Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Die Lügen des Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

64 reviews

fungivibes's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Murder, Torture, and Violence

lalu's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

read in 2020

I had heard a lot about this book beforehand and I had high expectations - which were surpassed. This book is amazing, it's witty, gripping and I don't think I've ever had this much fun while reading!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Violence, Blood, and Torture

Moderate: Child death, Death, and Excrement

Minor: Bullying and Sexual content

viorvix's review against another edition

dark funny tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Gore, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Cursing

chicareading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• 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: Gore, Child death, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Child abuse

This book features, among many other things, highly creative ways in which you can torture a person. It is also a very funny book at times (the way these characters CUSS is an artform unto itself) and a very, very depressing book past the halfway mark.

Did not expect so many beloved characters to die so quickly, and horribly, but one point on locke lamora's favour is that it stuck its landing. Their deaths have innumerous consequences in the story, even if your stomach churns.

I would not recommend this book for those unable to read about descriptive injury. There are a handful of torture-oriented scenes that are minutiously disturbing - there's a bit about caskets filled with horse piss, and glass applied gruesomely to body parts, and a number of other dark comedy bits that are really DWELT upon. And this is just the offhand stuff, because once the combat starts in this book, it really gets vicious. I also took a bit of an issue with the fact there are only two (minor) female characters to be found alive and triumphant at the end of this book, specially after one Strong Female Character gets fridged (read: killed for plot-inspiration) somewhere around the start and a few more die of admittedly deserved murder. Some people may not take issue with this, but given the propensity this book has to lovingly flesh out its male cast (and it is a LARGE male cast) it felt a little lacking. That being said, The lies of Locke Lamora is a sprawling heist tale brimming with dark comedy, a grimy, gothic city of thieves, and a lot of witticisms. This is a book you read to feel like you're watching a really good action series. And albeit very long, and sometimes a little slow, it packs a lot of heart. The villains feel dangerous, the city reads as though it could chew you up and spit you out, and the ragtag team of gentlemen thieves (and their mentor, because you cannot forget old chains) genuinely latch onto your heart. The dialogue is always a joy to read, the pacing is enjoyable, but where this book really shines are in the Heist scenes. There is not only one heist in this book, but several small spurs in which our main characters have to lie through their teeth to get out of a situation, and it always had me at the edge of my seat. Locke Lamora, as a protagonist, does everything you could ever expect from a devilishly creative thief and then some more. This book makes a great use of its own carefully established mythology and environment, and by the end you'll feel some fondness for the city itself. It is gruesome, yes, but goddamn if it is not compelling. The structure in this book veers on the "cinematic". Chapters have subchapters denoted by numbers, and while this isn't a format i've ever encountered before, i think it's been used to its fullest to denote scene changes and flashbacks and flash-forwards while keeping all the themes intertwined into one singular five-knuckled punch. It feels great to read it and picture the movie playing in your head. It's a good book, all in all, but it is a thick one to get through.