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A review by distraughtplant
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
In interviews about his inspirations for this book, Marlon expresses his passion for engagement with fantasy worlds being embraced in adulthood just as much as in childhood. I found this vision extremely well realized - this book was a dark whirlpool that sucked me in and pulled me down with it into a a world more vivid and actualized than I've read, perhaps ever. The storytelling format and unreliable narrator really helped pull me in campfire style and lend full ear and mind to the color and character of this book.
I absolutely believe family friendly, light, happy, digestible queer representation is necessary and good - I loved Mooncakes just as much as the next trixic, okay? But... as an adult queer living in the real world who has always preferred to engage face to face with the shadowed and darker parts of our world (emotionally, politically, physically in a way) I've housed a deep, unsatiated hunger for raw, gritty stories of queer lives for adults. Not stories about BEING queer, but stories about living, loving, and fighting for survival from a queer perspective.
Black Leopard, Red Wolf was exactly what I'd been looking for. Intense, unflinching, ripping, biting, tearing, snarling, fucking: Marlon James has created an ethereal and vivid world that reflects real world power structures and violence in a way that is not easy to swallow, but difficult to put down. Needless to say, I cannot wait to buy the second book and am very much excited to see the story retold from another perspective, and in the meantime I will be left with milking BLRW for all Ive got until I find another story that can meet my desires ao completely.
I absolutely believe family friendly, light, happy, digestible queer representation is necessary and good - I loved Mooncakes just as much as the next trixic, okay? But... as an adult queer living in the real world who has always preferred to engage face to face with the shadowed and darker parts of our world (emotionally, politically, physically in a way) I've housed a deep, unsatiated hunger for raw, gritty stories of queer lives for adults. Not stories about BEING queer, but stories about living, loving, and fighting for survival from a queer perspective.
Black Leopard, Red Wolf was exactly what I'd been looking for. Intense, unflinching, ripping, biting, tearing, snarling, fucking: Marlon James has created an ethereal and vivid world that reflects real world power structures and violence in a way that is not easy to swallow, but difficult to put down. Needless to say, I cannot wait to buy the second book and am very much excited to see the story retold from another perspective, and in the meantime I will be left with milking BLRW for all Ive got until I find another story that can meet my desires ao completely.