Very grateful for @bookofcinz's #ReadCaribbean for finally giving me the push I needed to tackle A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James! This novel has sat on my shelf for almost three years, with me thinking it was too intimidating... And it is a challenge! But it's definitely a challenge I recommend undertaking, because the payoff is one of the most epic, sprawling, immersive stories you will ever read.

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Set across three decades, A Brief History of Seven Killings explores the event and aftermath of the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in Jamaica in 1976. James juggles a HUGE cast of characters in this book, and we hear from pretty much everyone involved, no matter how minimally, with 'The Singer'. I'm a huge fan of multiple perspectives, and James creates such unique voices for every character. Nina Burgess' and Weeper's stories were probably the two narrative threads I found most compelling, but I genuinely didn't feel like I had to race through anyone's chapters to get to a different perspective.

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James has this way of describing intense experiences so vividy - sex, drug withdrawals, panic attacks - that you feel dragged through the pages into the scene itself, living it alongside the characters. There are some chapters which use stream of consciousness, as I know some people find that difficult, but the effect here is mesmerising. The Booker Prize (not the International one) lost some stock with me after last year's fiasco, but this book just proves that sometimes the judges do get it right.

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You'd be hard pressed to find a theme James doesn't tackle within this book, but two themes that really stood out were colourism and homophobia in Jamaica. Homophobia is entrenched so deeply within some male characters that they’re constantly struggling to come to terms with their own sexuality, even when they're in relationships with other men. James also does not shy away from graphic scenes of torture and, in case you couldn't guess from the title, killings, but it all comes together to paint a truly vivid picture.

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Eight intense days with this book - it can’t be any less than 5 stars