Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Schwarzer Leopard, roter Wolf by Marlon James

32 reviews

softanimal's review against another edition

I love the rich imagery, imaginative storytelling, and lush world-building but the level of intensity is not where I'm at right now. Strong trigger warnings come with this one. The content warnings under "graphic" occur multiple times in each chapter.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Death, Toxic relationship, Child death, Violence, Body horror, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Murder, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Trafficking, and Misogyny

Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, War, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Infertility, Vomit, Cursing, Excrement, Homophobia, Incest, and Sexual harassment

Nearly all of this book is graphic violence, rape, and child abuse.

A major plot is about finding abused children and there multiple graphic descriptions of rapes as well as ubiquitous references to sex, gore, sexual violence, and physical and sexual abuse of children.

fox_at_the_circus's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

4.25

I really enjoyed this book. Tracker is a great main character and I love how sarcastic and cheeky he is. It makes the dialogues very funny. I liked the other characters, too. They're all well fleshed out and I like that we get a backstory for (almost) everyone.
The world this book is set in is super cool! With the main characters travelling all over the continent, we really get to see all the different cultures and cities and the differences between them. I also like how many different ways there are for people to gain some special abilities, magic, white science,.. some people, like tracker, just have a special ability and it never gets explained. It adds to the fantastical feeling of the world.

The ending really hurt me. Tracker got his nice life and a resolution and a family and it's only shown in a poem/song and then the last part takes it all away. I had tears in my eyes.

This book deals with a lot of heavy topics (see the trigger warnings), and in my opinion it does it pretty well, but it is definitely not for everyone.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Sexual violence, Rape, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death, Grief, Homophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, and Torture

Moderate: Cannibalism, Confinement, Dysphoria, War, Child abuse, and Pedophilia

Minor: War and Xenophobia

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

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

bodiesinbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Body horror, Rape, Slavery, Vomit, Child death, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Violence, War, Abandonment, Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Death, Death of parent, Excrement, Suicide, Torture, and Toxic friendship

f18's review against another edition

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Slavery, Infidelity, Sexual content, Gore, Cursing, Homophobia, Violence, Child death, Death, Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, and Blood

Moderate: Suicide, Vomit, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Incest, and Drug use

Minor: Torture, Confinement, Death of parent, Sexism, Cannibalism, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, and Misogyny

misandry fgm/circumcision bestiality

annemaries_shelves's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

4.0

tldr; incredibly violent with intensely misogynistic characters (especially the main character/narrator who has severe parent issues) but a super compelling story/atmosphere with incredible worldbuilding you're just thrown into. Also Sogolon is amazing, and knowing what her breasts look like doesn't change that fact.

Because this was a buddy read I didn't give up in the first 50 pages. Despite having read and loved A Brief History of Seven Killings, I had a harder time reconciling/handling the extreme violence and sexual, graphic nature of James's writing this time. However, it really took a turn 150 pages in and I was sucked in (like many reviews suggested would happen). The violence and the references to women's breasts never ceased, but the writing and worldbuilding and plot really compelled me to continue reading a chapter a day. James really doesn't hold his readers' hands through the novel, he expects you to keep up - something I found refreshing this time around. The ten and nine doors, which are introduced halfway through the novel, are such an inventive twist on magical doors/portals, and I loved every paragraph dedicated to them. I hope they show up again because there's so much about their existence - how they work, how long they've been around, etc. - that we don't know.

I will say that a lot of the rape, sexual assault, and violence doesn't have a strong emotional component. There's so little emotional reflection and trauma processing from every incident,

including the non-consensual bestiality with hyena women shapeshifters

, that it was only the shock value that stuck with me. When I compare and contrast with female authors writing similar violence, there's such a stark difference in how the emotional aspects are handled. Part of it is due to the unreliable, intentionally unemotional (except anger) main character whose perspective we're in throughout the text, and part of it is due to James's writing choices. Since he did (or rather didn't) have a similar approach in A Brief History, I'm inclined to think it's just a (largely negative, to me) aspect of his writing. 

My other main critique is the pacing is a little off. He will spend so much time having his characters travel, and explore the world and their pasts, and then build-up to a key action sequence or information reveal. And then it's over in 2-5 pages. And we're on to the next scene. For example, the Darklands are hailed as big and scary and fucked up (think Mirkwood or Fangorn Forest of LOTR but wayyyyy worse) and then it was a short chapter. I was constantly disappointed that we didn't spend a lot of time in key action scenes, or seeing the fallout of the characters actions.

Like in Dolingo, there's a slave revolt after it's revealed that the city uses slaves in the walls and interiors to mechanically manipulate the city. And we're thrown in the middle of the action with very little pages dedicated to it.

I'm hoping that some of it's intentional as the sequels are intended to explore the same events through different perspectives. Like Sogolon's. 

Speaking of Sogolon - she's one of my favourite characters. For all that James can't seem to ignore women's breasts in his writing, he sure knows how to write (mostly tough) female characters that exist wholly in and of themselves, and are constantly pointing out the inequities and problems women face in this world. All the female characters had great insights into both Tracker (our MC) and the world's attitudes and actions towards women. 

There's also a lot of queerness throughout the book. This world both accepts and villifies homosexuality and it's talked about in a lot of violent, less than nice ways. Yet, throughout the novel, Tracker, and other gay characters, come to terms with their identities - however, this is NOT a novel about exploring your sexual identity and becoming comfortable with who you are. That's very much tertiary, almost subtext, element.

That said, I was rooting for Mossi and Tracker so hard, since Leopard kinda ditched for middle of the book.

In addition to the queer elements, there's a fair amount of discussion (really mostly through dialogue) of gender roles, women as witches, slavery, skin colour, and tribal/political conflicts. James really packed a lot into his fantasy mythology novel!

Finally, I will say that the final section felt disjointed. The main portion of the story finishes in Section 4, with Section 5 as an interlude of 4 years in verse. Section 6 then rushes through the second tracking of the child (which is mentioned at the beginning of the book) with unsatisfactory explanations of what's happening and lots of missing information. Again, I can only hope that it's explored in the sequels because as an ending to what was up until that point a relatively standalone novel, it was a bit of a letdown. We very much ended in the middle of the grand, mythological, story. 

Overall, for those who can handle (or want to handle) *really* dark, violent, sexist/misogynistic (from characters, not the author himself) fantasy, I recommend giving Black Leopard, Red Wolf a try. It's a long read, and there's a bit of work on your end (maps and character lists are provided) but a worthwhile story if you jive with it. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual assault, Slavery, and Torture

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Animal death

Minor: Pedophilia

finn_vibing's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-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? It's complicated

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Child death, Death, Animal death, Slavery, Sexual violence, Violence, and Rape

Moderate: Sexism

Minor: Homophobia

maya_7's review against another edition

This book isn't for me st this time

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, Torture, Sexual content, and Sexual assault