Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

77 reviews

eliasaurus's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-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

5.0

This book was incredible. I've been telling people it's "LOTR if, instead of taking place in vaguely medieval Europe, it was instead set in vaguely medieval Africa," but that really doesn't do it justice.

The other reviews are right that it deserves every trigger warning under the sun, but this is the best high fantasy I've read in a long time. The characters are all so interesting and well fleshed out, the writing (though not always easy) is engaging because it's perfectly in the protagonist's voice, the plot is twisty and turny... It's basically perfect.

All the seemingly disparate story elements end up being relevant. If you get through the first hundred or so pages, you won't be able to put down the rest.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Incest, Child death, Slavery, Misogyny, Murder, Violence, Sexual violence, War, and Animal death

Moderate: Homophobia and Vomit

Minor: Islamophobia, Racism, and Cannibalism

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

fravenwood's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Violence, Sexism, Rape, Sexual assault, Gore, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Child abuse, Murder, and Child death

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

bookishkarina's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Sexism, Incest, Death, Gore, Murder, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Cannibalism, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Child death, and Torture

secirko's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Murder, Violence, Pedophilia, and Rape

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

reflectiverambling_nalana's review

adventurous challenging dark 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

3.75

 t is easy to see why "Black Leopard, Red Wolf' received so much acclaim. It is bold in tone and scope. It draws upon a rich culture for inspiration of crafting the world. There is clearly a deep history and complex mythology at play. It does an extraordinary job at calling upon storytelling culture both stylistically and as a device within the narrative. Above all of this, having listened to it on audio, I cannot praise Dion Graham enough for one of the best and what I can only imagine was challenging and exhausting performances I've heard in recent years. 

However, even after 'slowing down' to speeds I don't normally listen at, I had to go back more than once. Somewhere in the middle of this book I kept feeling like I was loosing key information. I consider myself not exceptionally intelligent, but relatively capable of following complex plots as much as the next scifi/fantasy reader. Something about the pacing of this tale, of what started to feel like an excessive amount of additions crammed into a single story, left me feeling just two steps behind. I never was able to get a really good grasp on the world itself. The constant questions started piling up more as frustrations than curiosity for new revelations. 

To ad to this, while I appreciate the mental complexity of the Tracker, the emotional distance he had to place as he was forced into survival mode made if very difficult for me to really connect with him. though I confess I was taken by some of the secondary characters. This might be in part because of the constant fight and flight necessity that just made me feel like I was in a whirlwind. It leaves me wondering if at the time of the writing the author wasn't aware he would be granted a trilogy and was desperate to show all these wonderful gems of ideas in fear that he wouldn't have time to breathe and flesh them out after a single installment. 

Overall, this is a story with so much good and potential. It deserves a chance from readers. but I have to admit after finishing it I'm not entirely compelled to continue on. honestly, it left my brain a touch exhausted in a way that was not rewarding or from a way I could say i was challenged but feel accomplished from. 

I would also like to warn readers that there is excessive and blunt physical and sexual violence as that might be a problem for some. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, and Torture

Moderate: Sexism, Murder, Death, Incest, and Child death

Minor: Abandonment and Kidnapping

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

clarisreads's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

The plot was good, it was incredibly graphic and barbaric. I found it hard to read and am honestly relieved it’s over. I won’t be reading the rest of the trilogy. But I did think about the characters a lot while reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Gore, Sexual assault, Murder, and Rape

Lots of beastiality