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A review by _captainhooks
League of Liars by Astrid Scholte
4.0
Overall, a fun read, but a couple of things bugged me.
First is a certain amount of info-dumping; there’s a good bit of it at the beginning, and while it lets up, it doesn’t entirely stop. I never felt it was bad enough to completely stop the story’s momentum, but it was enough to feel clunky at times.
I also couldn’t help but feel like there was a good deal of cruft in the first half. I expected that the thrilling prison break that the book marketed would be the primary focus, but it isn’t even planned until 70% of the way in, and pretty quickly planned given that no one has ever escaped this legendary prison. Of course the author can’t be blamed for how their book gets advertised, but in this regard, I don’t think making a direct comparison to Six of Crows did it any favors. Most of this book is taken up with Leta’s trial, but the issue is that a lot of narrative time is wasted as well. Some of this information gathering, the back and forth to court, the multiple characters’ flashbacks needed to be streamlined and/or rearranged to allow plausible time to build the climactic escape.
Lastly, I actually don’t think this book benefits from the rotating perspectives. The first 3/4 especially would have been much more effectively suspenseful had it just been Cayder’s POV. All those little vignettes could easily have been information he collected for trials, but it would have felt more like we were having to piece together the story WITH him, sorting out the truth and finding the holes ourselves. Instead, the author’s hand is unignorable. (Being literally told “but she wasn’t telling the whole truth!”/“He couldn’t let anyone find out what REALLY happened!” sucks the fun out of stories that depend upon not knowing who/what to trust for me.) Even the prison break was not so complex as to warrant changing POVs; most of the plan has the group together anyway.
I’m still giving it four stars, however, for pretty good pacing, likable characters, and courtroom drama (regardless of if it was all necessary, I did enjoy it.) The magic system also deserves a shoutout. Magic with a cost is always as it should be, in my opinion. And edem being the manipulation of time was a really interesting and unique concept. I’m just as intrigued by the mysteries of the Veil as Leta. Entertaining enough for me to read the sequel, and what else could I ask for, at the end of the day?
First is a certain amount of info-dumping; there’s a good bit of it at the beginning, and while it lets up, it doesn’t entirely stop. I never felt it was bad enough to completely stop the story’s momentum, but it was enough to feel clunky at times.
I also couldn’t help but feel like there was a good deal of cruft in the first half. I expected that the thrilling prison break that the book marketed would be the primary focus, but it isn’t even planned until 70% of the way in, and pretty quickly planned given that no one has ever escaped this legendary prison. Of course the author can’t be blamed for how their book gets advertised, but in this regard, I don’t think making a direct comparison to Six of Crows did it any favors. Most of this book is taken up with Leta’s trial,
Spoiler
which in any case ends up cancelled along with everyone else’s. Obviously, this happens to demonstrate how much power the Regency had appropriated, that all their work could be made futile,Spoiler
Elenora’s betrayal could have been cut entirely. Any narrative problem it caused was resolved within the next two chapters. The group is reunited and buddy-buddy again almost immediately; There’s no reason her sending the guards after a decoy couldn’t have just been part of their plan, except that this way, Cayder gets hurt. However, their relationship isn’t well developed enough for that betrayal to have any weight. Hearing Cayder’s inner musings about how deep he was cut by this girl he’s known what, two weeks? Three? did not have the intended effect. So if it wasn’t significant to either the plot or the character development, why include it?Lastly, I actually don’t think this book benefits from the rotating perspectives. The first 3/4 especially would have been much more effectively suspenseful had it just been Cayder’s POV. All those little vignettes could easily have been information he collected for trials, but it would have felt more like we were having to piece together the story WITH him, sorting out the truth and finding the holes ourselves. Instead, the author’s hand is unignorable. (Being literally told “but she wasn’t telling the whole truth!”/“He couldn’t let anyone find out what REALLY happened!” sucks the fun out of stories that depend upon not knowing who/what to trust for me.) Even the prison break was not so complex as to warrant changing POVs; most of the plan has the group together anyway.
I’m still giving it four stars, however, for pretty good pacing, likable characters, and courtroom drama (regardless of if it was all necessary, I did enjoy it.) The magic system also deserves a shoutout. Magic with a cost is always as it should be, in my opinion. And edem being the manipulation of time was a really interesting and unique concept. I’m just as intrigued by the mysteries of the Veil as Leta. Entertaining enough for me to read the sequel, and what else could I ask for, at the end of the day?