Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

89 reviews

nrhilmer's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Violence, Abandonment, Body horror, Cannibalism, Cursing, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Trafficking, Child death, Death, Grief, Animal death, Blood, Gore, Infidelity, Transphobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Addiction, Alcohol, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Torture, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Incest, Sexism, Rape, War, and Xenophobia

malimaan's review against another edition

i tried to like this book, but the general descriptions of women, genitalia, graphic rape and incest, as well as bestiality made this a book I just couldn't get done..
every time I thought about opening the book i started to feel dread because it just made me so uncomfortable. 
the writing itself is really complicated and often poetic, which I appreciated. in the end, however, neither the promising story nor the writing style was entirely to keep me interested enough to finish.

i feel like this book is a good book for some people but the graphic details were just too much to make it enjoyable for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Incest, Cannibalism, Rape, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death of parent, Excrement, Gore, Sexual assault, War, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual content, Confinement, Slavery, Xenophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Trafficking, and Torture

there is a scene in which the MC is gang raped by hyenas. additionally there are several instances of bestiality.

christina_ro's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious

• 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

3.5

This was an intensely challenging read. The style of writing was difficult for me. I’m not sure if it was the authors style or an African mythology style of storytelling, but it took me a little while to adjust. However, once I adjusted, the story was compelling and enchanting. 

If you have any concerns about trigger warnings around any kind of violence, I’d google the warnings for this book. The graphic violence of this book was probably the hardest part for me. There are certain scenes where the violence and detailed descriptions add weight and emotion, but there are a number of times where I didn’t feel it added anything to the story. I’m not typically one for gratuitous violence or gore, but it caught me off guard and since I was reading it for my book club, I pushed through. 
Overall, I’m glad that I finished this book, and James is certainly a talented author, but I’m not sure I would read more from the author if his other books are this graphic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Death, Grief, Excrement, Violence, Blood, War, Animal death, Child death, Torture, Slavery, Rape, Pedophilia, Incest, Domestic abuse, Gore, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Homophobia

podanotherjessi's review

adventurous challenging 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

4.5

It is really difficult to sum up how I feel about this book because it's such a complicated and nuanced book that I am not nearly smart enough to get everything from in just one read through. There are themes in there that I could still be unpacking after many years and many reads. I liked the book a lot, but it's hard to say I liked the experience of reading it. But I also really enjoyed having the story told to me in the audiobook. It really makes the whole thing come to life. It was slow to get into the book, and it's not a book I could just casually read. It really takes focus. But once the story started rolling and I was clicked in, I couldn't look away. There was a surprising exploration of family I did not expect, with one of the more unique and interesting examples of found family I've read (which is a trope I love anyway). The story telling is really on another level, both the writing itself and the narration. My one major complaint would be the pacing, but it feels intentional, just not to my tastes. A kind of back and forth pacing of things slowing down right when it was getting the most exciting. The ending in particular suffered from this to me. I think this has the brutality and intrique of A Song of Ice and Fire (but done infinitely better imo), with the story telling style of Dandelion Dynasty, and the tone of Goliath by Tochi Onyebuchi. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, and Gore

Moderate: Sexual assault

trippalli's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

1.0

This story alternated between offensive, upsetting and horrifying and boring or uninteresting... I am not easily bored but the plot was scant and the characters dark and mean mostly.. a few times I got interested in what might happen but then another chase began. It seemed like endless hopelessness in a race through the dark to save a kid that just never ended. I would've DNF this book of our wasn't an  audio version. Instead I died it up but it didn't improve

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Kidnapping, Racism, Violence, Bullying, Child death, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Infertility, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Genocide, Gore, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Ableism, Animal death, Hate crime, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Rape, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Confinement, Grief, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Trafficking, Physical abuse, and Sexual violence

betamagnificus's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, War, Torture, Violence, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Murder, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Incest, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Sexual content

thenymphsvoice's review

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

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

I saw someone else said this is like a fever or drug induced dream and… fuck the gods they ain’t wrong. 

However that’s not a bad thing. BLRW is a wild ride, I found the characters compelling, funny, sad, rage inducing.

This story was not afraid to deal with harsh realities even if this is a fantasy. 

Trackers life is disjointed and many times dehumanizing. They struggle to understand themselves and their world, as it often changes with the snap of a finger around them. 

They adapt they hurt, they grow or don’t in the perfectly imperfect way people do. 

What I would say to anyone going into reading this is, prepare yourself to not always understand what is happening. That is a reflection of the characters confusion of events and the way their life has been broken by the traumas they have and do endure. (At least that’s how it read to me.)

The mystery and journey is second to me to the journey that Tracker is on in their own head. Invest in Trackers experience. 

Also… if you can think of it Trigger/Content Warning. It’s in this book. Be prepared.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Homophobia, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Excrement, Grief, Abortion, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Colonisation, Cursing, Drug abuse, Gore, Murder, Torture, Toxic friendship, Transphobia, Violence, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, and War

Just like all the things, this book is not for the faint of heart or easily triggered.

cyngharris's review

adventurous challenging dark sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Vomit, Slavery, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Murder, Body horror, Death, Cursing, Cannibalism, Excrement, Blood, Rape, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Trafficking, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Torture, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Confinement

natalie1227's review

I was not a fan of the language and I have a hard time understanding the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Misogyny, Incest, Sexual content, Sexism, Sexual harassment, and Sexual assault

vedpears'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? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.25

What a challenging read - not because of the writing style, but because of the content. 
Abundant run on sentences took some getting used to, but I managed to navigate that just fine. 
I enjoyed how the story was written in such a way that it was like viewing a large photo by zooming in, then zooming out a bit, zooming in somewhere nearby, zooming out again until the whole picture is revealed.
What I did not enjoy was the overwhelming number of elements that would warrant trigger warnings: sex, rape, child abuse, pedophilia, slavery, bodily harm, mutilation, murder, combinations of all of those at once with a gratuitous serving of explicit language. 
The overarching story is intriguing. The characters and concepts borrowed from African history and mythology were woven in very well. If this were written to be less corrosive on the psyche, I would have rated it higher.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Biphobia, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Cursing, Gore, Misogyny, Vomit, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Ableism, Addiction, Slavery, Stalking, Abandonment, Child abuse, Child death, Homophobia, Incest, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Cannibalism, Emotional abuse, Dysphoria, Excrement, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Transphobia, Violence, and Xenophobia

It basically has all the trigger warnings, including infanticide.