Scan barcode
emmasnowball's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
I took quite a bit of time to reflect on my experience reading this before before writing a review. My feelings remain complicated, and unfortunately, quite negative. I found this to be a particularly frustrating read because James develops such a promising concept that felt needlessly sabotaged by certain stylistic and narrative choices. I also think this book was wildly mismarketed: this is not an "African Game of Thrones", and readers seeking epic fantasy may be disappointed.
James builds and explores a vivid, remarkably original folklore inspired by African mythology. I was captivated by the first page and wanted to learn more about the societies James constructed and the truly menacing monsters that plagued them. Stakes (at first) felt high, dangers real, and consequences material. The dialogue and humor, when used, was fast-paced and effective.
That is where my positive experience ended. In terms of structure and style, the prose varied inconsistently between beautifully evocative in some parts to wildly incoherent in others, especially during action sequences. As the book uses non-linear storytelling, the constant use of passive sentence structure burdens clarity of plot. I've read that James deliberately did not follow arcs to reflect the messiness of life and topple fantasy tropes---whether true or not, my ability to 'track' the action suffered for it. The characters themselves seemed to quickly lose interest in the plot , which ultimately lost urgency and became an afterthought in favor of meandering side quests.
The most offputting aspect of the book, however, was the gratuitous (often sexual) violence, scatology so ubiquitous it became boring, blatant misogyny, and characterization of queerness that was insensitive at best and offensive at worst. As a disclaimer, I recognize upfront that the narrator is a unreliable (and unlikable). I also flag that I do not balk at including graphic, traumatic themes in literature when done intentionally and cautiously. This was neither.
Graphic scenes of sexual violence seemed to be included more for shock value than narrative purpose. Physical descriptions of objects and people so often included comparisons to bodily excretions or genitalia (especially female bodies) that they became tedious. While recognizing the narrator has a sexist vantage that colors the writing, the way women were characterized was both objectifying and unpleasant. The few women included are either victims or villains, often falling into shallow tropes. While I've read in interviews that James intended to include gender fluidity in his worldbuilding, the only non-conforming characters were portrayed as sexual predators who violently assault the protagonist, traditional gender roles take precedence, and women are framed as "weak" with being feminine treated as an insult. Likewise, the narrator's exploration of his own sexuality includes internalized and externalized homophobia in ways that seemed like they were intended to shock rather than interrogate.
In brief, I wanted very much to like this book. However, I could only give two stars because the flaws outweighed the positives. By the end of the book, the frequency of graphic sexual violence and scatological language seemed like cheap and juvenile attempts at shock value. The prevalent misogyny and homophobia were deeply unpleasant to read. None of the characters were likeable, not in a way that created conflict and character development, but in a way that detracted from my personal investment in them. Since I finished reading a few months ago, I found the positive aspects of the book slipped from my memory while the sour aftertaste lingers.
James builds and explores a vivid, remarkably original folklore inspired by African mythology. I was captivated by the first page and wanted to learn more about the societies James constructed and the truly menacing monsters that plagued them. Stakes (at first) felt high, dangers real, and consequences material. The dialogue and humor, when used, was fast-paced and effective.
That is where my positive experience ended. In terms of structure and style, the prose varied inconsistently between beautifully evocative in some parts to wildly incoherent in others, especially during action sequences. As the book uses non-linear storytelling, the constant use of passive sentence structure burdens clarity of plot. I've read that James deliberately did not follow arcs to reflect the messiness of life and topple fantasy tropes---whether true or not, my ability to 'track' the action suffered for it. The characters themselves seemed to quickly lose interest in the plot , which ultimately lost urgency and became an afterthought in favor of meandering side quests.
The most offputting aspect of the book, however, was the gratuitous (often sexual) violence, scatology so ubiquitous it became boring, blatant misogyny, and characterization of queerness that was insensitive at best and offensive at worst. As a disclaimer, I recognize upfront that the narrator is a unreliable (and unlikable). I also flag that I do not balk at including graphic, traumatic themes in literature when done intentionally and cautiously. This was neither.
Graphic scenes of sexual violence seemed to be included more for shock value than narrative purpose. Physical descriptions of objects and people so often included comparisons to bodily excretions or genitalia (especially female bodies) that they became tedious. While recognizing the narrator has a sexist vantage that colors the writing, the way women were characterized was both objectifying and unpleasant. The few women included are either victims or villains, often falling into shallow tropes. While I've read in interviews that James intended to include gender fluidity in his worldbuilding, the only non-conforming characters were portrayed as sexual predators who violently assault the protagonist, traditional gender roles take precedence, and women are framed as "weak" with being feminine treated as an insult. Likewise, the narrator's exploration of his own sexuality includes internalized and externalized homophobia in ways that seemed like they were intended to shock rather than interrogate.
In brief, I wanted very much to like this book. However, I could only give two stars because the flaws outweighed the positives. By the end of the book, the frequency of graphic sexual violence and scatological language seemed like cheap and juvenile attempts at shock value. The prevalent misogyny and homophobia were deeply unpleasant to read. None of the characters were likeable, not in a way that created conflict and character development, but in a way that detracted from my personal investment in them. Since I finished reading a few months ago, I found the positive aspects of the book slipped from my memory while the sour aftertaste lingers.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Excrement, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, Torture, Physical abuse, Body horror, Death, Homophobia, Gore, Rape, Sexism, and Child abuse
tink's review against another edition
Less than a dozen pages in and I've decided not to proceed with this one.
The storyline sounds excellent, the language is too violent for me.
The storyline sounds excellent, the language is too violent for me.
nikhil23's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
outcolder's review against another edition
3.0
Unpleasant, often disgusting. The near constant scatology might be “transgressive” in Jamaica, or maybe even normal, I have no idea. Do people constantly talk about piss, shit, ejaculate, penises and assholes there? For me it was like a buzzing noise I tried to ignore. I get it, the main character has a nose and so he’s smelling all this yuck all the time. The superpower of being able to track people with your nose comes with the constant smell of yuck, which presumably the Tracker got used to, but do I have to get used to reading about it? Thankfully, as the monstrous violence builds the shit references decrease.
As a fantasy series this is a good start. Unusual monsters, magical creatures and lots of witchcraft. Unreliable narrator, if that’s your thing. A couple familiar tropes get bent or shattered and there’s lots of betrayals and alliances with the baddies. It left me with enough WTF that I might read the second book, already out in paperback.
The main character is a misogynist. He at first seems unaware of it, and then in denial, like “I can’t help it if all the women I meet are evil witches.” It’s cool how this is a theme , and when women and at least one other character confront him about it we get some stuff about unresolved mother issues. He’s also the narrator though, and everyone is so annoying and snappy and so, yeah, be prepared for woman hating. Also, yeah, all the women he meets are evil, there’s one girl who is a ghost and another who ... I don’t want to spoil anything but... yeah... there are no good females in this book.
Africa. We know we’re in Africa. There’s a giant “sand sea” to the north, for one thing. Right from the start there’s the practice of leaving albinos, twins, etc in the bush, there’s genital cutting, and these are important to the first hundred pages. Slavery is also a major theme. Child “brides.” I don’t know, I mean, the effect is kind of imperialist. OK, he’s not writing for white people, he can criticize these things, but I thought it could have been handled in a more sensitive way. The main character is definitely against all of that, but that also adds to the Africa =bad, backward message. I think I would prefer some african SF. Fantasy often has this nostalgia, and I guess the grimdark trend is meant to be critical of that, that LOTR is like Winnie the Pooh thing. There’s also a lot of mixed messages about disability here. We want to save “ball boy” but the boy whose limbs have been eaten is “mercifully “ killed, for example.
Two promising things about the fantasy Africa setting for me: “White Science “ is a branch of sorcery in the book that is especially evil and when we get details it was the roughest stuff in here, had me physically reacting. The whole white science thing has definite Yacoub-NOI vibes. I would like to know if Marlon James got the white science idea from an African saga or legend and if that also informed the NOI. Definitely white science was some of the strongest stuff in here. There is also towards the end the hint of a coming apocalyptic war that sounds like white people from the West in the role of orcs. Of course it won’t be that straight forward and I don’t trust the author to not flip it, see my vague point about an imperialist vibe... but still... a united Africa fighting off the “west” ... I could get with that.
Three stars seems a bit mean for a book that put me through so much, but I am sticking to it.
As a fantasy series this is a good start. Unusual monsters, magical creatures and lots of witchcraft. Unreliable narrator, if that’s your thing. A couple familiar tropes get bent or shattered and there’s lots of betrayals and alliances with the baddies. It left me with enough WTF that I might read the second book, already out in paperback.
The main character is a misogynist. He at first seems unaware of it, and then in denial, like “I can’t help it if all the women I meet are evil witches.” It’s cool how this is a theme , and when women and at least one other character confront him about it we get some stuff about unresolved mother issues. He’s also the narrator though, and everyone is so annoying and snappy and so, yeah, be prepared for woman hating. Also, yeah, all the women he meets are evil, there’s one girl who is a ghost and another who ... I don’t want to spoil anything but... yeah... there are no good females in this book.
Africa. We know we’re in Africa. There’s a giant “sand sea” to the north, for one thing. Right from the start there’s the practice of leaving albinos, twins, etc in the bush, there’s genital cutting, and these are important to the first hundred pages. Slavery is also a major theme. Child “brides.” I don’t know, I mean, the effect is kind of imperialist. OK, he’s not writing for white people, he can criticize these things, but I thought it could have been handled in a more sensitive way. The main character is definitely against all of that, but that also adds to the Africa =bad, backward message. I think I would prefer some african SF. Fantasy often has this nostalgia, and I guess the grimdark trend is meant to be critical of that, that LOTR is like Winnie the Pooh thing. There’s also a lot of mixed messages about disability here. We want to save “ball boy” but the boy whose limbs have been eaten is “mercifully “ killed, for example.
Two promising things about the fantasy Africa setting for me: “White Science “ is a branch of sorcery in the book that is especially evil and when we get details it was the roughest stuff in here, had me physically reacting. The whole white science thing has definite Yacoub-NOI vibes. I would like to know if Marlon James got the white science idea from an African saga or legend and if that also informed the NOI. Definitely white science was some of the strongest stuff in here. There is also towards the end the hint of a coming apocalyptic war that sounds like white people from the West in the role of orcs. Of course it won’t be that straight forward and I don’t trust the author to not flip it, see my vague point about an imperialist vibe... but still... a united Africa fighting off the “west” ... I could get with that.
Three stars seems a bit mean for a book that put me through so much, but I am sticking to it.
jacobferrell's review against another edition
2.0
The prose is beautiful, but I feel like the writer was trying to keep me from immersing myself into this world.
mateyy's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
reuben_books's review against another edition
First of all, the first section of this book truly disturbed me with how obsessed the author was with breasts and breast milk... You couldn't go for a page without a batshit description of one or the other.
Aside from this, I think this book is just way too poetic for me, at least with how my brain is working at the moment. I found it hard to fully process what I was reading, which is ok for a shorter book, but for one this long I just felt lost. While I don't think this is a bad book, possibly quite the opposite, I'm not clicking with it enough to invest more time into it.
phathaway's review against another edition
Unfortunately, the accent of the narrator was too hard for me, even at slower speeds. Will have to read the physical copy
pfruit's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0