Reviews with content warning for Bullying - The Lies of Locke Lamora

This book is brilliant, a wild ride, and I was delightfully surprised. I thought this would be a story of a petty thief who would get caught and end up escaping in a new Robin Hood retelling. What I got was something completely in a world of its own that has almost made me cry repeatedly. What can only be described as "grunge fantasy" (high fantasy 1,000 years post societal collapse in the slums of New York) this has more heart, love, and sheer brilliance than almost any other book I've read to date. Every moment, every interlude, weaves together in such a way that turns this from a story into art, following a batch of characters that are relatable, lovable, and wears no plot armor. I cannot gush more about how amazing and unique this book is- if you have fond memories of the concept of the brotherhood in Theives, this is just the story for you.
"Liar... Liar... Liar... Bastard!"

Edit: I've found another book that is a sibling-story to this. If you enjoyed The Lies of Locke Lamora, you will absolutely feel right at home with Nevernight by Jay Kristoff.

Content Warnings

kaziaroo's review against another edition

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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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olia_k21's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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nebenezar's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny lighthearted 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? Yes

4.0

So, after finishing this book, I can honestly say that it was a great book. It definitely takes a while to weave the spell, which did put me off in the beginning. If I don’t love a book from the start, I grow tired of it quickly. I very nearly gave up on this book, but I’m glad I didn’t. You’ll most likely enjoy this book if you like intrigue, heists, and swashbuckling fantasy. The overall style reminds me of Six of Crows.

The characters are all interesting in their own way. What did irritate me a little is that I often got a better sense of the side characters and antagonists than the Gentlemen Bastards. The rich couple Locke and his gang robs is almost more fleshed out than Locke‘s friends are. The story is still „character-driven“, but that is more because of the fascination with Locke‘s constant plotting than anything. It’s difficult to grasp exactly what the characters are missing, but I think it can be boiled down to a „psychological footprint“. It’s not really clear what drove Locke to become the man he is. His love for his friends certainly drives his motivations in the present, but it isn’t at all clear how this man came to be, even with all the chapters focusing on the past.

That being said, this book is still immensely entertaining and well worth the read.

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