Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

35 reviews

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

christina_ro's review

challenging dark mysterious

• 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

3.5

This was an intensely challenging read. The style of writing was difficult for me. I’m not sure if it was the authors style or an African mythology style of storytelling, but it took me a little while to adjust. However, once I adjusted, the story was compelling and enchanting. 

If you have any concerns about trigger warnings around any kind of violence, I’d google the warnings for this book. The graphic violence of this book was probably the hardest part for me. There are certain scenes where the violence and detailed descriptions add weight and emotion, but there are a number of times where I didn’t feel it added anything to the story. I’m not typically one for gratuitous violence or gore, but it caught me off guard and since I was reading it for my book club, I pushed through. 
Overall, I’m glad that I finished this book, and James is certainly a talented author, but I’m not sure I would read more from the author if his other books are this graphic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Death, Grief, Excrement, Violence, Blood, War, Animal death, Child death, Torture, Slavery, Rape, Pedophilia, Incest, Domestic abuse, Gore, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Homophobia

amsu's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I completely agree with Neil Gaiman: " A dangerous, hallucinatory, ancient Africa, which becomes a fantasy world as well realized as anything Tolkin made."
I loved the narration style, the way you have to go along with it to piece together the story, the quest is fun, the world building amazing.... I highly recommend this book.

A few things I have to mention for everyone wanting to read this book:

It is an amazing quest story, with great characters, but this book is a very  hard and heavy read. The characters in this book suffer a lot and also take very questionable actions themselves. I would recommend reading the trigger warnings, as this book contains very graphic and gory violence (of all sorts).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Slavery, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Child abuse, Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Homophobia and Cannibalism

Minor: War, Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, and Toxic friendship

The main character of this book, has a very strongly negative and judgmental opinion of women, which becomes clear whenever he interacts with any of the female characters that pop up in the story. That was, in the beginning very hard to read, as I wasn't sure if it was a case of a male author writing female character or if it was just the depiction of that specific character. It becomes clear in the story though, that it is in fact the second of these options, as the characters opinion is questioned and critiqued several times during the course of the book .

trippalli's review

dark sad tense medium-paced

1.0

This story alternated between offensive, upsetting and horrifying and boring or uninteresting... I am not easily bored but the plot was scant and the characters dark and mean mostly.. a few times I got interested in what might happen but then another chase began. It seemed like endless hopelessness in a race through the dark to save a kid that just never ended. I would've DNF this book of our wasn't an  audio version. Instead I died it up but it didn't improve

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Kidnapping, Racism, Violence, Bullying, Child death, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Infertility, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Genocide, Gore, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Ableism, Animal death, Hate crime, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Rape, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Confinement, Grief, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual harassment, Trafficking, Physical abuse, and Sexual violence

thenymphsvoice's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

I saw someone else said this is like a fever or drug induced dream and… fuck the gods they ain’t wrong. 

However that’s not a bad thing. BLRW is a wild ride, I found the characters compelling, funny, sad, rage inducing.

This story was not afraid to deal with harsh realities even if this is a fantasy. 

Trackers life is disjointed and many times dehumanizing. They struggle to understand themselves and their world, as it often changes with the snap of a finger around them. 

They adapt they hurt, they grow or don’t in the perfectly imperfect way people do. 

What I would say to anyone going into reading this is, prepare yourself to not always understand what is happening. That is a reflection of the characters confusion of events and the way their life has been broken by the traumas they have and do endure. (At least that’s how it read to me.)

The mystery and journey is second to me to the journey that Tracker is on in their own head. Invest in Trackers experience. 

Also… if you can think of it Trigger/Content Warning. It’s in this book. Be prepared.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Homophobia, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Excrement, Grief, Abortion, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Colonisation, Cursing, Drug abuse, Gore, Murder, Torture, Toxic friendship, Transphobia, Violence, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, and War

Just like all the things, this book is not for the faint of heart or easily triggered.

vedpears'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? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.25

What a challenging read - not because of the writing style, but because of the content. 
Abundant run on sentences took some getting used to, but I managed to navigate that just fine. 
I enjoyed how the story was written in such a way that it was like viewing a large photo by zooming in, then zooming out a bit, zooming in somewhere nearby, zooming out again until the whole picture is revealed.
What I did not enjoy was the overwhelming number of elements that would warrant trigger warnings: sex, rape, child abuse, pedophilia, slavery, bodily harm, mutilation, murder, combinations of all of those at once with a gratuitous serving of explicit language. 
The overarching story is intriguing. The characters and concepts borrowed from African history and mythology were woven in very well. If this were written to be less corrosive on the psyche, I would have rated it higher.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Biphobia, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Cursing, Gore, Misogyny, Vomit, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Ableism, Addiction, Slavery, Stalking, Abandonment, Child abuse, Child death, Homophobia, Incest, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Cannibalism, Emotional abuse, Dysphoria, Excrement, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Transphobia, Violence, and Xenophobia

It basically has all the trigger warnings, including infanticide.

pathurtu's review

adventurous challenging dark tense 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

Hard to get into, but past the first book it's just so immersive you get absorbed. Great writing. It's been a minute since I appreciated a Fantasy book that much.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual assault, Rape, Gore, Violence, and Pedophilia

eli3823's review

DNF. Stopped 1/3 in. Dense, highly stylized prose. Difficult to read. It's not always clear who is talking. Too much rape, graphic violence and reference to ass smells. Main character motivations aren't apparent. The part of the timeline, background that could shed light on who the protagonist is comes way too late. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Rape, Torture, Slavery, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Murder, Child death, Gore, Homophobia, Pregnancy, Violence, Emotional abuse, and Excrement

nate_b's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

A truly brilliant story! The world-building of an alternative African magical reality is absolutely incredible. I will need to give this another listen, though it is so intense and violent I don't know when I'll be up for it. It's almost like the most graphic type of scenes from Law & Order: SVU all put together with terrifying descriptions of witchcraft blended with mysterious powers, destiny, loss, and a pervasive, bitter sense of betrayal.

It was hard to follow at times but well worth the effort and time. It's a long book but so exquisitely told!

The author does not shy away from extremely graphic depictions of the acts of his characters, including sexual assault, murder, and war crimes against children. I actually had to set it aside after the first time I tried listening to it until a time when I was more able to handle the violent opening scene and get into the fascinating characters beyond. Maybe next year I'll be up to listen to the sequel! I hope they get the same narrator. He did a phenomenal job! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Biphobia, Blood, Bullying, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Rape, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Colonisation, Murder, Cursing, Gore, Trafficking, War, Sexual violence, Child death, Drug use, Sexual content, Classism, Vomit, Domestic abuse, Torture, Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Grief, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Alcohol, and Animal death

e_asw_97's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective 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

3.0

this book is a dazzling narrative full of rich imagination and prose. but at times, the pacing drags, and the action becomes dry and repetitive. these small complaints do not detract from the impact and the scope of the narrative, which is unlike anything I have ever read.

I took a full star off my rating, however, because I am disappointed to see how, even in this masterful upheaval of fantasy, women are still made to endlessly suffer, and to be the cause of the male characters' greatest suffering. few, if any, main characters are female, and those who are die quickly, or live only to serve the ends and purpose of the male characters. I want so badly for literature to move past this convention, this unending commitment to a misogynistic ideal, and to engage with it beyond a throwaway line from a supporting character asking the main character why he hates women so much. I could go on about the gratuitous and unsympathetic use of violence and rape in this book, and how the author wholeheartedly fails to resolve his own main character's virulent hatred of women, but to do so would echo decades of criticism of genre and literary fiction. I am simply disappointed that this book, which was lauded for flouting convention and being a "revolutionary" work, simply conformed to the worst parts of its genre. I had hoped for otherwise.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Blood, Sexual violence, Sexism, Murder, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Child death, Body horror, Violence, Emotional abuse, Slavery, Physical abuse, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Sexual content, and Gore

Moderate: Grief, War, Xenophobia, and Physical abuse