Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

102 reviews

fravenwood's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

What is this man's obsession with
rape and pedophilia
???

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octoberharbor's review

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I did not enjoy the narrative voice of the book. I understand the point to have an unreliable narrator and hearing the story from his perspective, and I see we weren't always supposed to like, agree or support why he did the things he did, but their was just something grating about the style. I had to keep forcing myself to engage, even though I did really like the journey and was invested in seeing the main character overcome his trials and personal bias. He used his trauma as an excuse for his sexiest attitude toward women which, again we weren't supposed to agree with it, but it was still annoying. I did emphasize with the main character's anger at times, his bitterness towards his culture, family, upbringing, society in general. I saw how that bitterness soaked through to the bones and cut him as deeply as he tried to hurt others and push them away. I loved seeing him  find love after struggling and losing it was devastating. I think if the narrative device was different I could see myself definitely picking up the next book, but for now I don't see myself having the time. 

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hello_kara's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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
If you have any triggers, just imagine this book as one big red flag. Horribly brutal and violent. Cruel and gruesome. Intensely graphic and crass. Disorienting and unnerving. 

This is not a comfortable or easy read. But content riddled with trauma should not be comfortable. Gratuitous mention of shit, piss, blood, rape, gang rape, genital mutilation, child abandonment and sacrifice, kidnapping, corruption, slavery, torture, dismemberment, and murder. Is the overall story still intriguing though? Yes. Not a book I could ever rate on a simple scale though.

“There was always someone or some two or some three who will grab me like a stick and break me, grab me like wet cloth, and wring everything out of me. And that was just the way of the world. That was the way of everybody’s world.”

Took me forever to get through this one, and I didn’t feel invested until about a third of the way through. That’s also about how long it takes to get to the advertised plot of the book. I was drawn in by the premise of an epic quest of a group of people each with different supernatural gifts, knowledge, or skill, with the goal of finding a missing child of prophecy. The story is told from the point of view of Tracker, The Red Wolf, and is being told to the Inquisitor questioning him regarding this quest. Rooted in African inspired mythologies and folklore, this quest takes them to several different cities, through cursed lands and hidden doorways, and they cross paths with a plethora of terrifying creatures. 

This book is the first in a planned trilogy, with each book more companion than sequel, telling the story from different points of view. I think it’s a very interesting concept, especially with unreliable narrators, a plot thick with political intrigue, characters with supernatural gifts and some with unnaturally long life spans. At times the writing was rich and easily immersive, other times disorienting with a stream-of-consciousness-mania. The style was so unlike other books I’ve read. 

Audiobook performance was excellent, but with the writing style it was difficult at times to tell when characters switched back and forth during dialogue. I did read along with the ebook for most of this which helped. There are also several maps and character lists at the beginning of the book. 

“We don't own truth. Truth is truth and nothing you can do about it even if you hide it, or kill it, or even tell it. It was truth before you open your mouth and say, That there is a true thing.”

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sepptb's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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

3.75


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abnerbee's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

3.0

Incredible mythology and great lore but so, so graphic

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bookishkarina's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

1.5

Hated this. Disgusting and vulgar language that was so unnecessary. Women were described in such a foul way for no reason whatsoever. Has pedophelia, violent rape scenes, bestiality and so much more disturbing and disgusting stuff. I was in pain the entire time. Read something else. Don’t go through the pain and suffering I did.

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jleohirsch's review

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samanthaleereads's review

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0


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literarygrooves's review

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Really wanted to love this book but it just wasn’t working for me. Lengthy sections of dialogue not indicating who was speaking with more than 2 characters involved. Jumping timelines that made it difficult for me to get and stay involved in the main storyline. Usually these are things that work just fine for me, but in this case were executed in such a way that left me consistently confused. That on top of what felt like consistent misogyny, graphic violence & SA - If I was more invested in the story or characters, I would’ve probably found it worth my time to push through my issues but I found myself just not caring enough to push through another 400+ pages. Please check content warnings before reading this book!

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clarisreads's review

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

The plot was good, it was incredibly graphic and barbaric. I found it hard to read and am honestly relieved it’s over. I won’t be reading the rest of the trilogy. But I did think about the characters a lot while reading. 

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