Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

75 reviews

bayrayj's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious fast-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

Crazy bonkers bananas thrill ride from start to finish. I can barely remember where this book started but I was invested in all 620 pages of this adventure. It was very strange at points in the best way. The characters felt endearing. The monster felt genuinely creepy and the stakes kept getting higher. The voice of the story didn’t always feel consistent, fluctuating between what felt like a historical voice to a more modern or silly tone. But none of it got in the way of an epic adventure and beautiful landscape. Highly recommend for those trying to start reading longer fantasy stories.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Slavery, Blood, and Rape

sujong127's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Incest, Death, Sexual assault, Torture, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Violence

hello_kara's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Cannibalism, Child death, Death of parent, Excrement, Grief, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Ableism, Bullying, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Kidnapping, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

abnerbee's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

3.0

Incredible mythology and great lore but so, so graphic

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Kidnapping, Rape, Child abuse, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Sexual violence, Torture, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, and Violence

It's so violent and so graphic, just know that going in.

samanthaleereads's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Violence, Death, Gore, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Sexism, and Confinement

literarygrooves's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Body horror, Blood, Rape, Sexual assault, Death, Child abuse, Child death, Violence, Domestic abuse, Murder, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Pedophilia

a_raptor_named_arsenic's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Child death, Body horror, Rape, Sexual content, and Sexism

capybara5's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• 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: Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Cursing, Gore, Death, Murder, Torture, Sexual violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Misogyny

apersonfromflorida's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Sexism, War, Blood, and Body horror

kaseyd's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-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? It's complicated

2.0

I really wanted to like this book, but finishing it was an absolute chore. I knew very early on I disliked it but powered through to give it a chance. The audiobook was 24 hours long and truly maybe six of those hours were actually necessary to the plot. So much of this massive novel was unconnected random stories that were gross, repetitive, and a drag. I fell asleep listening to this, didn’t go back to listen to what I’d missed, and at no point was confused because nothing in the entire hour I slept was actually important to the story. I hate when authors think that for their fantasy to be taken seriously they have to make it disgusting, crass, and disturbing to read. This book is not worth all the time it takes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Cursing, Sexual assault, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Blood, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Child abuse, Kidnapping, and Misogyny

Minor: Body horror, Ableism, Slavery, Confinement, Homophobia, and Cannibalism