Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

84 reviews

literarygrooves's review against another edition

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

stefievee's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I actually really wanted to like this book. I hadn't heard any of hype around it, surprisingly, but had read the description and it seemed interesting. I like setting and universe, the mythological elements, the fact that the main character has a supernatural gift - and actually I like the author's writing style quite a bit. But the graphic violence, the constant fixation on genitals and aggressive sex was just much too distracting for me. Plot-wise, I also felt like the final/biggest quest of the character ended up dragging on and on and I really struggled to finish reading the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Torture, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Slavery, Misogyny, and Rape

Minor: Pedophilia

5aru's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad 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

I have very conflicted feelings about this book.

On the one hand, I loved the story, which weaves an impressive, multifaceted, intriguing plot. The twists are built up to but never predictable. The characters feel distant from the reader due to Tracker's wilfully detached narration, but they never once fall flat. And the worldbuilding! It builds such a perfectly wild, unpredictable, intricate world around the characters, full of myth continually intruding upon the realistic. Truly flawless work in that regard.

On the other hand, the novel is full of gore and violence, sexual and otherwise. It is ever-present and it is inescapable; definitely go over the content warnings. In particular, there is so much rape in this book, you can hardly go a chapter without a passing mention or a threat of it. Hell, you can hardly go a page without reading the word fuck. I'm not particularly squeamish about what I read, and don't mind profanity, but James' world is so defined by and constructed around senseless violence that it truly gets hard to stomach sometimes. If I hadn't been so intrigued by the plot, I would've probably stopped reading at chapter 8; even then, I find it difficult to justify. I can understand the decision to narrate violence of all kinds, but at times it really was so naturalized, so mindless, that it felt like simple shock value that added nothing to the narrative.

I cannot recommend this to everyone; it is a hard book to read even if the premise interests you. Go in with a warning — but I'd say, if able, go in anyway. It really is one of a kind.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Violence, Torture, Sexual assault, Rape, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, Domestic abuse, Death, and Child death

Moderate: Trafficking, Pedophilia, Slavery, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

capybara5's review against another edition

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

qog's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• 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

1.5

I had to force myself to finish this book. First, it was hard to follow what was happening. The first half of the book, I had no idea what the storyline was. Eventually I was tracking and there were a lot of interesting stories, characters, worlds, etc. But what made it very challenging to read/finish the book was the overwhelming amount of extremely graphic, often sexually violent scenes, along with overly sexualized content, involving all ages. So much extreme violence, sexual violence, sex/genitalia descriptions, etc. It was too much.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Gore, Rape, Child abuse, Slavery, Violence, Murder, Torture, and Sexual content

emvoor's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Body horror, Torture, Rape, and Slavery

Moderate: Abandonment and Ableism

mielenmaisemia's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Rape, Torture, Death, Gore, Child death, Violence, and Body horror

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual content

haddy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

2.5

It took me 15 months to read this book. A lot of it was quite a slog, I didn’t understand nearly anything that happened, and honestly I just think I’m too stupid for the way this book was written?? 
Having said that I have SO MANY feelings about how it ended !!?!?!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Excrement, Gore, Rape, Misogyny, Body horror, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, and Violence

bookishchef's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Almost impossible to rate. The author is trying to tell a story in a new way (new in book form anyway).

However, it was as confusing as could be and I often lost track of who was supposed to be who. Eventually I gave up on remembering any of the characters. 

Also: trigger warning for every single bad thing under the sun. There's sexual assault and graphic rape scenes of kids, women and men. There's murder, cannibalism, gore and lord knows what else.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Torture, Toxic friendship, Violence, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Death, Cursing, and Homophobia

rc_boxnut's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Rape, Misogyny, Slavery, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Pedophilia