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ijustreallyliketrees's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, and Torture
Moderate: Child death
Minor: Vomit, Death of parent, Excrement, and Cancer
itsdaytime's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
The Lies of Locke Lamora pulled me in with an interesting premise and wonderfully describe settings, then held me through the mystery and crude jokes. It had engaging characters, plot twists and murder, and a lot of suspension of disbelief. If you liked the Netflix show Lupin, (and can handle darker books), The Lies of Locke Lamora is right up your alley.
I really liked the interludes that Lynch included. It gave the reader more information on the world without needed a blatant explanation. The interludes were either stories from the Locke's or his brothers' childhood or stories from their city-state.
I really liked the interludes that Lynch included. It gave the reader more information on the world without needed a blatant explanation. The interludes were either stories from the Locke's or his brothers' childhood or stories from their city-state.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder, Torture, and Vomit
Moderate: Stalking
Minor: Slavery and Terminal illness
juliabythebook's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
medium-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? It's complicated
4.5
Wowza. This is everything I love in a fantasy book: lovable characters, twisty plot, excellent and well-devolved world. Plus, a quick-witted and dry sense of humor that made me literally LOL on multiple occasions.
The only thing keeping me from giving this 5 stars is the pacing. I think this could have really benefited from being 100 pages shorter. There’s an insane mid-book climax that left my jaw on the ground only to quickly fall back into a long winded and light thieving scene that lasted way too long. I wish we had seen a bit more of the side characters (like The Spider) instead of this. Considering this is a debut (like, literally how?!) I can overlook it more.
Will I continue? Probably. But I do feel very fulfilled with how this novel finished. It felt like a complete work.
The only thing keeping me from giving this 5 stars is the pacing. I think this could have really benefited from being 100 pages shorter. There’s an insane mid-book climax that left my jaw on the ground only to quickly fall back into a long winded and light thieving scene that lasted way too long. I wish we had seen a bit more of the side characters (like The Spider) instead of this. Considering this is a debut (like, literally how?!) I can overlook it more.
Will I continue? Probably. But I do feel very fulfilled with how this novel finished. It felt like a complete work.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Vomit, Torture, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts
emeraldrina's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
- 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’m honestly really baffled by all the rave reviews of this book… it was a fun heist story in a unique and quirky fantasy world, but nothing particularly special or great. There were quite a lot of major flaws that unfortunately really took away from the book’s highlights.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery, Child death, Gore, Violence, Trafficking, Vomit, and Cursing
julianavaz's review
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Violence, Death, and Murder
Minor: Vomit
apotheosis's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This is literally my favorite book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Classism, Murder, Violence, and Cursing
Moderate: Child death, Child abuse, Blood, Vomit, Animal death, and Death
Minor: Slavery, Genocide, Trafficking, Rape, and Ableism
There is a lot of swearing in this book and is one of the more prominent complaints about it (I enjoy it but your mileage may vary).leanne_miron's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
tense
fast-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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Gore, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Death
Moderate: Excrement
Minor: Vomit, Body shaming, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual content
212keatsk's review
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This is one of the most well written books I have ever read. The detail goes right down to the color of the cobblestones on the streets. An amazing heist story. Almost like pirates of the Caribbean and artemis fowl combined for adults. And torture. Lots of that too.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Torture, Vomit, Violence, and Death
nebenezar's review
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Grief, Vomit, and Violence
Moderate: Gore, Bullying, and Confinement
Minor: Death of parent
emilywrayburn's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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
4.0
My first buddy read! Yay!
I've been meaning to read this book for years and I'm glad I finally did. It is much slower than most books I enjoy, and it's also lacking in female characters. There was also the issue of every time something interesting happened, we'd be given a five page flash back of something that didn't always seem relevant at the time. Though I possibly did do a bit of an "ahh, he said the thing!" towards the end when "I don't need to beat you. I just need to keep you here until Jean arrives" had its pay-off.
There was so much plotting and scheming going on, multiple characters had multi-level plots or cons planned out - every time I thought the stakes couldn't get any higher, they did, though the plot often didn't go in the direction I was expecting. The writing is very good. A lot of my "issues" were really just down to personal preference.
I wasn't sure whether I would read the second book but I think I will try to at some point.
I've been meaning to read this book for years and I'm glad I finally did. It is much slower than most books I enjoy, and it's also lacking in female characters. There was also the issue of every time something interesting happened, we'd be given a five page flash back of something that didn't always seem relevant at the time. Though I possibly did do a bit of an "ahh, he said the thing!" towards the end when "I don't need to beat you. I just need to keep you here until Jean arrives" had its pay-off.
There was so much plotting and scheming going on, multiple characters had multi-level plots or cons planned out - every time I thought the stakes couldn't get any higher, they did, though the plot often didn't go in the direction I was expecting. The writing is very good. A lot of my "issues" were really just down to personal preference.
I wasn't sure whether I would read the second book but I think I will try to at some point.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Vomit, Blood, and Death