The Lies of Locke Lamora book review

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Published by Spectra on June 27, 2006
Pages: 752
Goodreads

An orphan’s life is harsh—and often short—in the mysterious island city of Camorr. But young Locke Lamora dodges death and slavery, becoming a thief under the tutelage of a gifted con artist. As leader of the band of light-fingered brothers known as the Gentleman Bastards, Locke is soon infamous, fooling even the underworld’s most feared ruler. But in the shadows lurks someone still more ambitious and deadly. Faced with a bloody coup that threatens to destroy everyone and everything that holds meaning in his mercenary life, Locke vows to beat the enemy at his own brutal game—or die trying.

I had heard that The Lies of Locke Lamora was a little slow to start off with but that it got better but I have to say this book seemed to be pretty slow all the way through. This book follows a rag tag group of thieves or con-artists who are thrown into a world of gang politics and drama. I really enjoyed learning about the characters and how they ended being the way they were but I think there was too much going on within the plot and with all the different people that the actual important things ended up getting lost within all the stuff that just didn’t matter. I fell in love with the world and I loved the different aspects of everything and felt like it was all really well fleshed out, I just wished we would have seen more of it all through the various things that the characters end up doing.

The main characters in The Lies of Locke Lamora are, obviously, Locke Lamora, Jean, the Sanza twins and Bug. I think the characters saved this book for me and I would actually go so far and say that this probably would have been a DNF if I hadn’t fallen so head over heels for the dynamic. This book definitely gave me Six of Crows kinda vibes and I loved that. I also loved the “Interlude” that ran all the way through which ended up showing a massive insight into the character’s backstories and how they ended up being the Gentleman Bastards. I loved how they were each individual and they all had something that they were good at and they relied on each other to make up for their shortcomings. It was the perfect gang to follow around a gang fuelled city.

I think the best bit of The Lies of Locke Lamora for me was learning all about the different gangs in the city and the way that the politics around the city worked and who was who. I also loved learning about the way they learnt how to do everything and become the best of the best. I also loved the scams and find out just how good they were really are, and how they made a vast fortune but didn’t want to spend it all, just wanted to keep stealing. I think this story was definitely a story of underdogs and watching the under trodden becoming better than what they are.

The worst bit in The Lies of Locke Lamora was definitely the fact there was so much going that I found it hard to keep a track of everything and why everything was happening. I do think this book could have had a lot of things cut out of it because it felt bloated in places and had too much detail. I would have loved for there to have been a focus on one plot point rather than trying to do eight different things and getting lost with them all.

It’s a mixed bag unfortunately, I am wondering whether to carry on with the series. It definitely won’t be a priority but I wouldn’t strike it off the list forever!

Have you read this one? What did you think? Let me know!