#and by extension i guess he makes me appreciate the overlord more

[saline-coelacanth]

Apologies but Oliver has infected my brain again and I wanna ramble and rotate him in my head

Oliver has existed for thousands of years due to him being the Overlord, but he believes that he was never truly living until the ninja found him in that forest.

The Golden Power gave him the chance for a new life, the chance to be something more than just the Dark Lord. The Overlord part of him regrets becoming the Golden Master because of the aftermath and what it turned him into (that being a naive child with amnesia and eventually a good guy) But the Oliver part of him thinks that becoming the Golden Master was ultimately the best thing that ever happened to him for the same reason his evil side hated it.

You know now that I think about it, if circumstances were different I could see Oliver and Garmadon getting along really well since they both have an evil side to them that they can't fully contain or control. Specifically if Sensei Garmadon ever got to meet Oliver, I could see them bonding a lot. But instead they're just sort of doomed to dislike each other I guess.

Ok that's enough Oliver ramblings for now. I will never not be obsessed with dissecting this guy, I love him a lot

[neverlearnedtoread]

The Lies of Locke Lamora

⭐⭐⭐; a mafia au wrapped up in a fantasy cloak that tricked me into thinking it was going to be a heist story

Oh?? 👌😉😏

an incredibly rich world - this guy did not slack off on worldbuilding!! he put a lot of work into it and i appreciate the fact his characters were described with different body types and on some level, varying skin tones

i did like the setting - it took me SO LONG to figure out it was meant to be Fantasy Venice, but i got there in the end, and that’s what matters. plus, the wildlife! every time the author was trying to have some sneaky stuff happen i was trying to find out more about the marine biology. what can i say? i love a good murder fish. sharks?? even better

jean tannen is a selling point because i say so. soft and nice + ready to murder for a friend = perfect man. i dont make the rules

No.. ❌🤢🤮

the story first gets interesting more than a third of the way through the novel. that’s way too long for me not to be able to guess at what this story’s supposed to be about

what’s worse - unimportant female characters, or no women at all? somehow this book managed to tick both boxes for me. though i do like to think that in a guidebook about Camorr there’s an extravagant two-page spread dedicated to the unionized prostitutes and their apparently booming business

most of the characters weren’t half as developed as i needed them to be. none of them had clear motives or goals i could vicariously root for, so what was the point of them failing?

there’s torture in this book in a couple scenes, gratuitous violence throughout, and swearing in art form. none of these things are technically bad, but if you’re not into it, be forewarned

Some spoilers under the cut!

Summary: Locke Lamora leads a gang of con-artists who specialise in stealing exorbitant amounts of money from rich people while pretending to be average two-bit thieves, all the better to avoid the pressure of living up to anybody’s high expectations. Unfortunately, their long-perfected ruse is in danger of being exposed when a shadowy figure, aptly named the Gray King, blackmails Locke into being a part of his super secret plan to take over the city’s criminal underworld. Around the same time, Locke receives orders from Capa Barsavi, the current criminal overlord of the great city of Venice Camorr, to help him get rid of the Gray King. Desperate to avoid being murdered by either of the two most powerful criminal lords in the city, Locke has to come up with a plan to wriggle his way out of his unwanted responsibilities without anyone being any the wiser about his involvement on either side.

Concept: 💭💭💭💭

Let me preface this by saying that I love a good heist story, but that my standards are also very high. So there was a lot riding on this book. I’m all about a found family swindling some rich assholes out of their fortunes from right under their noses; however, the writing style of this book was rather...extensive with its descriptors. I like extensive worldbuilding! but I find that the storytelling style of a lot of male authors in fantasy is often...very similar, and reads too much like a textbook. Give me the emotion, man! Where’s the panache behind the 345 individual pennants you painstakingly went through in three pages? Are they special pennants? Does it matter to the plot? Please sir I’m tired after a long day just tell me what is happening in this scene..

Execution: 💥💥💥

Once the book hits the drop and the plot starts going, it revs its engine like anything and is a fun romp through the city narrowly avoiding death and destroying many public establishments. The only problem is it takes 266 pages to get to the drop. Before that? I was so bored. I like when I can sort of see the outline of the plot at the beginning, because then I can get hyped for future developments, but 200 pages in and I was still at a loss as to what exactly the book was gearing up for. If I hadn’t been buddy reading this, and had it on a 2-week loan from the library, I wouldn’t have forced myself past the dawdling beginning into the actual start of the story.

Personal Enjoyment: ❤❤

This is a little harsh, because ultimately I did enjoy the book, but I have some strong Disappointed Feelings. First of all: I didn’t care about anyone except for Jean Tannen, and he survived; which, to me, is a total waste of several death scenes! The problem was you could tell who wasn’t gonna survive by the amount of effort the author put into describing them. The most I felt was a sort of ‘aw, man’ - not the reaction you want from the deaths of characters that are supposed to be near and death to the main character’s heart, and therefore, should be perfectly capable of ripping out mine! Plus, the heavy handed #imwithher moments irked me, since the few female characters we had were either evil (with no nuance whatsoever), unceremoniously murdered off-scene, or never even bothered to show up. Thank goodness for Jean. I would die for Jean Tannen.

Favourite Moment: Can a whole chapter count as a moment? Because the moment we hit the chapter titled ‘Jean Tannen’ I was on board. Jean’s backstory and introduction to the gang? What a good babe. What a fantastic hunk of a man. Get you a guy who can tailor your clothes to perfectly fit your scrawny, skinny ass. If we wanna be specific, I’d say the part when Jean is flat-out booking it to save Locke’s ass. Which part, exactly? Yes.

Favourite Character: Jean Tannen owns my ass and hopefully will own Locke’s ass in the future, if you know what I mean... seriously though, I was joking at the beginning, but this book came through with the shipping fodder. All I’m saying is that Locke should consider the pros and cons of ditching his supposed one true lady love who dropped him like a hot potato to never show up as a character in her own right, for the man whose entire role in Locke’s little gang of thieves is to literally run to his rescue while he’s getting his ass beat to shit. I’d also like to point out that Jean’s very strong. Simply a casual observation.