Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Leopardo negro, lobo rojo by Marlon James

88 reviews

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

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

mcz_reads'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

3.5

This is a difficult book to review, just as it was a difficult book to read. The narrative resists becoming clear until it is good and ready; when it is clear, it's fantastic.

This book has a lot to say about power, corruption, sexuality, as well as homophobia and misogyny. These themes are addressed through a cast of characters I grew to love. Our antihero Tracker's journey is immensely satisfying, and I particularly enjoyed the arc of Sadogo. The dialogue can be hard to follow because it doesn't follow traditional forms for speech on a page, and only a few characters have distinct voices. The dialogue isn't only unreliable--it's deliberately obscured. But overall the writing style is excellent. It's particularly percussive and poetic when read aloud. When I finally got into the flow of the story, I was swept away.

The content is probably the most challenging aspect of the book. There is violence, gore, torture, and rape throughout the story. These are part of the story because of the earlier-mentioned themes, but I think there is room for discussion about intentionally crafted violence in art. Depictions of violence are necessary to demonstrate the consequences of violence, but how many scenes are necessary to convey the novel's idea?

I did enjoy the book and I'm looking forward to its sequel. I would recommend this book to fans of fantasy and classic epics.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, and Violence

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

mmcloe's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-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

5.0

Iconic, unstoppable, baffling, unlike anything else in fantasy

From my second reading: even better! I could make a lot more sense of where things were situated temporally and I simply love how non-Western sexualities and approaches to human/nature divide appear in the very way that the book is written. I'm so excited to read Moon Witch Spider King. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

okokapi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Gore, Incest, Misogyny, Sexual content, Torture, and Abandonment

rubyellen95's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.25

Trigger warnings for most things that could be triggering so proceed with care. A dark tale of a man who was hired to find a missing boy ten years ago and tells his story to an inquisitor after that same boy has died.

Magic, myth, mystery and graphic psychological horror abound wrapped in a queer romantic adventure about love, family, found family, masculinity, and pride.

There's also misogyny but it's explored as a character flaw of the character that most displays it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Incest, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Beastiality takes place but there wasn't a content warning for that. I've put all content warnings as graphic as you're very invovled with the characters that experience them and the writing is very blunt so it can be shocking but for most content warnings and readers I would suggest it's more around the moderate warning but better safe than sorry

rusya's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

One of the best books I've read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, and Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty

bodiesinbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and War

f18's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug use, Incest, Suicide, and Vomit

Minor: Body horror, Confinement, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Cannibalism, and Death of parent

misandry fgm/circumcision bestiality