Reviews with content warning for Violence - Before They Are Hanged

So, so good. Every setting and action scene was vivid, immersive, and memorable. The sense of impending doom was real. The characters are as 3D as real people at this point. I'm loving this series. Bring on book 3!

Content Warnings

djthedj's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.25

My mans, my mans, my mans Abercrombie. Andrew asked me if this book had any heroes and I would say each POV character is a hero in there own right. Just not a good person… I admire Abe as a writer but as I read him more, I do begin to see his pitfalls as a writer. That which he used to so strongly characterize his POVs can come across repetitive if you read this quickly. Hearing Glokta lick his gums every time he shows up made me quirk a lip. But no matter because I enjoy every character. I’m invested in their story and I am very very excited to have everything come together. If he sticks the landing with the conclusion, it’ll be a 5 book for sure.

Content Warnings

pitsny's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark 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? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

thepurplebookwyrm's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Discussion of The First Law: https://youtu.be/102HBqnE2u0.

So book two was fine as well.

Character work-wise: I got a smidge of character development, I'll give it that. With Jezal (~~subverted Aragorn~~) and Logen (~~subverted Jon Snow~~) especially. I also liked the latter a bit more in this one.

However, I freaking called it that he and Ferro would fuck, and I hated how that went down.

Theming-wise: still nothing to report... beyond 'baby's first steps into nihilism' levels of: 'life is meaningless beyond the friends we made along the way' type stuff I find profoundly uninspiring and, honestly, pretty tedious at this point.

World-building-wise: eh, we got a bit of background lore in this one, sure, but it still wasn't anything to really write home about.

Plot and structure-wise: book two was a little tighter, I guess. But then it also pulled a twisty twist towards its end I found more juvenile than anything else. Or I mean... it stank of D&D style 'subversion for subversion's sake', and I'm just not about that. Although, honestly: I wasn't exactly upset by this either, because I just... did not care. 😂

Whatever. It was fine, like I said, and I'll see the trilogy through.

PS: I guess I kinda like Glokta and Ardee's relationship.

Content Warnings