Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon JamesMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I can't say I'm the biggest fan of this book, purely because of how often grossgusting it is. I mean, it's super engaging, and has the recommendations of Neil Gaiman and Roxane Gay going for it. And it's super colorful in a lot of ways. And super...well, I mean, I can totally see why Gaiman loves it, purely because it's very stylistically similar to American Gods with its sprawling road-fantasy to a lot of memorable places with a lot of memorable characters therein. But this book is also loaded with ultraviolence that puts A Clockwork Orange to shame. Hell, even Tarantino might blush at the repeated instances of child rape (among rape of adults too), people getting pissed on all over the place, and a certain preoccupation with penises as symbols of power. It's not an easy read, not by a long shot, but if you can stomach it, it's worth a shot. And I'm hoping not to have to wait too long for Book 2...though I'm not sure how much Marlon James intends to up the violence...
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