Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

139 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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laurenmiller100's review against another edition

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I am really struggling with this on audiobook. I’m interested in the story and the mythology, but the narrators deep voice is making it very difficult to understand him. Pretty sure that’s a me problem and not something inherent to the narration. I think I’ll try again in print at some point.

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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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dakdoesbooks's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

4.0

This was such a hard book to read. Way more brutal than I normally go for, there were many times I needed to shut this and try to un-gross myself out/find mental peace. I have read enough about SA for a long, long time. If you are considering reading this story, assume you will read the worst of all forms of violent trigger warnings. 

And yet, I kept reading. This was my first experience reading about African mythology, which I was completely fascinated by. James truly captures the spirit of mythological tales and oral histories, and while I wouldn’t read another book in this series, I would absolutely check out other works of his. 

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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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secirko's review against another edition

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It was not for me. It was frankly too graphic in a multitude of ways and the pace was too slow for me to try to continue through it. 

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whatulysses's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

This book is so goddamn queer and it broke my heart, repeatedly. I can't wait to read the next one. I struggled to read this on paper but the audiobook was perfect and engagingly performed - highly recommend if long books rich in description are just hard on your brain.

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