Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

44 reviews

rosenic's review against another edition

Trigger warnings galore 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Trafficking, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

overwaterer's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious sad 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

Plot and style were engaging enough to push past the horrific child abuse depicted. Doubt I’ll read on in the series, but would read more by this author. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, and Blood

j_e_n_n's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Child abuse, Homophobia, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Trafficking, and Kidnapping

bitter_critter's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark slow-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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

sujong127's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

hello_kara's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• 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

If you have any triggers, just imagine this book as one big red flag. Horribly brutal and violent. Cruel and gruesome. Intensely graphic and crass. Disorienting and unnerving. 

This is not a comfortable or easy read. But content riddled with trauma should not be comfortable. Gratuitous mention of shit, piss, blood, rape, gang rape, genital mutilation, child abandonment and sacrifice, kidnapping, corruption, slavery, torture, dismemberment, and murder. Is the overall story still intriguing though? Yes. Not a book I could ever rate on a simple scale though.

“There was always someone or some two or some three who will grab me like a stick and break me, grab me like wet cloth, and wring everything out of me. And that was just the way of the world. That was the way of everybody’s world.”

Took me forever to get through this one, and I didn’t feel invested until about a third of the way through. That’s also about how long it takes to get to the advertised plot of the book. I was drawn in by the premise of an epic quest of a group of people each with different supernatural gifts, knowledge, or skill, with the goal of finding a missing child of prophecy. The story is told from the point of view of Tracker, The Red Wolf, and is being told to the Inquisitor questioning him regarding this quest. Rooted in African inspired mythologies and folklore, this quest takes them to several different cities, through cursed lands and hidden doorways, and they cross paths with a plethora of terrifying creatures. 

This book is the first in a planned trilogy, with each book more companion than sequel, telling the story from different points of view. I think it’s a very interesting concept, especially with unreliable narrators, a plot thick with political intrigue, characters with supernatural gifts and some with unnaturally long life spans. At times the writing was rich and easily immersive, other times disorienting with a stream-of-consciousness-mania. The style was so unlike other books I’ve read. 

Audiobook performance was excellent, but with the writing style it was difficult at times to tell when characters switched back and forth during dialogue. I did read along with the ebook for most of this which helped. There are also several maps and character lists at the beginning of the book. 

“We don't own truth. Truth is truth and nothing you can do about it even if you hide it, or kill it, or even tell it. It was truth before you open your mouth and say, That there is a true thing.”

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

bookishkarina's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

1.5

Hated this. Disgusting and vulgar language that was so unnecessary. Women were described in such a foul way for no reason whatsoever. Has pedophelia, violent rape scenes, bestiality and so much more disturbing and disgusting stuff. I was in pain the entire time. Read something else. Don’t go through the pain and suffering I did.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, and Murder

samanthaleereads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

reflectiverambling_nalana's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

 t is easy to see why "Black Leopard, Red Wolf' received so much acclaim. It is bold in tone and scope. It draws upon a rich culture for inspiration of crafting the world. There is clearly a deep history and complex mythology at play. It does an extraordinary job at calling upon storytelling culture both stylistically and as a device within the narrative. Above all of this, having listened to it on audio, I cannot praise Dion Graham enough for one of the best and what I can only imagine was challenging and exhausting performances I've heard in recent years. 

However, even after 'slowing down' to speeds I don't normally listen at, I had to go back more than once. Somewhere in the middle of this book I kept feeling like I was loosing key information. I consider myself not exceptionally intelligent, but relatively capable of following complex plots as much as the next scifi/fantasy reader. Something about the pacing of this tale, of what started to feel like an excessive amount of additions crammed into a single story, left me feeling just two steps behind. I never was able to get a really good grasp on the world itself. The constant questions started piling up more as frustrations than curiosity for new revelations. 

To ad to this, while I appreciate the mental complexity of the Tracker, the emotional distance he had to place as he was forced into survival mode made if very difficult for me to really connect with him. though I confess I was taken by some of the secondary characters. This might be in part because of the constant fight and flight necessity that just made me feel like I was in a whirlwind. It leaves me wondering if at the time of the writing the author wasn't aware he would be granted a trilogy and was desperate to show all these wonderful gems of ideas in fear that he wouldn't have time to breathe and flesh them out after a single installment. 

Overall, this is a story with so much good and potential. It deserves a chance from readers. but I have to admit after finishing it I'm not entirely compelled to continue on. honestly, it left my brain a touch exhausted in a way that was not rewarding or from a way I could say i was challenged but feel accomplished from. 

I would also like to warn readers that there is excessive and blunt physical and sexual violence as that might be a problem for some. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Trafficking, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Child death, Death, Incest, Sexism, and Murder

Minor: Kidnapping and Abandonment

a_raptor_named_arsenic's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Blood, and Kidnapping