You know that feeling when you want to shout to the world your favorite book? That feeling when you go to coffee with your friend and spend the time convincing them to read the book you now LOVE so you can discuss it later! Ah - what a joyous moment!
So - why on Earth do I have a favorite book I never recommend??
Well, because my favorite book is…a lot…
Black Leopard Red Wolf by Marlon James. Maybe you’ve heard of it, maybe you’ve seen its incredible cover art at the bookstore or somewhere on the bookish internets. Maybe you’ve heard it be called “The Black Game of Thrones” *deep sigh*…Publishing companies really love to compare Black stories to famous white authors stories. Goodness forbid we have our own creativity and stories. But oh no everything is “Black Harry Potter” “The Black Star Wars” “The Black Twilight”.
Anyway - I’m here to tell you it is NOT the ‘Black Game of Thrones’, in fact I believe that to be very disrespectful to the book. Black Leopard Red Wolf is a literary fiction masterpiece…in my opinion.
This story is a trickster story (my favorite type of story!), a mystery, and an exploration of African myth, as well as the author’s own wild imagination.
Picture this: A boy is lost. The boy obviously needs to be found. So a team of people are hired to find the boy. Tracker, the main character, has a special ability of an incredible sense of smell. He can hunt down cheating husbands, thieves, even smells emotions dripping off people (love, lust, fear). Tracker always works alone but something about this mystery boy has him working with a group of people. An interesting cast of characters with their own abilities and motivations.
The magnificence of this story, for me, is that you as the reader are stuck in Tracker’s perspective. You have to trust everything he tells you and everything he shows you. You also grow impatient and confused about who this boy is and why these kingdoms are concerned for his whereabouts and it feels that while Tracker is giving you his account…something isn’t right. Something is being hidden from you but what? And why?
Black Leopard Red Wolf is vile, horrid, nightmarish, visceral, but it’s written in a way stylistically that made me so curious and want more. I felt more intrigued with this book because as more time went by and I reread the book I noticed more intricate details that made the story feel richer, darker, more mysterious. To say I was not disturbed by some parts would be wildly incorrect. There were so many moments where I could not believe what I was reading, could not believe that someone decided to sit down and write this absolutely vile scene. But there were more instances that painted this story as a whole in a bigger way than I could have imagined.
My favorite book has a 2nd book. And THAT is actually my favorite book. My favorite book, Moon Witch Spider King is the Moon Witch Sogolon’s perspective. See, she was also part of the group that set out to find the boy. But her story starts not when she is an old woman on the hunt for this boy but when she’s a child?…Does this story really have to go back that far? Oh yes, because this story is much older than I ever thought possible.
The Moon Witch has a lot to say and to show but she needs you to understand the full scope of what has been happening. She needs you to see that things are bigger than you, me, and Tracker. So to do that we need to understand her. We need to know how she came to be the Moon Witch and the true power she holds, and where that power comes from. And maybe…just maybe…grow to trust her?
But who can you trust in a trickster story?
My favorite book I never recommend. Because if I recommend it I’ll spend too much time explaining why it is eye opening, why it bends and strips my imagination, why it makes me question every story, why it makes me compare everything else to it, why I promise I’m not crazy…I just love literature, and trust no one.