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leoniec's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
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
accidentalspaceexplorer's review against another edition
I was really excited for Black Leopard, Red Wolf. It has a lot of hype and some people I trust were very impressed by it! Unfortunately for me, this just didn't work for me.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
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
Listen, there aren’t a lot of things that truly can put me off a book and I’m not that squeamish with what I read but after the hyena gang-rape of the protagonist that followed many other instances of sexual assault I have decided that this book, however wonderfully written it may be, just is not for me.
Content Warnings
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
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:
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.
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.
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
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