 Hey guys, it's Liana and I'm here today to talk about Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie. This is my third time reading this book and I love it more every time I read it. But if you don't know, I previously mentioned on my channel a few times that this year I'm rereading all of these books and then also doing standalone reviews for them all because I didn't the first time or the second time that I read them. So that's what we're doing here today. I didn't, I mean I did just finish it, but this was my third time reading it. So housekeeping, I live in downtown LA and it is raining today which is not a thing that ever happens and they've decided to do gardening stuff and landscaping outside. So there's just like a lot going on today and I'm trying to like squeeze in this in between the noises. I'll do my best, but some noises may still make it in like that car right now. Stop it. Rain, landscaping, cars, trucks, all of the things so and then we'll probably get like rain or something in the middle of that. Also it's quite windy. Anyway, so all that to say apologize for any like noise interference that's more than usual. I will try to stop talking if and when noise occurs but never know. Anyway, Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie. This is the second book in the first law trilogy and the second book in the first law universe in general and it is, I don't know, I did do like a first law books ranking video some time ago and I don't even remember how I ranked them all and I think my rankings would have changed. I would say like the first time I read the trilogy I think I liked each book better than the last and so the first time that I read the trilogy I gave the first, the first time that I read the trilogy in its entirety because the first time I read the blade itself didn't like it, didn't go on. But when I reread the blade itself and then continued on with the trilogy I gave the first two books four stars and the third book three stars but this Before They Are Hanged was a higher four than the four I gave the blade itself. Now I have since then given these books all five stars and I think again like I think it's, I do kind of think that it's better than the blade itself. However I would also say that I am weird and that I very often tend to prefer the second book in a series, the second book in a trilogy over the first or third and I know a lot of people don't, like the phrase middle book syndrome is a thing because people tend to get frustrated with middle books. Middle books are like majority of the time my favorite. And I think a lot of that is to do with the fact that you don't have to spend so much time in the book explaining what's going on because we already know what's going on because you did the explaining in the first book. So now we just get to play. Now we just get to see things happening because we don't have to learn things. And then the end of a series nailing the landing of a series is always tricky. So oftentimes the end of a series I think I'll feel like it's spent too much time trying to like build up to the conclusion or it's spent not enough time on that and had a rushed ending. It was just like a lot of the book will be devoted while the first book spends a lot of time getting us introduced to things then the end of a book will spend a lot of time wrapping things up. And middle books are just pure action, pure fun, pure development of character. It's just that and I think that's why I like them so much usually. And before they are hanged even more so than usual is that type of book. Because people complain that this trilogy is meandering it doesn't go anywhere or that it feels like it's not going anywhere. So the blade itself it has for the less difficult reader than not me readers. The blade itself is a new world that you're learning and discovering and getting introduced to so it's exciting because it's new. And then you feel kind of like you don't know where it's going but it had the like let's get to know this new world and I'm excited about it going for it. But before they are hanged you're not really introduced to much of anything new. There is a couple new settings but it's not I mean you it's kind of following stuff now that you were introduced to in the first book and then it's not wrapping anything up because it's the second book in the series. So I feel like you could easily feel quite frustrated and quite unfulfilled or there's a word I'm looking for and it's not coming to me. I mean it just like unsatisfying I guess because you didn't like start a new thing and it didn't go anywhere. I mean it moved along but I didn't you know it just was like the next steps in the journey. It's like if this was a road trip like day one if it's like a three day road trip or something and the first day like you're setting off so you're like packed up the car excited to get going and on the third day of the road trip you get to your destination but the second day of the road trip is just driving. So I would understand if people were like this one was just driving. You're like it is but what a journey. Did you see the sights and sounds along the way. Also boy did we get to know everybody in the car. Everybody in the car we really really got under their skin and we really learned what everybody's breaking points are in the car. I didn't expect him for that metaphor to be so extended but it kind of worked. So before they were hanged actually there's a lot of people kind of on a journey not I guess a road trip some of the characters on a road trip so to speak a quest and then another of the characters is not journeying but he has already journeyed to a different place so he's you know out of town and that's where his plot line is taking place. So there is kind of people being scattered and traveling but so what I love most about before they are hanged is the fact that now that we've like been introduced to all these characters because what we're where Amber Cromby shines in general is character work and I think the character work really shines in this book because now that we've been introduced to everybody we're getting to see everybody be tested. We put in a different situation for like their status quo to change and how they react to it as well as seeing people through each other's eyes. So like I swear this is related. Pierce Brown in the Red Rising trilogy. The Red Rising trilogy is all told from Darrow's perspective so it's all seen through Darrow's eyes. So I've met Pierce Brown three times and if you ever meet him I can almost guarantee he will ask you this because he's asked me this every single time I've met him because I think it's just a thing he asks he always asks who your favorite character is and I never have an answer for him but I was able to finally give him a kind of answer the third time he asked me this I was like I don't have a favorite character but I have a favorite thing and that was that in the new trilogy we got to see Darrow through other character's eyes because it was no longer only told from Darrow's perspective so because we had other perspectives and those perspectives were meeting Darrow or had heard of Darrow then we got to see what Darrow is like outside of Darrow's head because you're always gonna be biased against about yourself positively or negatively the way you view yourself it's different from other how others view you so I was telling him that that's what I really loved is now finally seeing how everyone else sees Darrow so in before they are hanged you've spent a lot of these characters some of them met each other and you got to see them a little bit through each other's perspectives in the first book that's not to say that didn't happen at all but it happens significantly more in this book there's a lot more moments where characters are have eyes on each other and you're getting to see them from each other's perspectives sometimes within like the same scene within the same atmosphere within an environment the same situation you get to see the situation through different perspectives so it's a you get a more well-rounded view of what's going on and how you should feel about it as well as those characters in it you get a more well like you hear how this person feels about what's going on and how they feel about their place and what's going on and how they feel about everyone around them and then like one of the characters they're with they will now kind of like you know day two or later that day or whatever they're recalling what happened and how they felt about it and how they felt about character one and what character one had done or said or didn't do and didn't say and just seeing all of that the way that it develops the way that it shifts and changes the way that characters begin to possibly form bonds and relationships or trust or how that trust is broken all of that I like that so much and it's so well done because so much of it is that is seeing these characters reacting to this and to each other and you watching them react to things and to each other and you really really get to know these characters even more so than you did in the first book and that's I mean I'm mainly describing kind of like one area of the of the book there's kind of following I would say three plot lines and there's a big old cluster of characters in the one plot line and that's kind of more what I'm talking about there the other plot lines also become more interesting you do learn tidbits about the world and there is this sense especially again now in is it spoiler to tell you I don't think so in Glock does plot line because now he's learning things about the universe and about the world and about his place in it and about what is going on and who controls what and what people's agendas may or may not be and it's very much it's similar to like the satisfaction that I personally derive and I think a lot of people do from like stories like what Jean Lacarré I guess is how he does it I always say Jean Lacarré but I think he said Jean Lacarré those kind of like spy things that are not like James Bond Jean Lacarré stories were always very kind of slow moving and slow creeping development of suspicions and following up on things not adding up and things not being as they seem and that kind of like it kind of feels like a there's you know a loose thread and you keep pulling on that thread you keep getting more and more and more and more and then you realize that these threads are actually tugging on yet more threads that are now also coming loose and you're starting to unravel the fabric of the veil that was pulled over everybody's eyes and you're getting to see what's behind things and things that you're getting like little aha moments it doesn't feel cheesy and corny like the big reveal of like the master villain plan like it's not that extra it's not that big and unbelievable these are little conspiracies that amount to a great deal they amount to a great deal of you know possible power or or or a lot of answers to why things are the way they are but they're not like apocalyptic level like a James Bond movie where it's just like it's too over the top and absurdly big to like to really feel like it has stakes it's because it's slightly smaller stakes that it feels more real and therefore feels bigger I don't know if that makes me sense it's kind of paradoxical but like I can't take seriously something in the Transformers because it's just too big but like someone's house burning down in a story that's like a very intimate family story is like a big thing and a big deal so kind of that way I guess because it feels like you can relate to that more and because it is more reminiscent of our own world where people tend to be suspicious about what the government's really doing what people who have money are really doing what having money means and what I can buy for you etc etc so there's like a slow unraveling that you're beginning to see more of and again you don't get all the answers because this is a middle book so you don't get those answers but following that mystery and knowing there's more yet to be discovered because like you know a mystery ends and is always less interesting once you find out who the murderer was so you're still you're getting more and more like questions and more and more hints but it's not answered yet so it still remains enticing so like by the end of before they're hanged you have some new ideas about how things might be going on and who's behind what and how that might be connected but you also still have no idea the characters still have no idea but the characters are like I think I'm on to something and you're like you are on to something I want to see what you're on to so more than anything I feel like before they are hanged is like a testament to the journey that is an Abercrombie book and that the the type of thing that it is and if you love that type of thing that Abercrombie is the writer for you and before they are hanging might be your favorite book because it's also the opposite of what people look for so it's not gonna have big reveals it's not gonna have big magic it's not gonna have epic questions answered it doesn't have a bunch of like Easter rags it's all just a bunch of like messy exploring people and their relationships to each other and to the world they're in and to the circumstances they find themselves in and them figuring out navigating fighting accepting what's happening around them and through that lens then you getting a more and more layered complex and nuanced understanding of the world they're in as well because you're seeing us with these different eyes and their eyes are being open to things and it's just a lot of that so that might sound horrible to you and if it does sound horrible to you then I don't think you will like this book and I don't know that you like any of his books because that's really where it shines and that's why before they were hanged is so so good and I enjoyed it more every time I read it because each of these situations these characters are in gets so juicy and so messy and so complicated from a character perspective individually as well as the character collective and how they interact with each other and just chef's kiss chef's kiss it's so good so yeah let me know in the comments down below if you have read before they were hanged if you now plan to read before they're hanged if you plan never to read before they're hanged if you are a weird reader like me and tend to like second books best or if you hate second books or whatever you want to let me know I post videos on Saturdays other random times as well but definitely Saturdays so like and subscribe and I'll see you when I see you