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skitch41's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Torture, Gore, Murder, Sexual violence, Violence, and Sexual content
leoniec's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Excrement, Gore, Incest, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence
siiriainen's review against another edition
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Violence, Rape, Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Torture
accidentalspaceexplorer's review against another edition
First, the good: It's a very unique epic fantasy setting, based off of African cultures. In my opinion, that makes it much more interesting, because the standard epic fantasy tropes are much fewer and far between in a very different society. I also appreciate reading new and different things, which this definitely is! The story structure feels different, the cultures in it are different, the way magic and myth show up in the story is different, all of which made for interesting reading.
Second, the not-so-good: I struggled to get into this a little bit because of the writing, which is good but in a style that I personally struggle to follow. There is a lot of dialogue without tags, which meant that it was sometimes hard to follow who was speaking, and sometimes people would say things that were completely ignored by the other person in the conversation which felt very choppy to me but is like, a thing people do. There also is a lot of ambiguity in the writing, and it's sometimes hard to tell what's actually happening, which can be really interesting! But combined with the dialogue being hard to follow it just made it harder for me to get into the book. I found it easier to follow as I read more, but it reminded me of Binti, where I just found that I didn't mesh quite so much with the style. Not the worst thing in the world, but not the most enjoyable either.
Third, what made me stop: I've seen Black Leopard, Red Wolf talked about in the context of Tolkien, so I was expecting something with his feel to it - that like, evil is pervasive in the land but we are fighting against it with hope. Black Leopard, Red Wolf is not that. It is dark, very dark. I wouldn't call it grimdark, but it was dark enough that I ended up needing to stop reading it. It's very interesting on an intellectual level for me to figure out why I didn't like this, because I enjoyed Game of Thrones when I read it, and I think on the surface the violence is very comparable (although I read ASOIAF far too long ago to make a complete comparison). I think part of what made me stop in this was how pervasive the horrible things were, and how often the horrible things were being done to children - I think I made it to page 190ish, less than halfway through the book, and there was already graphic rape, pedophilia, kidnapping, assault, body horror, torture, child murders, and I expect many other horrible things happened in the rest of the book. I couldn't handle it, and I don't want to be able to handle it, honestly.
So ultimately, I quit, and I don't regret it. I woke up this morning and considered forcing myself to read more of the book, and the reluctance and discomfort I felt told me that I made the right choice. I hope that my review helps you figure out whether or not this is the book for you.
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence
ehmannky's review against another edition
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Gore, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, and Violence
Minor: Vomit, Drug use, and Drug abuse
myrto's review against another edition
0.5
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."
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.
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
marcellaandherbooks's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Incest, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, and Violence
malloryfitz's review against another edition
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
1.5
Characters- (2/5) In some ways, I feel like there was a lot going for the characters. We do see character growth from Tracker (BUT IT'S ALL REVERSED BY THE END OF THE BOOK. SCREAMS.), and his relationships with Mossi and Leopard are really interesting. He himself is a complicated person, with a heavy past, lots of trauma, and single-minded focus. But but but...almost all of the characters, at some point or another, did pretty awful things. Which is tough when all the characters are doing it. I was frustrated with the treatment of the female characters throughout the book, and as I said above, at the end of the book it seemed like Tracker lost all the character growth he underwent over the course of the book. His various companions, who come and go throughout the story, brought interesting skills to the table, and everyone had their own motivations. But in the end, it was just a lot of backstabbing and name-calling.
Plot- (1/5) The plot was extremely difficult for me to follow. I'm sure that was intentional; this felt like a case where James' primary concern was not telling the story for the audience, but talking about bigger themes, sometimes using the plot to further those conversations. And that is not what the premise set me up for. Admittedly, the 600+ page count should, perhaps, have tipped me off. But I found myself frequently lost in the meandering trails and tricky time twists of the plot, and not in a way that I enjoyed. On a related note, everything seemed to take about three times as long as it needed to.
World- (1.5/5) I feel sort of bad rating the world so low because I do think part of the problem was my ignorance of any of the African cultures James was working into the novel. I had very little understanding of which elements he was totally making up, which he was borrowing but reworking, and which were drawn more directly from real-world cultures. And the world he's created is undeniably rich with color and detail. But he isn't interested in explaining any of it. Which he has no obligation to do, but that definitely contributed to my confusion about the plot and I think made some of the violence and gore even more unpalatable because I didn't understand why it was happening. (And yes, I get it, sometimes those things happen without a reason. But that's not why I read.)
Writing- (1/5) James' writing style isn't for me. It's very literary, difficult to work through, and loaded with descriptions that I often got bogged down in. And the blood and gore! I like to think I'm not terribly squeamish, but Black Leopard, Red Wolf was filled with so much violence. Sexual violence, violence against children, body horror, absolutely brutal, often detailed and graphic descriptions of those acts. If the aim was to shock, it was certainly achieved, but it was way too much for me.
Overall- (1.5/5) Part of the problem with Black Leopard, Red Wolf was that I was totally unprepared for what I was getting into. Though I'd heard that this was a challenging read, I was still expecting a centralized plot with an ensemble cast of magical characters. What I got was a lengthy, rambling journey that looped back on itself time and again in a confusing crossing of paths. While I sometimes sympathized with Tracker, he and the other characters were ultimately difficult to connect with, especially when at the end of the novel they felt static and unchanged. Black Leopard, Red Wolf is a novel that definitely isn't for everyone. Though some may enjoy its rich descriptions, fantastic African world-building, and twisting plot, the difficulty of the text, its frequent excessive violence, and lack of connection to the characters were stumbling blocks I couldn't overcome.
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, and Torture