Reviews with content warning for Racial slurs - A Brief History of Seven Killings

Basically a masterpiece, but there’s something just stopping me from giving it 5 stars. It’s just a little too long winded, a little too confusing at times, but still one of the most well crafted books I have ever read.

I’m in awe of James’ writing style, how he effortlessly switches between the myriad of characters and still makes it easy for us to go with the flow, picking up a new voice and way of storytelling that never feels out of place from the previous chapter.

This was honestly not what I expected, and not what I assumed going into it - I did think there would be more emphasis on Bob Marley, as that’s definitely how the book was marketed. However, the lack of “The Singer” didn’t even let me down, as every other character was so absorbing that I never felt I wanted any less of them all.

Sometimes the politics and economics was all a bit much, but maybe that’s just me as someone who has no idea about most of any of what was mentioned. I feel like I learnt a lot about Jamaica and its politics and people and the 70s/80s and drugs/gangs etc in America as well. It definitely kept me hooked throughout.

And even though most of the characters were awful, evil people - I ended up liking so many of them, or at least feeling attached to them. Especially Weeper. And definitely Nina Burgess (and all her many other names). Every character felt very real and alive to me, and because I’ve been reading this book solidly for like a week now, I honestly think I’m going to miss this world and it’s inhabitants now I’m not with them anymore.

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emmanicoleman's review

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challenging dark reflective tense slow-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

4.75

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ktrain3900's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

You don't read this book so much as you experience it. Within the first hundred pages, I almost put it down and added it to my DNF collection. It's a hard world to enter--poverty, misogyny, foul language, racism, classism, explicit violence, casual death, homophobia so omnipresent you feel like you need a new word for it--and for some, it won't be doable (and that's fair). But if you can do it, you'll be rewarded with a rich, layered, albeit brutal, journey through both time and place. You stay for the characters, none of them shining, all suffering in their way, as they try to survive with whatever generally poor hand of cards they've been dealt. Definitely makes me want to read more by the author - the writing is just so well-done.

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panoptican's review

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challenging dark informative sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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alisonburnis's review

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dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Marlon James is a masterful writer, and this is definitely on show in A Brief History of Seven Killings - I mean, it won the Booker. That said, I wasn’t as into this one as I would have liked. I appreciated the writing but the topic wasn’t one I would have gone for typically. So yay for James getting me to read about Bob Marley, Jamaica, and the crack wars, when I might not have picked this up otherwise.

This takes place over a handful of days spread across 15 years. It begins with the attempted murder of Bob Marley, referred to as the Singer, in Jamaica, and follows the characters through the aftermath of the attempted murder, to the drug wars of the 1980s, and then into the 1990s. It is a fictionalization of the attempted murder, though some real figures feature. This is a rich, suspenseful story.

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