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
marvelmania's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Pros
THE CHARACTERS! I loved all of the Gentlemen Bastards, especially Locke. He is an interesting take on a thief main character. He's not your typical, handsome, strong, brooding thief. He is complex in his emotions and he's not afraid to show it. He has a lot of love for his friends but is also capable of causing some real destruction and death. I like that he is described as being "mid" in every physical way. It causes people to underestimate him and makes his thieving all the more rewarding.
The actually thieving itself. Although most of Locke's thieve comes from using disguises and not actual... heisting, the way it comes together is very satisfying. Locke's ability to deceive makes up for a lack of action packed stealing. The long con is done well.
Galdo, Calo and Bugs death legitimately shocked me. I actually sat there with a surprised Pikachu face. I was not expecting it even though it was totally foreshadowed earlier. I genuinely thought we were going to have a happy little thief found family for the entire of this series. The deaths were also impactfully written with the right amount of emotion.
This book balanced emotion very well. I found myself laughing at some parts and wanting to cry at others. The balance makes the book very entertaining.
Incredibly descriptive and immersive world building and writing. I was able to picture this book perfectly in my head as it was told.
Cons
World building. Yes it is a pro and con. It was amazingly descriptive but sometimes it was just too much. A slog to get through in some chapters.
Lack of female characters. It would've been nice if we actually got to see Sabetha in Locke's youth. She's mentioned a few times, even being said to have been around. But we never actually get to see her which is disappointing considering her and Locke have a romantic relationship. I'm sure the 2nd book will amend this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Torture, Violence, Cursing, Vomit, Gore, Death, and Alcohol
Minor: Slavery, Death of parent, and Sexual content
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
lanid's review
adventurous
dark
funny
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
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
dragonaion's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
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.
"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
Graphic: Animal death and Blood
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Torture, Violence, Sexual content, and Gore
Minor: Gore, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Bullying, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Medical content, Slavery, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Alcohol, and Medical trauma
This is intended for adult readers, starting at the end of an epidemic sparing only children, contains sexual content, violence, gore, animal cruelty, graphic animal death (only at one point), and mentions slavery all in a realistic lense.madamenovelist's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Xenophobia, Torture, Misogyny, Cursing, Medical trauma, Fatphobia, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Ableism, Abandonment, Blood, Sexism, Slavery, Death of parent, Confinement, Classism, Child death, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Sexual content, Police brutality, Gore, Grief, Excrement, Death, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail
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).triforception's review
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This shit slaps. Locke Lamora starts out weirdly slowly - I didn’t break page 100 on my first attempt, but once you get over the prologue and first little bit, it absolutely grabs you and does not let go. It’s paced in some ways like a rollercoaster - the tension rachets up further and further and further until it explodes and you’re in free-fall, just for it to start ramping things up again even higher.
The writing is clever enough that it can be almost annoying in places, almost as though it were being written by the protagonist, who is a wonderfully arrogant and frustrating and loveable little shit. Speaking of these characters, they’re very effective at provoking the intended reaction from the reader. Locke Lamora is competent enough that his arrogance is justified, but vulnerable and susceptible to failure enough that he never comes off as invincible (and this boring). His companions are all likeable in their own way, and the book is excellent at making you attached to this (fairly morally dubious) gang of criminals, and very very good at making you hate and fear their enemies. The lack of diversity is a bit disappointing- while the book features formidable female characters, none of them are main protagonists and there are no LGBT characters to be found. That said, The Lies of Locke Lamora is a dryly funnny, often very dark, always extremely exciting fantasy novel and I look forward to picking up the sequel.
The writing is clever enough that it can be almost annoying in places, almost as though it were being written by the protagonist, who is a wonderfully arrogant and frustrating and loveable little shit. Speaking of these characters, they’re very effective at provoking the intended reaction from the reader. Locke Lamora is competent enough that his arrogance is justified, but vulnerable and susceptible to failure enough that he never comes off as invincible (and this boring). His companions are all likeable in their own way, and the book is excellent at making you attached to this (fairly morally dubious) gang of criminals, and very very good at making you hate and fear their enemies. The lack of diversity is a bit disappointing- while the book features formidable female characters, none of them are main protagonists and there are no LGBT characters to be found. That said, The Lies of Locke Lamora is a dryly funnny, often very dark, always extremely exciting fantasy novel and I look forward to picking up the sequel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Violence, and Child death
Moderate: Sexual content and Slavery
Minor: Sexism
corvicore's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
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
I'm mad i read this book so early in the year cause i honestly don't think anything i read for next 10 months will top it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Excrement, Alcohol, Animal death, Body shaming, Child death, Classism, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Vomit, Trafficking, Slavery, and Fatphobia
randanopterix's review
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I have so much to say about this book it’s honesty impossible to say it all. As far as I’m concerned, it’s perfect. No book has made me laugh as often and few books have made me cry as hard. I have BIG FEELINGS about this book.
It’s heists are genius in their construction, the characters are insanely loveable, the dialogue is realistic and hilarious, and the relationships built between the cast are surprisingly heartwarming. Now, if you think the stakes are high 100 pages in, friend, I hope you’re ready to be stressed as FUCK because the stakes only get higher and higher.
I’m obsessed with this book, not much more to say past that.
Tagging the rest of this review as spoilers as it’s pretty much going to include notes from my annotations:
• Jean Tannen is a murderous, sensitive, smart, fat king and I hope he lives to be 200 and the rest of his life full of happiness and joy.
• Locke is a terrible little rat of a man who I desperately want to be happy. I’m sorry you had to go through all of that, king.
• Calo and Galdo, real ones. Y’all didn’t deserve any of that.
• Bug absolutely fucking broke me. Heartbroken. The worst part was that I read up to Calo and Galdo’s death when I had to clock out from work. I had the whole ride home to be shattered about them and scheme about how Bug, Jean, and Locke were gonna take revenge before I finally got home to read the rest of the chapter….
• WHERE. IS. SABETHA.
• Bondsmagi OP, plz nerf /s
• Doña Vorchenza keeps taking those L’s.
• Let me preface this by saying that I LOVED the way women were written and portrayed in this book. Absolutely none of it was patronizing or unrealistic and they were all distinct characters capable of the same level of cunning and brutality as any of their male counterparts. THAT BEING SAID: Was a little disappointed that the two women characters who had potential to be a part of the main crew as it were (Nazca and Sabetha) were neatly folded up and put away for the majority of the novel. Hoping I get to know what the deal is w Sabetha in the next book because she didn’t even show up in the flashback portions of this one and it made her feel like she wasn’t even a part of the Bastards…
• The bank scene is genuinely one of the most insane, most clever, and most hilarious things I’ve ever read. POOR BENJAVIER.
• I was on the toilet during the scene where Locke speaks Bug’s true name and let me tell you, crying heartily about that while pooping was not my most dignified moment.
It’s heists are genius in their construction, the characters are insanely loveable, the dialogue is realistic and hilarious, and the relationships built between the cast are surprisingly heartwarming. Now, if you think the stakes are high 100 pages in, friend, I hope you’re ready to be stressed as FUCK because the stakes only get higher and higher.
I’m obsessed with this book, not much more to say past that.
Tagging the rest of this review as spoilers as it’s pretty much going to include notes from my annotations:
Spoiler
• Jean Tannen is a murderous, sensitive, smart, fat king and I hope he lives to be 200 and the rest of his life full of happiness and joy.
• Locke is a terrible little rat of a man who I desperately want to be happy. I’m sorry you had to go through all of that, king.
• Calo and Galdo, real ones. Y’all didn’t deserve any of that.
• Bug absolutely fucking broke me. Heartbroken. The worst part was that I read up to Calo and Galdo’s death when I had to clock out from work. I had the whole ride home to be shattered about them and scheme about how Bug, Jean, and Locke were gonna take revenge before I finally got home to read the rest of the chapter….
• WHERE. IS. SABETHA.
• Bondsmagi OP, plz nerf /s
• Doña Vorchenza keeps taking those L’s.
• Let me preface this by saying that I LOVED the way women were written and portrayed in this book. Absolutely none of it was patronizing or unrealistic and they were all distinct characters capable of the same level of cunning and brutality as any of their male counterparts. THAT BEING SAID: Was a little disappointed that the two women characters who had potential to be a part of the main crew as it were (Nazca and Sabetha) were neatly folded up and put away for the majority of the novel. Hoping I get to know what the deal is w Sabetha in the next book because she didn’t even show up in the flashback portions of this one and it made her feel like she wasn’t even a part of the Bastards…
• The bank scene is genuinely one of the most insane, most clever, and most hilarious things I’ve ever read. POOR BENJAVIER.
• I was on the toilet during the scene where Locke speaks Bug’s true name and let me tell you, crying heartily about that while pooping was not my most dignified moment.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Animal death, Murder, Child death, Cursing, Alcohol, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Vomit, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Trafficking, and Slavery
Minor: Abandonment, Classism, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Rape, War, and Drug abuse