Reviews tagging 'Incest'

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

40 reviews

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

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

betamagnificus's review

adventurous challenging dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, War, Torture, Violence, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Murder, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Incest, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Sexual content

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.

natalie1227's review against another edition

I was not a fan of the language and I have a hard time understanding the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Misogyny, Incest, Sexual content, Sexism, Sexual harassment, and Sexual assault

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.

econsidine's review

adventurous challenging dark 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

This one took a long time to read, because it's 620 pages long and a lot of it is in a meandering pace and a lot of information is thrown at you that you may need to remember or recall. That said, I enjoyed it a lot. It's a twisty story spanning an unclear amount of years about a Tracker with a near-supernaturally-strong nose, his friendship/relationship with a leopard-man, a hired job to find a random boy who doesn't seem to exist, and also the Tracker's sort-of adopted children. If you like fantasy with inventive worlds and systems, if you like fantasy with a lot of characters and a complex plot that takes ages to progress, if you like books along the lines of GoT and The Witcher and The Broken Earth and are ready to jump into something new—this is a good pick for you.

NOTE THAT THERE IS A LOT OF HEAVY/DARK MATERIAL AND IMAGERY. I've tagged everything I can possibly think of below but have likely missed something. If you do not want to read something that involves any of the usual suspects of what people consider "dark" or "gory" or "messed up," then this is not for you. It's not a horror book, but it is often disturbing. And even for me—someone who loves fictional horror and grotesque shit and frequently reads books about cannibalism for fun—this one is a lot to get through and had me physically flinching at some moments while reading. It didn't read like it was just for shock value, as weird as that may sound, but the tone of the narrator through the whole book is very matter-of-fact, so many disturbing events are described in full detail but without much direct inflection/editorializing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual content, Body horror, Gore, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Sexism, War, Blood, Death of parent, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, and Fire/Fire injury

marmybarmy's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Pedophilia, Death, Abandonment, Medical trauma, Rape, Sexual violence, Mental illness, Murder, Sexual assault, Slavery, Grief, Body horror, Blood, Child abuse, Gore, Torture, Vomit, and Animal death

Moderate: Incest

scribblesandsuch's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

This is very very good but also very intense. If you've only read Western stories it is a Big change of pace, the story telling of this is inherently and unapologetically Afro-Carribean. It's very gritty and gorey and sensory. Bear with it, it's worth reading

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Ableism, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Torture, Blood, Physical abuse, Violence, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Grief, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Incest, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Homophobia, Addiction, and Suicide

t_thekla's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

3.5

last chapter slapped

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Trafficking, Toxic relationship, Cannibalism, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Rape, Death of parent, Excrement, Homophobia, Incest, Murder, Physical abuse, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Vomit, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Infidelity, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Violence, and War

lotsa bad stuff