Black Leopard, Red Wolf

I'm kind of mad I spent so much time slogging through this. It had SO MUCH hype and the premise was super intriguing, so I thought it would eventually get better, or all the terror and violence would have some sort of satisfying payoff, but no. This book was A LOT. “Brutal,” as many reviewers described this, must now be code for “contains a lot of rape and pedophilia and pseudo-bestiality,” so my bad, I guess, for opening the cover anyway. And further my bad for continuing even after the book pretty much told me in the first few pages what it was going to be. And I do mean told. This is not a book that shows you anything. It prefers long-winded, nonsensical, overly stuffed exposition at every turn, with as many mentions of penises, violent sex, and egregious bodily harm as possible. And look, I'm not usually a delicate reader and I'm rarely offended and this is not my first book set within an African mythos, but what the hell, Marlon, and what the hell, National Book Award committee?