Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - At Night All Blood is Black

I’m a little torn about this one, to be honest. I really enjoyed the writing, it’s very compelling (God’s truth, repetitive though it is). But what I don’t enjoy is the weirdly objectifying sexual imagery. Like, I get it, the trench is your home and because your mommy left when you were a kid you think of it as a womb, so you think of its entrance as a vagina, but still. It’s weird without really making a point. I really would like to pretend that there is a legitimate reason for including this imagery that I’m too dumb to understand because I’m not a literary academic, and I want to pretend that this isn’t just — to bring my own gratuitous sexual metaphor into it — society having a boner for objectifying women and seeing them suffering. Of course both of those things could be true, but if it’s only one of them, I think we all know which one is the more likely candidate.

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bealmg's review against another edition

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challenging 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? No

3.0

At Night All Blood is Black (I read the Portuguese translation, De Noite Todo o Sangue é Negro) is a story about two Senegalese soldiers fighting for France in WWI. I had never read a book about soldiers from colonised countries being forced to fight for their colonisers, so I thought this would be an interesting one to read.
It touches on issues such as colonialism, racism and identity through the eyes of Alfa Ndiaye, who has just witnessed the death of his great friend, 'more-than-brother' Mademba Diop. Triggered by this event, his mind spirals downwards. Facing the horrors and dull repetitiveness of the trenches, Ndiaye goes mad. He becomes what his white captain wants black soldiers to become - savages, to instill fear in the minds of the German soldiers on the other side.
The writing style, although exhausting for its repetitiveness, is what shines in this short novel. Its repetitiveness mirrors both the daily life in the trenches and Ndiaye's mind. Traumatised by Diop's death, Ndiaye's mind cannot move on from that horrifying event and the author perfectly portrayed this state-of-mind, in my opinion.
However, I was not a fan of how the author portrayed women in this novel. There were way too many metaphors involving women's genitalia (I still don't know why he chose to compare the trenches to a woman's genitalia and womb?) and the two female characters were nothing but sexual objects for the narrator. This actually upset me more than the images of violence and blood.
Overall, it's an interesting novel, although I was expecting more.

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bookishbrenbren's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Alfa, a young Senegalese man, goes to France with his best friend to fight in WWI and loses both his friend and his sanity in the process.

This was a good examination of war and trauma and defense mechanisms brains struggling with PTSD will use to protect themselves. I enjoyed the fusion of, like, oral storytelling mechanisms? If that's how you'd call them. The commentary on racism at the front was also very well written and well-incorporated into the story but, on the whole, I just really mostly feel like WTF did I just read? Like, no plot all vibes, but also there is some plot but secondary to the story?

Also, the MC raped a female character for symbolism and I just didn't find it all that necessary to promote the author's point. It feels like this whole story was about how these Senegalese men were duped into war, which in the author's point is the ultimate act of victimization, of violation, and then he holds up an actual rape and is like "we're both raped now" like oh nice you really got back at those racist colonizer french aristocrats by raping this random white woman. Shrug.

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breazatoth's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

incredibly dark, but thought-provoking

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