Scan barcode
A review by blankpagealex
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
1.0
Black Leopard, Red Wold had been high on my list for a long time due to its rave reviews and comparisons with other fantasy series that I enjoy. However, despite the acclaim and the novels unquestionable ambition, it was not at all enjoyable for me.
The language is almost impenetrable at first - on the back cover Louise Erdich rightly describes the first section as a "fever dream." Verb tenses are inconsistent, just introduced characters are referenced by multiple different names, and the setting seems to change completely every couple of sentences. I read interviews with James where he describes his objective of creating a new, anti-colonial language that respects African vernacular and doesn't adhere to pre-established rules. It's an ambitious effort, and it means the reader has to slow down and take more care to parse the sentences in order to understand a kind of fantasy writing that is new and bold. I want to be clear that my one-star review is not based on the writing style, because even though it presented a challenge, it's a risk that I respect and believe more authors could take.
Once I parsed through the rapid, fever dream style of prose, however, I got to the actual content and that is where this novel was so far from my taste that I could barely find any wish to continue. There is little here to resemble a narrative arc and it was difficult to discern if the reader was meant to care about conflicts which the characters clearly did not. When stakes were eventually introduced and there seemed to be a goal meant to be achieved, the story meandered and stalled and never really followed the paths that it seemed were painstakingly set up. Reading this felt like watching my kids play an open-world video game where they are given a specific task, but instead they just walk around and smash things.
The lack of a plot is not specifically a problem - I think Freytag's pyramid is overrated and love when a work of fiction can subvert it in clever ways. However, Black Leopard, Red Wolf was so pre-occupied with brutal, over-descriptive, and frankly gross side plots that barely contributed to theme or ideas in any coherent fashion.
And it's the brutality that really took this book from one that I "couldn't get into" to one that I "actively dislike." The graphic violence is endless with very little stakes. I counted at least 3 vivid descriptions of child rape within the first third of the book. Characters are briefly introduced only to be brutally killed moments later. Even a central character who is supposedly on the side of justice (or at least the audience comes to the world from his perspective) will look at a wall and describe its resemblance to "a young girl's slit." I'm no prude - sex, violence, and even sexual violence is often very relevant and necessary for a story, but here it was beyond gratuitous and I found it deeply unpleasant to read.
There are many bold, new attempts to bring new voices to the fantasy genre, but this series by James is not one that works for me.
The language is almost impenetrable at first - on the back cover Louise Erdich rightly describes the first section as a "fever dream." Verb tenses are inconsistent, just introduced characters are referenced by multiple different names, and the setting seems to change completely every couple of sentences. I read interviews with James where he describes his objective of creating a new, anti-colonial language that respects African vernacular and doesn't adhere to pre-established rules. It's an ambitious effort, and it means the reader has to slow down and take more care to parse the sentences in order to understand a kind of fantasy writing that is new and bold. I want to be clear that my one-star review is not based on the writing style, because even though it presented a challenge, it's a risk that I respect and believe more authors could take.
Once I parsed through the rapid, fever dream style of prose, however, I got to the actual content and that is where this novel was so far from my taste that I could barely find any wish to continue. There is little here to resemble a narrative arc and it was difficult to discern if the reader was meant to care about conflicts which the characters clearly did not. When stakes were eventually introduced and there seemed to be a goal meant to be achieved, the story meandered and stalled and never really followed the paths that it seemed were painstakingly set up. Reading this felt like watching my kids play an open-world video game where they are given a specific task, but instead they just walk around and smash things.
The lack of a plot is not specifically a problem - I think Freytag's pyramid is overrated and love when a work of fiction can subvert it in clever ways. However, Black Leopard, Red Wolf was so pre-occupied with brutal, over-descriptive, and frankly gross side plots that barely contributed to theme or ideas in any coherent fashion.
And it's the brutality that really took this book from one that I "couldn't get into" to one that I "actively dislike." The graphic violence is endless with very little stakes. I counted at least 3 vivid descriptions of child rape within the first third of the book. Characters are briefly introduced only to be brutally killed moments later. Even a central character who is supposedly on the side of justice (or at least the audience comes to the world from his perspective) will look at a wall and describe its resemblance to "a young girl's slit." I'm no prude - sex, violence, and even sexual violence is often very relevant and necessary for a story, but here it was beyond gratuitous and I found it deeply unpleasant to read.
There are many bold, new attempts to bring new voices to the fantasy genre, but this series by James is not one that works for me.