Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

93 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.

---

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

vegetablemathematics's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? Yes

4.0

i got this book from the library, so I had to read it fairly quickly--too bad, since something slow and heavy like this is better when you can really take your time with it, I think. not necessarily a "fun" read, but good and dark and ruthless. the worldbuilding is phenomenal. just don't expect a lighthearted fantasy where good things happen--this isn't that.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content and Sexual violence

Minor: Incest

aileend's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? It's complicated

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Sexual violence, Body horror, Murder, Sexual content, and Violence

book_cwtch's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No

Oy vey. Caveat, I listened to the last 200 pages after slogging through the first 400  on paper. This was pitched as Game of Thrones in Africa and aside from strange sex and lots of plot lines, I’m not sure there are additional comparisons to be made. I wanted to love this but felt it was too disjointed to keep it all straight. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Child abuse

henneyce's review against another edition

I got lost. And there was a lot of disturbing content I could not get past.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Gore, Violence, and Sexual violence

I got really excited about the potential of this book and I help on past some disturbing content but there is just a lot. There is also the trippy story telling method that leaves you completely lost in the where when and who. The main character is a tracker and identifys others by the smell of their penis... it got to be too much.

its_kievan's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

1.0

My copy of this book has rave reviews from, among others, the New York Times, the Guardian, Lousie Erdrich, and Salman Rushdie, describing it as "gripping", "extraordinary", and "a miracle". I think if they had asked me instead I would have described Black Leopard, Red Wolf as "boring", "shit", and "weirdly obsessed with incest". I might have explained that reading this book was a frustrating slog, that the supposedly artistic prose just made everything impossible to understand, or that between this and Tade Thompson's Rosewater I'm starting to wonder where all this "award-winning African SFF" is getting its awards from. But hey, nobody asked me.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Minor: Drug use and Alcoholism

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

---

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.

---

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

---

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

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

---

Content Warnings

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