Reviews tagging 'Death'

Leopardo nero, lupo rosso by Marlon James

92 reviews

jialianyang's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Wow. A mind-bending page turner with lush, fantastical, vivid descriptions and plot twists and turns. This is a book about friendship, lovers, war, kingdoms and queendoms, myth, adventure, and family that focuses on what or whom is worth fighting for. This is a book that you should not put down because each read will plunge you deep into this world of magical and fantastical characters and events. The story spins beautiful and horrific and awesome tales of loyalty and treachery, of kindness and cruelty, all wrapped up in cultural references to myth and religion. There are worlds within worlds here. Do not pick up this book if you're not ready to get lost.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Cursing, Death, Grief, and Rape

Moderate: Animal death, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, War, Abandonment, and Adult/minor relationship

gone_awry's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

A dark and graphic adventure horror book that holds compelling roots in various African mythologies, and explores queer identities and realities within the context of this grime backdrop. A powerful example of an author working with unlikable characters who lack an awareness of their own short comings, and a compelling rejection of traditional adventure tropes and narratives even as the book proceeds as an adventure. Many rejected calls to adventure, many choices regrettable and cruel. The you main character learns early on from his mentor “no one loves no one” and that ideology permeates so much of his worldview from then on. Fascinating, terrifying, and wholly unique. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Child abuse, Colonisation, Sexual violence, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Racism, Death, Body horror, and War

ambergrewal's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Rape, Pedophilia, Slavery, Violence, and Death

justinlife's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

A love a pretty cover and this one is gorge. That’s the main reason I bought it. The book is really good. It’s also a black queer writer writing a black queer fantasy, which I didn’t know going in and LOVED!

It’s an epic, it’s mythology (and all the fuckery that entails), it’s fantasy, it’s a mystery novel, and it combines these genres nicely. 

I see comparisons to Game of Thrones, but I didn’t read those nor watch many of the episodes. Maybe the cruelness and the casualness of abuse and violence is similar. It was a bit rough to get through but overall it’s a really good book with a complicated story and complex characters. And also YAY BLACK QUEER STORIES!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child death, Cursing, Gore, Grief, Rape, Death, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Torture

Moderate: Incest, Cannibalism, and Infidelity

vstarks_film's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual assault, Murder, Rape, and Violence

catsforlenny's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I have such mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, the pacing is very slow so it's quite hard to get through, especially the first 200 pages. Also it has very graphic depictions of violence and rape and it's very dark overall. On the other hand, the writing style is very beautiful and I grew to love the characters.
Overall I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone, and I won't be reading the next ones in the series but I did enjoy some parts of it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death, Gore, and Incest

annabelreading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Excrement, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Torture

abbyleinbach's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

I don't think I could ever explain this book to people, but I really enjoyed it. This is not a book I would recommend to everyone, but the story really enthralled me. 
This is a dark, unhappy book. There's rape and murder in fairly graphic detail. Every character is morally grey. If that's not something that you enjoy, I don't recommend this book. What kept me reading was the world building and the relationships, platonic and romantic. 
One thing I did not like about this book was the main character's hatred towards women. I don't think this went unexamined, but I also feel like ultimately, his hatred was validated. 
If you decide to read this book, I highly recommend reading the book and listening to the audiobook in tandem. That really helped me to understand it and get through it. Seeing the maps was also helpful and was very fun.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, and Pedophilia

mermaidsherbet's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Sexual content, Torture, and Violence

samanthand's review against another edition

Disgusting, dense, and pretentious. Was a struggle to even get to 150 pages.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Excrement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence