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mamoru's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
ageckocalledachilles's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Fatphobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Terminal illness, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic
zerto's review against another edition
Graphic: Torture and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Death, and Death of parent
Minor: Slavery
gandalf_a's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Torture, Violence, Murder, and Classism
Moderate: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Medical content, Trafficking, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic
karbolak's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Slavery, Blood, Death of parent, and Abandonment
winterwoodbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
literarybitch's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.5
I enjoyed myself throughout this one and I have no major complaints. The various nobles' names were hard to tell apart when they were all together in the thick of it, but I was so far in that I decided not to care and it didn't diminish my overall understanding.
Comparisons between this and The Thousand Deaths of Ardor Benn are obvious: they're both quite lengthy, vaguely Rennaissance-era fantasy heists starring a clever antihero and his bestie(s). Between the two, I find Ardor Benn much more fun so if you only have room in your life for one, I recommend that one. But if you don't mind the darker and sadder tones of this One Last Job gone sideways and can't get enough debonair con men, this gets the job done.
#WhatsKenyaReading
Graphic: Torture, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death and Death
Minor: Slavery and Death of parent
itsdaytime's review against another edition
- 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
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.
Graphic: Death, Torture, Vomit, and Murder
Moderate: Stalking
Minor: Slavery and Terminal illness
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: Child death, Cursing, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Vomit, and Trafficking
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: Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Fatphobia, Police brutality, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Slavery, Xenophobia, and Trafficking