Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

9 reviews

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

malimaan's review against another edition

i tried to like this book, but the general descriptions of women, genitalia, graphic rape and incest, as well as bestiality made this a book I just couldn't get done..
every time I thought about opening the book i started to feel dread because it just made me so uncomfortable. 
the writing itself is really complicated and often poetic, which I appreciated. in the end, however, neither the promising story nor the writing style was entirely to keep me interested enough to finish.

i feel like this book is a good book for some people but the graphic details were just too much to make it enjoyable for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Incest, Cannibalism, Rape, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death of parent, Excrement, Gore, Sexual assault, War, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual content, Confinement, Slavery, Xenophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Trafficking, and Torture

there is a scene in which the MC is gang raped by hyenas. additionally there are several instances of bestiality.

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.

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

softanimal's review

I love the rich imagery, imaginative storytelling, and lush world-building but the level of intensity is not where I'm at right now. Strong trigger warnings come with this one. The content warnings under "graphic" occur multiple times in each chapter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Death, Toxic relationship, Child death, Violence, Body horror, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Murder, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Trafficking, and Misogyny

Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, War, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Infertility, Vomit, Cursing, Excrement, Homophobia, Incest, and Sexual harassment

Nearly all of this book is graphic violence, rape, and child abuse.

A major plot is about finding abused children and there multiple graphic descriptions of rapes as well as ubiquitous references to sex, gore, sexual violence, and physical and sexual abuse of children.

fox_at_the_circus's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

4.25

I really enjoyed this book. Tracker is a great main character and I love how sarcastic and cheeky he is. It makes the dialogues very funny. I liked the other characters, too. They're all well fleshed out and I like that we get a backstory for (almost) everyone.
The world this book is set in is super cool! With the main characters travelling all over the continent, we really get to see all the different cultures and cities and the differences between them. I also like how many different ways there are for people to gain some special abilities, magic, white science,.. some people, like tracker, just have a special ability and it never gets explained. It adds to the fantastical feeling of the world.

The ending really hurt me. Tracker got his nice life and a resolution and a family and it's only shown in a poem/song and then the last part takes it all away. I had tears in my eyes.

This book deals with a lot of heavy topics (see the trigger warnings), and in my opinion it does it pretty well, but it is definitely not for everyone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Sexual violence, Rape, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death, Grief, Homophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, and Torture

Moderate: Cannibalism, Confinement, Dysphoria, War, Child abuse, and Pedophilia

Minor: War and Xenophobia

booknug's review

Amazing book. Not in the mood for the kind of dark it is

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Animal cruelty, Xenophobia, Violence, Slavery, and Kidnapping

rrovezzi's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Incest, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, and Xenophobia

myrto's review

0.5

 Fuck the gods, I hated this book. I had two main issues with this one, the writing style and the graphicness of its content.
To elaborate, I found the writing to be very convoluted and purposefully confusing. I will admit that I'm generally not good with books that are written on the more abstract side of things and therefore, I struggled greatly with following the plot. To be completely fair, I was intersted at certain points but for the most part, I kept zoning out. While it's a book with a strong fantasy element and a very rich worldbuilding I could visualise almost none of it and could hardly understand where everyone was, was going etc.
As for my other issue... Oh boy. The number of characters that haven't murdered/raped/enslaved or been murdered/raped/enslaved in this book is... zero? Apparently, this was marketed as an African Game of Thrones but in reality it makes Game of Thrones look like a bedtime story for kindergarteners. This book if filled to the brim with graphic descriptions murder, rape, gang-rape, mutilation, sex, bestiality, slavery, genitals, butts, bodily fluids and everything and anything that can be considered explicit in its content. I would argue that the vast majority of these scenes had no impact on the plot and therefore served no purpose other than to set the mood? But there are only so many rapes of underaged children that are needed for that and so many that I can stomach. And don't get me started on all the unnecessary and frankly disgusting tidbits about genitals, excrements, and scents. I kid you not, our protagonist has a nose and this entails smelling things like this:

"I did not tell her there were two different shits in this cloth, one from him and another from him pleasuring someone's ass."

Having several bits of explicit and disturbing content littered throughout your book is one thing but having several per chapter is quite another.
I think it's clear enough that I would NOT recommend this book and I would urge anyone considering reading this to look up more reviews because there are a lot of people who are far more eloquent than I am and possibly a lot with different opinions.
 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Biphobia, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, Transphobia, Violence, and Xenophobia