Quotes from The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

Once again I forgot to mark down my own favorite quotes, so I'm just stealing all of these from the goodreads page and tumblr.

"There's no freedom quite like the freedom of being constantly underestimated."

"There are only three people in life you can never fool - pawnbrokers, whores, and your mother. Since your mother's dead, I've taken her place. Hence, I'm bullshit-proof."

"I don't have to beat you. I don't have to beat you, motherfucker. I just have to keep you here... until Jean shows up."

"'I can't wait to have words with the Gray King when this shit is all finished,' Locke whispered. 'There's a few things I want to ask him. Philosophical questions. Like, 'How does it feel to be dangled out a window by a rope tied around your balls, motherfucker?'"

"When you don't know everything that you could know, it's a fine time to shut your fucking noisemaker and be polite."

"If reassurances could dull pain, nobody would ever go to the trouble of pressing grapes."

"Throwing blondes at Locke Lamora was not unlike throwing lettuce at sharks."

"'What kind of knife is this?' Locke held a rounded buttering utensil up for Chains' inspection. 'It's all wrong. You couldn't kill anyone with this.'"

"'So that makes us robbers,' said Bug, "who pretend to be robbers working for a robber of other robbers.'"

"'Fuckdamn,' said Conte, totally unable to help himself when the sums involved vanished over his mental horizon. 'Beg pardon, Dona Sofia.'

'You should.' She drained her snifter in one quick unladylike gulp. 'Your calculations are off. This merits a triple fuckdamn at the very least.'"

"'You wound us, madam,' said Calo. 'We're harmless as kittens.'

'More so,' said Galdo. 'Kittens have claws and piss on things indiscriminately.'"

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

5 stars. Initial reaction: Holy hell, something tells me I'm about to have one major book hangover.

This book was stunning. Stunning in scope, stunning in breadth, stunning in all of those other words that people use to describe a book that is just so gods-damned, all-around, mind-fuckingly brilliant that you need terms of epic proportion to do it justice.

'Scuse the language, I'm still caught up in the elaborate, ensnaring, bottomlessly-detailed world of the city of Camorr.

In quick summary, here's what Scott Lynch did right: He created imperfect characters that were loveable despite their faults. He world-builded (yes, it's a verb now) so hard that my mind just about exploded trying to contain the scope of it. He layered plot upon plot upon plot in such an intricate way that it's impossible to disentangle them, and why would you want to, as they all ended in a singularly thrilling and spectacular climax? And don't even get me started on the plot twists, I'm still trying to process them. The world, the characters, the language, the book were so enthralling that I just... I just can't.

I do have one minor quarrel with this book, though. The "Interlude" chapters, especially towards the end, were bit disruptive to the flow of the narrative, and I feel as though they weren't utilized entirely to their strengths. Hopefully that's something that will improve in future books, because it's a unique feature that I think, if used correctly, can only add to the story.

I am still trying to wrap my head around the spectacular entity that is this book. By all means, please join me in my speechlessly astounded awe.

And holy Crooked Warden do I ship Jean and Locke.