.

madscientistcat's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty