Reviews

Moon Witch, Spider King by Marlon James

simonereadsbooks's review

adventurous challenging dark funny tense slow-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

3.75

freb's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

adrien's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

t0nym3atballs's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.5

dishlib's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

ridanwise's review

5.0

177/5⭐️
Tried as I did, couldn’t make this book last forever.
If you are a fan of BLRW, you’ll love this book more. If BLRW rubbed you the wrong way, you’ll love this book more.
If you are a writer with your own aspirations to grandeur, please be wary, Marlon will humble you.
Best book I’ve read this year. Top five books I have read in all of my life.

lowercase_em's review against another edition

challenging mysterious slow-paced

1.0

noranne's review against another edition

3.0

So I tried the first book in this series and bounced off it pretty hard, but I heard the second book could be read on its own, so I decided to give it a shot. I'm glad I did, as it was much easier for me to get into and I could somewhat follow what was happening. I will say I do not think this is a great choice for audiobook. The narrator is great, but I have a harder time following things and this was very long and dense and I definitely missed a few things here and there along the way that I probably would have picked up if I was reading. Also the audiobook is so damn long that even listening on 1.5x speed and listening basically every day, my library loan ended before I finished and I had to wait on hold again!

The story focuses on Sogolon, the "Moon Witch" (not a witch). I was a bit confused at first but then it seemed like a recognizable plot was emerging and then BAM no that's not it...sorry, Eminy. Towards the end/late middle, she finally intersects with the characters I recognized from what I read of the first book (Tracker, Leopard, and the mingy children). This may have benefited from actually finishing the first book, as I could tell some things were being skipped over and that there was more story there from other POVs. Not quite enough to make me want to wade back in book 1 though!

Anyway, I'm glad I read this one. Definitely some interesting characters, although they're all intensely flawed which made it a little hard to engage at times. Like one nice person would have been too much to ask?? Also this book is very crude, which doesn't usually bother me but I got pretty sick of hearing about everybody's "coo", especially as every time I was vividly aware this was written by a man.

marymaryhelen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

heathenhuffle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25