Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Die Lügen des Locke Lamora: Roman by Scott Lynch

16 reviews

pulcotinette's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad slow-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

4.0

A nice read but the story is soooo slowed downed by flash-back into the childhood of the characters that it is sometimes frustrating. The flash-backs also can serve as justifications and appeared like a nice way to introduce something that should have been gradually introduced in the main story. Overall, I had a nice time, but I had a really hard time getting to know the characters and grasping their personality. I think it would suit a reader who doesn't care about characters that much better. 
I also felt like this book was very self-contained. The major plotline gets introduced rather late in the book, yet is over by the end of it. Which was kind of weird. To be honest, the pacing of the story in its entirety wasn't much to my liking (way too slow). But don't let this deter you from reading this book: you'll have a good time and you will be surprised by how out there some of the heists are. 
Definitely check the warnings though, there are some harsh scenes in there.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Torture

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Cursing, Gore, Gun violence, Blood, Excrement, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Trafficking, and Abandonment

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.

karbolak's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Slavery, Blood, Death of parent, and Abandonment

winterwoodbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious slow-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 was just awesome from start to finish

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

kittens_eating_aliens's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Torture

Minor: Abandonment

mgraceoliver's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

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

vicky3's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse and Abandonment

seanml's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

The Lies of Locke Lamora excels in every aspect that most modern fantasy novels strive to perfect. The setting is intricate and lived-in; there are details and systems in the setting that take time to fully understand, and the author doesn't inundate you with all the exposition you're going to need at the start of the book. Magic exists, but enough questions are answered that we don't have to ask: if so-and-so is possible, why haven't these societal problems been fixed by now? Lynch's plot is also one that is completely original. Our protagonist is one of the classic fantasy archetypes: the scoundrel, but beyond that the narrative is always shifting organically. There are no points where I'm aware of the plot structure; where the story is simply going through the motions. This is a fantastic entry in modern fantasy, and I can understand why it's so well renowned. 9.5/10.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Misogyny, Sexism, Excrement, and Abandonment

kaziaroo's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-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

3.5

This book was okay. I didn't love it, didn't hate it.

Things I liked:
- the characters and their relationships were likeable and interesting, and the side characters were fun
- it was entertaining to read and the ending was satisfying. It would be fine as a stand-alone read – I haven't yet decided whether to read the sequel
- the setting was very rich and felt like a real place – I loved the Falselight and the Elderglass structures. The religious and social settings were also interesting.

What I didn't like:
- Unfortunately my Kindle edition didn't come with a map but I think paper editions do. A map would have made the characters' movements easier to follow.
- There's a lot of swearing – obviously this is personal preference and I did get used to it after a while.
-  a lot of the dialogue felt very modern (and American) and at odds with the historical, Italian-inspired setting. Hearing members of the nobility coming out with phrases like "surely you must be kidding" was jarring and took me right out of the story. Characters of different social backgrounds also all seemed to talk in the same way.
- the pacing was all over the place. One moment there's a flurry of action and the next there's thirty pages of trying to swindle some stuffy bankers out of their clothes. I found the first half pretty boring and the second half only just made up for it. The narrative style is very episodic, almost more suited to a magazine or TV show than a novel.
- the main villain is very mysterious, but actually so much so that I found it harder to take him seriously. When we do find out more about him, it's in an info-dump right near the end of the book.
- although I praised the setting, I did find the book a bit too descriptive. I didn't really care what specific food the characters were eating or what it looked like, or the precise sectors of the city the characters walked through from A to B. Maybe if I'd had a map... The narrator also name-drops a lot, and my edition didn't have a glossary either. There are a lot of names of gods, locations, months/days, etc and I ended up skimming over whole sentences that were just a string of unfamiliar names that had no bearing on the rest of the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Fatphobia, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

Minor: Drug abuse, Sexism, Trafficking, Death of parent, and Abandonment