Reviews with content warning for Child death - Black Leopard, Red Wolf

It took me 15 months to read this book. A lot of it was quite a slog, I didn’t understand nearly anything that happened, and honestly I just think I’m too stupid for the way this book was written??
Having said that I have SO MANY feelings about how it ended !!?!?!

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bookishchef's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

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

2.5

Almost impossible to rate. The author is trying to tell a story in a new way (new in book form anyway).

However, it was as confusing as could be and I often lost track of who was supposed to be who. Eventually I gave up on remembering any of the characters.

Also: trigger warning for every single bad thing under the sun. There's sexual assault and graphic rape scenes of kids, women and men. There's murder, cannibalism, gore and lord knows what else.

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hellorocketship's review against another edition

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It was incredibly hard to follow. While very well done and interesting, the writing style was difficult to read and parse without taking it incredibly slowly and with a lot of rereading. If you’re used to a shift in English grammar it might be easier to read, but it often lost articles and nouns and large parts or sentences which became very tricky to follow.

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magehydrate's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

Wow this one took awhile because it’s so…. vile? Captivating? Pretentious? I feel really complicated about this book. It’s shocking to me that 1)it got published 2) it has so much hype. It’s literally on the featured shelf of the local feminist anarchist book store and I wonder if they have any idea what takes place in the book?
Marlon James is clearly a talented writer, and also seemed to have done a lot of research into African (I believe specifically west african? could be wrong) legends and myths, but still this book was at times nearly impassable. Every type of extreme sexual violence is written about in great detail, including pedophelia, beastiality, sexual torture. The list goes on—I’ve actually seen a list going around of all the “triggers” in this book. The main characters are all foul people, even in the depths of their love or flaws, they reek. Tracker, the teller of the tale, may to be blame for that, for he is a man overcome with anger and nothingness and everything is through his eyes. Even when a violent act is not being done, the characters never have kind things to say, and often their dialogue is a threat, typically sexual in nature. Aside from the sheer amount of violence, James tries too hard to make the plot complex, and loses the thread for most of the book. What could have been a cool search party journey turns into something at times totally illegible because he’s trying so hard? The dialogue is almost exclusively nonsensical riddles, which at first is sort of engaging and requires close reading, but eventually one realizes that the riddles are not opening doors to greater meaning, but rather putting off meaning entirely. (Which might actually be on purpose? So much of the book is about stories and lies, the absence and construction of truth and story. What would a character who is without any meaning at all think of meaning?)Somehow, despite all that…I read the whole thing and was drawn into the world which was huge and imaginative. The monsters are interesting, and so are the enchantments and magics, though they’re all cruel and disgusting (but shouldn’t magic be kind of unpleasant??)and I did find myself invested. It is hard to say what kind of development happens for the characters—for instance , Tracker hates women and that is brought to his attention almost 80% of the way thru the book, but the resolution is two vague sentences about finally seeing his mom again and crying at her feet. In fact it makes one wonder if James himself hates women, because he does address how little choice and mobility women have, even in this fictional non western fantasy realm, but there isn’t a single woman in the book who isn’t conniving, selfish and evil… But again, Tracker sort of admits at the beginning of the book that he might be lying, and we are reminded that this entire tale is through his lens. Man. this is a crazy book. There is so much to say about it and I know I will be thinking about it for a long time. Not sure if I will read the others in this series. Might write another review after some time, when I’ve had more time to think about it.

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arguhlincozzi's review against another edition

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It was honestly too dark for me. I was also going through a death of a friend and I couldn't handle that plus this book and its heaviness.

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nrhilmer's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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? No

5.0

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lanid's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious

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

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lochnessmaddy's review against another edition

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The writing was slow and seemed to loathe to get to the point making the story muddled and hard to follow. The main character has no investment in the world or characters around him and that distance keeps the reader from investing as well. Additionally a whole lot of t/w rape, homophobia, misogyny, and violence that in no way progresses the plot.

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