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vi_king's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Vomit, Excrement, Murder, Torture, Violence, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, and Blood
It's a dark and violent stiry and doesn't recoil from that at all. It doesn't leave you reckoning with it really, just facing it and accepting it as part of the events.kassabitte's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Gore
lybarron's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I do think the book could have had better representation of women, but my hopes are that this first book will set the foundation for better stories to come.
Graphic: Torture, Death, Excrement, Blood, and Gore
cassie7e's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and Death
Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Gore, Blood, Classism, and Murder
Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Alcohol
kiwij96's review against another edition
- 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
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.
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
maidofbees's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Torture, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, and Sexual content
Minor: Terminal illness
mermaidreef's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Definitely VERY long for what it is....Lynch does not skimp on the detail, and portions of the book really drag, especially with the way the book is structured, with short interludes between nearly every chapter, all of which mark a shift in timeline or POV. The first 300 pages felt like a bit of an uphill slog, as they were mostly establishing characters and worldbuilding. The flipside of this is that the worldbuilding is EXQUISITE. He also does this without really obvious heavy info-dump paragraphs, cleverly couching bits of information into dialogue between characters and through the POV characters' observations. Because of this, there's very little feeling of breaking the fourth wall throughout the book which makes for a much more immersive experience.
Shit really hits the fan about halfway through and even I (literally never surprised or shook at plot developments) was clutching my pearls and gasping in disbelief. Maybe because the first half lulls you into such a false sense of safety.
This did suffer from Boy Book Syndrome however mainly bc the misogyny was jumping out......tell me why every character who's a woman is either swiftly murdered or is simply mentioned repeatedly without appearing in the story ever. Or made into a joke immediately!!! There is one moment in particular near the end that really fell into this category
Need to read something written by a woman next bc I can only read so much about a funny little con man who has no other personality traits or inner life I need CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
Solid book though overall despite my complaints
Graphic: Gore
emeraldrina's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
I’ll start with the good - the world building is incredible. It’s intricate, original, and holds so many mysteries yet to be answered. The descriptions are beautiful and detailed, making it easy to picture this strange world.
But therein also lies one of the major downfalls of the book - there’s far too much world building detail and description throughout the book. Between every chapter there’s an “interlude” - initially these are all flashbacks to the characters’ past to give insight into how or why they’re doing certain things now. But about halfway through the book the interludes just turn into unnecessary world building info dumps that jar the reader out of the story. Many of these are superfluous - the information was already conveyed in a more interesting manner via the main story, as it should be. The rest are just pointless to the main story, and feel more like the author is insisting on showing off exactly how much work he put into his world building.
Likewise with the descriptions - they’re written not as part of the story, but in the author’s voice, butting in between the action to tell us as much detail as he can because he wrote it all and doesn’t want it to go to waste. They’re beautifully written, but they’re not in the POV character’s voice, so they don’t feel like part of the story. They feel like unnecessary interruptions.
As for the characters, they mostly have clear voices and personalities and flaws. However, the main character is utterly lacking in internal conflict. Up until the villain shows up (which is waaaay too late in the book), Locke had no real goal or motivation in life. He has a major flaw, but no related overarching misbelief about the world or fear that’s driving him to act in ways counter to his goal. He’s just … a thief stealing money for the sake of it. He never learns anything, never transforms, never really changes at all. And this is why the first couple hundred pages of the book are such a drag - we don’t care about Locke because he has no internal conflict. We start caring a bit when the inciting attack fiiiinally happens near the halfway point, but this is still just external conflict. So even after that initial attack, there weren’t really any different stakes for Locke than for anyone else in that situation. So we still didn’t care all that much.
The final problem is the schemes. They’re supposed to be genius level clever… but they’re not. They’re quite frankly idiotic. They seem to have been purposely designed to fail easily - which of course they have. But only the author should know that, not the readers! The gaping holes in the schemes in turn make the plot transparently predictable. Which is even less fun than usual in a heist story.
I really didn’t hate the book as much as this makes it sound. The dialogue was amusing, the world was fascinating, and the prose was lovely. It just fell a lot flatter than I was expecting after reading so many great reviews.
Moderate: Slavery, Child death, Gore, Violence, Trafficking, Vomit, and Cursing
kazzerdam's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Gore, Blood, Body horror, Death, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
Minor: Death of parent
lanid's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Torture, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Death
Moderate: Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, and Police brutality
Minor: Slavery, Trafficking, and Xenophobia