Reviews with content warning for War - Nachts ist unser Blut schwarz

God's truth, the story takes place amidst the harsh conditions of World War I trenches, featuring Alfa Ndiaye, a black Senegalese soldier serving in a French army division known as the "Chocolate" army. Unable to bring himself to end the suffering of his critically wounded friend Mademba, Alfa spirals into madness and starts brutally murder his enemies in gruesome ways. As a grim token, he takes one of their severed hands as a trophy after each deadly act.

I would glue myself to Mademba so the bullet that killed him would kill me, or the bullet that missed him would miss me.

The story is terrifying, gruesome, violent, graphic and repetitive. The last part went a bit of the rails and was more confusing and this downgraded my rating.

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hmbk's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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suchsweetsorrow89's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Seeing as this book was gifted to me, I really wanted to like it. In thinking of the pros, it is a short and simple read, the plot goes on rather fast. It has all of the parts necessary to make it a good and reflective read, especially for those who are either in a reading slump or just a beginner in diving into the grotesque genre and imagining what critical thought looks like.

That being said, I think my main problem with this book was the translation of it. One of the biggest challenges with translation work is that you want to save all the nitty gritty— all the small things that make the book uniquely it. However, one of the pitfalls of that is that more often than not keeping the nitty gritty can lend to it reading repetitively to the point of it almost feeling like it "tries too hard" to be literature— to the point where it often falls flat, or the book constantly moves at an inconsistent pace of fast and slow. Especially towards the end, I found myself saying "Wait— how did we get here?" or "What's the main point of this?" Though I guess the second question, in some ways, is the point of the book and it becomes especially clear at the end. This book forces you to sit down, draw your mind back, and paint images in your head of what it could all possibly mean. It forces you to cringe, to feel bored at some parts and fast at others in order to truly get a glimpse of what it means to go mad. What it means to be separated yet ultimately connected to those you love? Care for? Trust? It's never quite defined— and in some ways that is what this work feels intended to be. Undefined. There is beauty in this book, do not get me wrong. But sometimes, that beauty is really hard to find, as I am sure it is hard to preserve and replicate as a translator.

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