Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

25 reviews

theneighborhoodbookwyrm's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Child death, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Rape, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, and Physical abuse

davonysus's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Cursing, Murder, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Body shaming, Vomit, and Fatphobia

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Cursing, Excrement, Death of parent, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Drug use, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, and War

vi_king's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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

4.5

A great heist! Reminds me of Six of Crows, if you halved the cast and doubled the dark and violence. Really caught me off guard a bunch of times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Excrement, Murder, Torture, Violence, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, and Blood

It's a dark and violent stiry and doesn't recoil from that at all. It doesn't leave you reckoning with it really, just facing it and accepting it as part of the events.

lybarron's review

adventurous dark funny 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? No

5.0

Fun as hell. An excellent grimdark heist fantasy. The world felt immersive and despite it's crassness and dark themes it was funny and I enjoyed following along with the antics of all the characters.

I do think the book could have had better representation of women, but my hopes are that this first book will set the foundation for better stories to come.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Death, Excrement, Blood, and Gore

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, and Torture

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Vomit, Death of parent, Excrement, and Cancer

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. 

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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

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

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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

seanml's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

The Lies of Locke Lamora excels in every aspect that most modern fantasy novels strive to perfect. The setting is intricate and lived-in; there are details and systems in the setting that take time to fully understand, and the author doesn't inundate you with all the exposition you're going to need at the start of the book. Magic exists, but enough questions are answered that we don't have to ask: if so-and-so is possible, why haven't these societal problems been fixed by now? Lynch's plot is also one that is completely original. Our protagonist is one of the classic fantasy archetypes: the scoundrel, but beyond that the narrative is always shifting organically. There are no points where I'm aware of the plot structure; where the story is simply going through the motions. This is a fantastic entry in modern fantasy, and I can understand why it's so well renowned. 9.5/10.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Violence, Murder, Animal death, Torture, Child death, Death, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Blood, Alcohol, Classism, Stalking, Kidnapping, Medical content, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Excrement, Misogyny, Sexism, and Abandonment

kaziaroo's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Cursing, Death, Gore, Grief, Violence, Blood, Murder, Bullying, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Medical content

Moderate: Classism, Fatphobia, Excrement, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Drug abuse, Sexism, Trafficking, Abandonment, and Death of parent

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

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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