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aspiringcowboy 's review for:
Blood Slaves
by Markus Redmond
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
the goodreads description invoking victor lavelle, tananarive due, and colson whitehead is... a choice. i haven't read due, but i HAVE read lavelle and whitehead, and i think it's not only misleading but a disservice to redmond because it definitely sets an expectation that this book just doesn't meet.
it's not that redmond is a bad writer. i actually think the core story is interesting and engaging. not exactly inventive or new, but there's some good bones here and it's clear that redmond cares about the craft and the story and that this isn't just some cash grab - but this definitely needed another few rounds of editing before it was published. there's some inconsistencies in the plot, the dialogue is nonsensical at times and incredibly forced, and the cast of characters is just a little too large and not all of them are given proper characterization; even some of the primary cast ends up feeling stiff and not nearly as developed as they should be, given their place in the story.
the book really starts going downhill in chapter one. the prologue/rafazi's introduction is entirely too brief; there's no time to really sit with him as a character and absorb the lore that's being built. there's a glimpse of the ramanga at their peak, and then the concept of the plague is introduced... and then the next paragraph it's killing them all. i hate how fast all of this moves; i wish that the chapter had been longer/really explored rafazi as a character, either before the plague or in the immediate years after before he was taken as a slave, or it had been cut entirely, because we get the same lore repeated multiple times throughout the book and it's really frustrating. but given these lore dumps, it makes the prologue redundant, and honestly the story might've been better served just starting on the plantation and then having the reveal of who rafazi is happening at the point where he meets willie.
but the pacing is just off in the entire story. this is far more a slavery story than a vampire story, and that's not a bad thing; it just feels at times like the vampires were an afterthought. i read the foreword by the author and i can see his intentions in the narrative but i just think the core themes were unbalanced. maybe it's just me, maybe it's because sinners came out this year and did almost the same concept more concisely - and maybe if this had been a movie or a series it would've flowed better. i looked up redmond (because i didn't know who he was before starting this book), and i'd seen that he's written films before; i definitely think you can tell. and it hinders the narrative some.
the vampire lore is so interesting... but so underused. i don't really like the way it's handled near the end of the book; i really don't like the convenience of the scene where the white doctor is told that there's 'vampyres' and he knows a lot about them because he met rafazi's maker...? i think it takes away some of the momentum and, like i said, is entirely too convenient. with the way the ramanga were established in the prologue i thought they were isolated to africa, and honestly it would've been far more interesting to have written it that way, but okay, i guess?
it doesn't help that the dialogue in the scenes where they're discussing the 'vampyres' is so... stilted. this is a common occurrence throughout the book, though; the most egregious example is a scene where a young girl rants and raves about being pro-slavery, but it just reads terribly and not at all like a natural speech even from the era. i don't think the racism of the book is 'mishandled', but i do think that there are points where it's too 'over the top' to the point it's kind of... goofy, for lack of a better word, almost cartoonishly so. i obviously don't doubt there were and still are people as racist as these white people but it's just so In Your Face and the terrible dialogue is jarring.
and there's also the whole plot point of the slaves beginning to 'speak properly' after their transformations that just... is so off-putting and feels incredibly weird but i don't really know how to put it into words why i think this was a Bad Idea. it just does not sit right with me.
just like the violence enacted on the women and children in this book does not sit right with me.
i don't think books like this need to sugarcoat violence; obviously enslaved people experienced hell. nothing present here is historically inaccurate. but i think it's extremely gross to be so graphic about a child being raped; to have a child be a sexual predator and describe it in detail; and also to have a woman's rape be made about the feelings of her partner. i could not believe it in the scene in the breeding room where gertie is raped that the narrative focused on willie's pain and how he felt like less of a man because he 'could not save her'. her assaults, both sexual and otherwise, are solely made about willie's pain and there's very little exploration of the effect it has on her. the fact that the narrative is constantly sexualizing the Black women does not help this; even when they're being assaulted they're being hypersexualized, and it's so disgusting and disappointing.
i really wanted to like this but it fell short of so many expectations. i might continue this series when the subsequent books come out because the cliffhanger was interesting i guess (entirely nonsensical though because what do you mean they're just running the plantation and no one came immediately to try to kill them? and how did that white woman bury her daughter? they let people come collect the bodies of the people they killed???) and i'm hoping for more vampire lore in them... but it's not a book i'd recommend. there are better vampire stories out there that intertwine their narratives with combatting racism.
it's not that redmond is a bad writer. i actually think the core story is interesting and engaging. not exactly inventive or new, but there's some good bones here and it's clear that redmond cares about the craft and the story and that this isn't just some cash grab - but this definitely needed another few rounds of editing before it was published. there's some inconsistencies in the plot, the dialogue is nonsensical at times and incredibly forced, and the cast of characters is just a little too large and not all of them are given proper characterization; even some of the primary cast ends up feeling stiff and not nearly as developed as they should be, given their place in the story.
the book really starts going downhill in chapter one. the prologue/rafazi's introduction is entirely too brief; there's no time to really sit with him as a character and absorb the lore that's being built. there's a glimpse of the ramanga at their peak, and then the concept of the plague is introduced... and then the next paragraph it's killing them all. i hate how fast all of this moves; i wish that the chapter had been longer/really explored rafazi as a character, either before the plague or in the immediate years after before he was taken as a slave, or it had been cut entirely, because we get the same lore repeated multiple times throughout the book and it's really frustrating. but given these lore dumps, it makes the prologue redundant, and honestly the story might've been better served just starting on the plantation and then having the reveal of who rafazi is happening at the point where he meets willie.
but the pacing is just off in the entire story. this is far more a slavery story than a vampire story, and that's not a bad thing; it just feels at times like the vampires were an afterthought. i read the foreword by the author and i can see his intentions in the narrative but i just think the core themes were unbalanced. maybe it's just me, maybe it's because sinners came out this year and did almost the same concept more concisely - and maybe if this had been a movie or a series it would've flowed better. i looked up redmond (because i didn't know who he was before starting this book), and i'd seen that he's written films before; i definitely think you can tell. and it hinders the narrative some.
the vampire lore is so interesting... but so underused. i don't really like the way it's handled near the end of the book; i really don't like the convenience of the scene where the white doctor is told that there's 'vampyres' and he knows a lot about them because he met rafazi's maker...? i think it takes away some of the momentum and, like i said, is entirely too convenient. with the way the ramanga were established in the prologue i thought they were isolated to africa, and honestly it would've been far more interesting to have written it that way, but okay, i guess?
it doesn't help that the dialogue in the scenes where they're discussing the 'vampyres' is so... stilted. this is a common occurrence throughout the book, though; the most egregious example is a scene where a young girl rants and raves about being pro-slavery, but it just reads terribly and not at all like a natural speech even from the era. i don't think the racism of the book is 'mishandled', but i do think that there are points where it's too 'over the top' to the point it's kind of... goofy, for lack of a better word, almost cartoonishly so. i obviously don't doubt there were and still are people as racist as these white people but it's just so In Your Face and the terrible dialogue is jarring.
and there's also the whole plot point of the slaves beginning to 'speak properly' after their transformations that just... is so off-putting and feels incredibly weird but i don't really know how to put it into words why i think this was a Bad Idea. it just does not sit right with me.
just like the violence enacted on the women and children in this book does not sit right with me.
i don't think books like this need to sugarcoat violence; obviously enslaved people experienced hell. nothing present here is historically inaccurate. but i think it's extremely gross to be so graphic about a child being raped; to have a child be a sexual predator and describe it in detail; and also to have a woman's rape be made about the feelings of her partner. i could not believe it in the scene in the breeding room where gertie is raped that the narrative focused on willie's pain and how he felt like less of a man because he 'could not save her'. her assaults, both sexual and otherwise, are solely made about willie's pain and there's very little exploration of the effect it has on her. the fact that the narrative is constantly sexualizing the Black women does not help this; even when they're being assaulted they're being hypersexualized, and it's so disgusting and disappointing.
i really wanted to like this but it fell short of so many expectations. i might continue this series when the subsequent books come out because the cliffhanger was interesting i guess (entirely nonsensical though because what do you mean they're just running the plantation and no one came immediately to try to kill them? and how did that white woman bury her daughter? they let people come collect the bodies of the people they killed???) and i'm hoping for more vampire lore in them... but it's not a book i'd recommend. there are better vampire stories out there that intertwine their narratives with combatting racism.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Genocide, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation