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A review by malloryfitz
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
1.5
Premise- (2.5/5) I'll be honest, I was intimidated by Black Leopard, Red Wolf even before I started it. I've had was was originally an ARC on my shelf for...a full year now? Which I feel bad about. The premise does sound excellent--African myth and history, with a scrappy crew on a rescue mission? Sounds so excellent! But I'd heard that this book was extremely challenging, which made me wary.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, and Torture