spacecars's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Bullying, Blood, Gun violence, Murder, Violence, and Death
Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Drug use, and Drug abuse
Minor: Homophobia and Vomit
mepresley's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Spoiler
more than one female voice, for sure.Spanning from 1976 to 1991,
Spoiler
the attempted murder of Bob Marley, here called only the Singer, to the death of Josey Wales, the man who pulled the trigger and propelled himself to the position of untouchable don in Copenhagen City, and then managed to fuck it all up so badly that he was burned alive in his prison cell. I have to admit, I cried at the exchange between Josey and Doctor Love, particularly when Doctor Love told Josey he was disobeying orders just this once and gave Josey the pills so he wouldn’t feel what was happening to him. I was also very touched by Weeper’s death, the genuine connection between him and the begrudging assassin John-John, who held Weeper as he died and did Weeper the final kindness of letting Weeper think his boyfriend was alive.The title works on two levels—first, it traces the deaths of seven of the eight men involved in the assassination attempt on the Singer; second, Alex Pierce’s article on the crack house shooting the is the undoing of Josey Wales focuses on seven of his victims. (However, the title doesn’t make any sense until the end of the novel, really, and there are so many deaths in the book that until you’ve read like 670 pages, it’s natural to feel kind of bewildered which ones are meant to be the “seven killings”
The novel is divided into 5 parts, in each of which the narrative action takes place over the course of a single day: Dec 2 1976; Dec 3 1976; Feb 15 1979; August 14 1985; and March 22 1991. Ultimately, while this was an interesting choice that mostly works, it comes across to me as style for the sake of style in a way that hinders the story. I was also often frustrated with where & how James broke off the chapters.
Spoiler
For instance, what the hell happened after Nina lit the bedroom on fire after Chuck told her that he was married and not bringing her back to the US?Spoiler
—especially with the scene where Alex kills Tony Pavarotti—the single-day approach necessitates a lot of exposition in ways that feel forced.There are places where I was more confused than I really should have been to enjoy the narrative, too.
Spoiler
Why did Mark Lansing bring Alex to the Singer’s house that night and leave him outside? Why didn’t Josey shoot Nina that night, or ever seem to spare a single thought about her, much less try to find her? She saw his face, heard his name. It was hard for me to understand exactly what happened with Papa Lo’s death and I’m not sure why it was presented like a hallucination of the future. How did Barry have no idea what was happening in Miami with Louis Johnson and Doctor Love and yet wrote the book that had William Adler losing his shit? Why did Weeper choose to go out that way? More than that, because I understand nothing about coke or injecting it, until much later —Josey’s conversation with Doctor Love in one of the final chapters, in fact, I didn’t even get whether his OD was accidental or not. Also, was Weeper using crack or did Eubie make that up?Spoiler
for the moment of reader surprise when you realize Doctor Love is narrating chapter one, and only at the tail end of the chapter when he is face to face with Josey. That’s kind of what I mean by choices that prioritize style at the expense of content.James is a great writer and I absolutely want to read his other work. There’s well-written dialogue and action, the story is pieced together from these diverse narrators in a way that works (outside of what I already observed), locations are brought to life, and the characters are fantastic. I even feel like I learned a lot about a particular point in Jamaican history. Had I not stopped part of the way through and teased everything out through detailed notes, I probably would have been very lost for a long time, though. The character list was helpful. A map would also have been useful for me.
Two semi-random notes: I didn’t care for the Sir Arthur Jennings chapter on
Spoiler
the Singer’s funeral, which seemed incredibly out of place between the 1985 and 1991 sections of the book, especially because the 1979 section ends with Jennings on the Singer’s death.Spoiler
getting the shit beaten out of him for that stupid article he was writing; he just really seemed to be asking for it the entire novel in one way or another.Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Colonisation, Murder, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, and Violence
maddsienicole's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Physical abuse, Rape, Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Vomit, Blood, Excrement, Sexual violence, Violence, and Murder
whatthekatdraggedin's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Murder, Drug use, Addiction, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, and Gun violence
Moderate: Rape, Vomit, and Excrement
Minor: Pregnancy
panoptican's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual harassment, Rape, Mental illness, Drug abuse, Domestic abuse, Cursing, Trafficking, Misogyny, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Addiction, Racial slurs, Sexism, Physical abuse, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Racism, Bullying, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Torture, Police brutality, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Fire/Fire injury, and Drug use
carlytenille's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Rape, and Excrement
goofygoober27's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death, Torture, Addiction, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Sexual assault, Misogyny, and Rape
chalkletters's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Marlon James’ style feels intentional; each character has a different voice, using 'the Singer’ instead of Bob Marley’s name elevates him to a mythic figure and the stream-of-consciousness changes to reflect the emotional and mental states of his characters. Unfortunately, going in with no prior knowledge of events combined with vast array of narrators and the overload of detail made it difficult to pick out which people and events would prove to be important. The narrative is hard work for an uninformed reader, especially the middle section where the chapters are long enough to feel exhausting.
A Brief History of Seven Killings is also, as is to be expected, incredibly violent. As well as the advertised assassination and drug wars, there’s a lot of background violence, both sexual and otherwise, which certainly didn’t lighten the emotional load any. The Gallows Pole was similarly violent, but A Brief History of Seven Killings had none of that poetic prose to ease the relentlessly miserable experience almost all of the characters were having.
What Marlon James did well was ratchet up the tension, especially just prior to the assassination attempt, but also before other explosive events. Even with no knowledge of what was coming, it was obvious that something was about to go down, which was emotionally engaging.
A reader who picked up A Brief History of Seven Killings because the blurb or real-life history sounded intriguing would probably enjoy it, this book just wasn’t for me, and I blame that more on whatever I read that interested me in it more than I blame it on the book itself.
Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence
Moderate: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Suicide
Minor: Cancer, Confinement, Excrement, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Vomit
wrenmurray's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Rape, Drug use, Murder, Death, and Child death
eliasiexil's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Gun violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Blood, Child death, Colonisation, Classism, Cursing, Death, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Torture, and Vomit