Okay, the Lies of Locke Lamora. First, I wish I would thought of this title. Would’ve fit perfectly for my book (okay, my character’s name isn’t Locke) but for a slightly different reason. This novel was primarily about the lies Locke told others. My book (Curse of the Black Swan) is primarily about the lies he tells the reader.
Anyways, I digress…
This was a fantastic book. Conmen, thieves, sharks, hatchets. It had lots of action. He did a great job world building…and giving it a very adult bent. The characters were pretty good — but it was primarily plot driven. About a thief who likes to steal TOO much.
The problems…well, he got a little wordy at times. Too much detail…and some of the back story shouldn’t have been included (sometimes it was relevant…most times, it wasn’t). This was a looong book at 500+ pages (I’m guessing over 200K words easily) so it would’ve been nice to have some chopping — especially when he digresses too much (ruined the momentum).
The film options have been purchased for this book (which doesn’t mean it’s necessarily going to be made…just that someone is basically gambling that it will be made into a movie) but it would make a great movie.
This book is accompanied by a LOT of hype. Which is good for me because it’s very similar in content to Curse of the Black Swan (Troubleshooter, camels, demon-gods, crossbows) so if he created (or recreated) this niche, then good for him (and hopefully for me!).
I give this a 4.5 jumping sharks out of 5.