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A review by devilsreject__
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
adventurous
dark
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
What a wild ride this was. Truth to be told it took me more than half of the book to get properly invested in the story and characters, and if not for this being a buddy read, I would have probably dnfed it. I am glad I didn't. I ended caring about certain characters way more than I though I will and at the end I did not want to leave this world no matter how fucked up it was. (Which means I will be picking up the sequel).
There are a lot of trigger warnings for this book, and some messed up stuff felt meaningless, and maybe that was done on purpose for the sake of worldbuilding, however, it took away from some scenes were messed up stuff should have had more of an impact emotionally, especially in the middle of the story. Otherwise, Tracker's self discovery journey, if you could call it that, still moved me and the events that transpired involving him and the gang had an emotional impact on me at the end. I ended up absolutely loving Mossi and the Leopard, and how both of them were not afraid to challenge Tracker's questionable views and his hypocricy, but still loved him and stood by him. Legends. The banter between characters was one of the best parts of the book.
Also, before I picked it up I did not notice anyone mentioning that this was LGBTQA+ and man that was a pleasant surprise. I feel like I'm rambling now, and this is my first review ever, so excuse me for not being equivalent enough.
One more thing that grinded my gears a little bit, is that while the book has strong women in it, none of them felt like fully fleshed out characters and I hope the sequel will fix that. And please, less nipple and breast comments, there were one too many of those.
There are a lot of trigger warnings for this book, and some messed up stuff felt meaningless, and maybe that was done on purpose for the sake of worldbuilding, however, it took away from some scenes were messed up stuff should have had more of an impact emotionally, especially in the middle of the story. Otherwise, Tracker's self discovery journey, if you could call it that, still moved me and the events that transpired involving him and the gang had an emotional impact on me at the end. I ended up absolutely loving Mossi and the Leopard, and how both of them were not afraid to challenge Tracker's questionable views and his hypocricy, but still loved him and stood by him. Legends. The banter between characters was one of the best parts of the book.
Also, before I picked it up I did not notice anyone mentioning that this was LGBTQA+ and man that was a pleasant surprise. I feel like I'm rambling now, and this is my first review ever, so excuse me for not being equivalent enough.
One more thing that grinded my gears a little bit, is that while the book has strong women in it, none of them felt like fully fleshed out characters and I hope the sequel will fix that. And please, less nipple and breast comments, there were one too many of those.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Torture, and Sexual assault