Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James

Life has forced me into a reading slump for the last several years and outside of the Booker challenge, I’ve found it increasingly more challenging to find the time or mental energy to read (which is why you’ve mostly seen Book worm post on the blog). Luckily for me, my partner is supporting my effort to read more. For the last several years we have been alternating book picks, reading together, and discussing books. The one upside of long distance relationships is that you need to be creative in finding ways to connect and share things that are important to each of you. For me, that’s reading.

This year we have decided to pick books based on monthly themes (that are pretty broad) to push us to read more widely and diversely. To be clear, we are very different readers. He prefers non-fiction and preferably history and I read mostly literary fiction. In February, it was his turn to pick for black history month and to my surprise he picked a fantasy novel. As a non-fiction reader, fantasy is pretty much on the other extreme of the spectrum from his usual genres. His choice was Marlon James’ Black Leopard, Red Wolf. So how did this pick pan out?

Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James
First published in 2019
Awards: Locus Award for best horror novel (2020), LA Times Books Prize for Science fiction, fantasy, & speculative fiction, National Book Award Finalist for Fiction (2019).
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Buy it here: Black Leopard, Red Wolf

Black Leopard, Red Wolf is the first novel in James’ Dark Star Trilogy. The novel unfolds in a series of flashbacks told by the protagonist while he is interrogated from prison about a child’s murder. Tracker (Red Wolf) earns his name from his magical nose that allows him to track missing individuals by their smell. The plot is the story of Tracker’s life and his quest to track a lost child. Part fantasy and part mythology and African history, it is a dizzying, feverous, and challenging read (on many levels). The novel has been described by some as an African Game of Thrones (a thoroughly inaccurate comparison).

It was like nothing I’ve ever read before and I am still not sure whether I actually liked or hated reading it. Those of you who have read any of James’ prior works, won’t be surprised to hear that the book was graphically violent and savage. The graphic violence and brutality was pretty much the only thing that I found resembled Game of Thrones and it was truly grotesque. Frequent rapes, mutilations and torture were described in graphic detail throughout the novel. These passages made me question whether I could make it through the novel.

But the book was also fascinating thanks to James’ ability to weave in African folklore and an oral storytelling style into the plot and narrative structure. Tracker is also not your typical fantasy novel protagonist and I appreciated this. This is no prince saves princess and they fall in love type of fantasy. Tracker is gay and his relationships with friends and partners were complex and one of my favorite parts of the book. Constructions of masculinity, kinship, and culture were important themes in the novel.

Did I love it or hate it? I was engaged throughout and heavily invested in finding out what happened. I was also frequently disgusted and questioned whether my investment in the story would outweigh my experience reading certain passages. This is not a book I would recommend to most readers. It’s a challenging book, but I appreciate James’ skill in crafting novels that are thought-provoking and thoroughly unique.

Have you read the book? What did you think? Is this the sort or book you’d like to read? Let us know what you think. If you want to purchase a copy for yourself, you can find it here: Black Leopard, Red Wolf.