Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

88 reviews

cozycoterie's review against another edition

It's a harsh start with a shifting narrative perspective and graphic details of child marriage and SA

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Child abuse

kaseyd's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-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? It's complicated

2.0

I really wanted to like this book, but finishing it was an absolute chore. I knew very early on I disliked it but powered through to give it a chance. The audiobook was 24 hours long and truly maybe six of those hours were actually necessary to the plot. So much of this massive novel was unconnected random stories that were gross, repetitive, and a drag. I fell asleep listening to this, didn’t go back to listen to what I’d missed, and at no point was confused because nothing in the entire hour I slept was actually important to the story. I hate when authors think that for their fantasy to be taken seriously they have to make it disgusting, crass, and disturbing to read. This book is not worth all the time it takes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Cursing, Sexual assault, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Blood, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Child abuse, Kidnapping, and Misogyny

Minor: Body horror, Ableism, Slavery, Confinement, Homophobia, and Cannibalism

pidge25's review against another edition

Just doesn’t feel worth it. It’s a dark slog

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Rape

haddy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

2.5

It took me 15 months to read this book. A lot of it was quite a slog, I didn’t understand nearly anything that happened, and honestly I just think I’m too stupid for the way this book was written?? 
Having said that I have SO MANY feelings about how it ended !!?!?!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Excrement, Gore, Rape, Misogyny, Body horror, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, and Violence

bookishchef's review against another edition

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? Yes

2.5

Almost impossible to rate. The author is trying to tell a story in a new way (new in book form anyway).

However, it was as confusing as could be and I often lost track of who was supposed to be who. Eventually I gave up on remembering any of the characters. 

Also: trigger warning for every single bad thing under the sun. There's sexual assault and graphic rape scenes of kids, women and men. There's murder, cannibalism, gore and lord knows what else.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Torture, Toxic friendship, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Death, Cursing, and Homophobia

rc_boxnut's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Rape, Misogyny, Slavery, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Pedophilia

magehydrate's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

Wow this one took awhile because it’s so…. vile? Captivating? Pretentious? I feel really complicated about this book. It’s shocking to me that 1)it got published 2) it has so much hype. It’s literally on the featured shelf of the local feminist anarchist book store and I wonder if they have any idea what takes place in the book? 
Marlon James is clearly a talented writer, and also seemed to have done a lot of research into African (I believe specifically west african? could be wrong) legends and myths, but still this book was at times nearly impassable. Every type of extreme sexual violence is written about in great detail, including pedophelia, beastiality, sexual torture. The list goes on—I’ve actually seen a list going around of all the “triggers” in this book. The main characters are all foul people, even in the depths of their love or flaws, they reek. Tracker, the teller of the tale, may to be blame for that, for he is a man overcome with anger and nothingness and everything is through his eyes. Even when a violent act is not being done, the characters never have kind things to say, and often their dialogue is a threat, typically sexual in nature. Aside from the sheer amount of violence, James tries too hard to make the plot complex, and loses the thread for most of the book. What could have been a cool search party journey turns into something at times totally illegible because he’s trying so hard? The dialogue is almost exclusively nonsensical riddles, which at first is sort of engaging and requires close reading, but eventually one realizes that the riddles are not opening doors to greater meaning, but rather putting off meaning entirely. (Which might actually be on purpose? So much of the book is about stories and lies, the absence and construction of truth and story. What would a character who is without any meaning at all think of meaning?)Somehow, despite all that…I read the whole thing and was drawn into the world which was huge and imaginative. The monsters are interesting, and so are  the enchantments and magics, though they’re all cruel and disgusting (but shouldn’t magic be kind of unpleasant??)and I did find myself invested. It is hard to say what kind of development happens for the characters—for instance , Tracker hates women and that is brought to his attention almost 80% of the way thru the book, but the resolution is two vague sentences about finally seeing his mom again and crying at her feet. In fact it makes one wonder if James himself hates women, because he does address how little choice and mobility women have, even in this fictional non western fantasy realm, but there isn’t a single woman in the book who isn’t conniving, selfish and evil… But again, Tracker sort of admits at the beginning of the book that he might be lying, and we are reminded that this entire tale is through his lens. Man. this is a crazy book. There is so much to say about it and I know I will be thinking about it for a long time. Not sure if I will read the others in this series. Might write another review after some time, when I’ve had more time to think about it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Incest, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Rape, Trafficking, Transphobia, Child abuse, Child death, Sexual assault, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Excrement, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Torture

arguhlincozzi's review

It was honestly too dark for me. I was also going through a death of a friend and I couldn't handle that plus this book and its heaviness. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Kidnapping, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Abandonment, Blood, Death, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Cannibalism

nrhilmer's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Violence, Abandonment, Body horror, Cannibalism, Cursing, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Trafficking, Child death, Death, Grief, Animal death, Blood, Gore, Infidelity, Transphobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Addiction, Alcohol, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Torture, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Incest, Sexism, Rape, War, and Xenophobia

lochnessmaddy's review

The writing was slow and seemed to loathe to get to the point making the story muddled and hard to follow. The main character has no investment in the world or characters around him and that distance keeps the reader from investing as well. Additionally a whole lot of t/w rape, homophobia, misogyny, and violence that in no way progresses the plot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Rape, War, Child abuse, Excrement, Child death, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, and Slavery