Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Schwarzer Leopard, roter Wolf by Marlon James

77 reviews

jessthanthree's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Rape, Blood, Body horror, Violence, Sexual assault, Slavery, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Torture, Sexual violence, Murder, Grief, Child death, Child abuse, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Incest, Classism, Cannibalism, Pedophilia, Homophobia, Excrement, and Drug use

Minor: War

gone_awry's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense fast-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

4.25

A dark and graphic adventure horror book that holds compelling roots in various African mythologies, and explores queer identities and realities within the context of this grime backdrop. A powerful example of an author working with unlikable characters who lack an awareness of their own short comings, and a compelling rejection of traditional adventure tropes and narratives even as the book proceeds as an adventure. Many rejected calls to adventure, many choices regrettable and cruel. The you main character learns early on from his mentor “no one loves no one” and that ideology permeates so much of his worldview from then on. Fascinating, terrifying, and wholly unique. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Child abuse, Colonisation, Sexual violence, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Racism, Death, Body horror, and War

ambergrewal's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Rape, Pedophilia, Slavery, Violence, and Death

justinlife's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

A love a pretty cover and this one is gorge. That’s the main reason I bought it. The book is really good. It’s also a black queer writer writing a black queer fantasy, which I didn’t know going in and LOVED!

It’s an epic, it’s mythology (and all the fuckery that entails), it’s fantasy, it’s a mystery novel, and it combines these genres nicely. 

I see comparisons to Game of Thrones, but I didn’t read those nor watch many of the episodes. Maybe the cruelness and the casualness of abuse and violence is similar. It was a bit rough to get through but overall it’s a really good book with a complicated story and complex characters. And also YAY BLACK QUEER STORIES!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child death, Cursing, Gore, Grief, Rape, Death, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Torture

Moderate: Incest, Cannibalism, and Infidelity

catsforlenny's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I have such mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, the pacing is very slow so it's quite hard to get through, especially the first 200 pages. Also it has very graphic depictions of violence and rape and it's very dark overall. On the other hand, the writing style is very beautiful and I grew to love the characters.
Overall I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone, and I won't be reading the next ones in the series but I did enjoy some parts of it.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death, Gore, and Incest

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

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

cameroncl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-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

3.25

A book that I felt like I should've liked more than I did. Dense, nonlinear plot that is very hard to make sense of until the halfway point, at which point the book gets much better. A mix of the style of the Greek epics, African folk mythology, and interesting takes on fantasy tropes and conventions.

The book is also *ferociously* violent. There's brutal violence - physical, sexual, emotional - on almost every page, and it means there's a hard ceiling on how much you can read in one sitting.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual violence, and Slavery

This book is *ferociously* violent from start to finish.

mmcloe's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-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

5.0

Iconic, unstoppable, baffling, unlike anything else in fantasy

From my second reading: even better! I could make a lot more sense of where things were situated temporally and I simply love how non-Western sexualities and approaches to human/nature divide appear in the very way that the book is written. I'm so excited to read Moon Witch Spider King. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Violence, Rape, Slavery, Gore, and Torture

rubyellen95's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

Trigger warnings for most things that could be triggering so proceed with care. A dark tale of a man who was hired to find a missing boy ten years ago and tells his story to an inquisitor after that same boy has died.

Magic, myth, mystery and graphic psychological horror abound wrapped in a queer romantic adventure about love, family, found family, masculinity, and pride.

There's also misogyny but it's explored as a character flaw of the character that most displays it.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Death, Dysphoria, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, and War

Beastiality takes place but there wasn't a content warning for that. I've put all content warnings as graphic as you're very invovled with the characters that experience them and the writing is very blunt so it can be shocking but for most content warnings and readers I would suggest it's more around the moderate warning but better safe than sorry