The only reason this book got 3 stars was because the last 50 or so pages were phenomenal. Pitched as an African mythology-inspired fantasy to rival Tolkien, my expectations were perhaps too high as I journeyed with Tracker and Leopard. Be aware, before starting this, of the numerous trigger warnings which include: beastiality, rape, gang rape, pedophilia and incest. (To name but a few.)

I can’t write this review without commenting on the above mentioned TWs. These scenes are graphic and completely unnecessary - had they pushed the plot forwards in anyway it would have been understandable, instead it comes across as overdone and icky. If I have to read a graphic gang rape scene involving shapeshifting hyenas ever again, it would still be too soon. Please, please, please be aware of this going into the book.

Tracker is our narrator, telling the story to someone he calls an inquisitor, so the story unravels the way he wants it to and to fit his own agenda. The lack of chronology makes it difficult to follow the story at times and follow the characters. Not to mention, the biased narrator can only provide his side of the story.

There are moments of this book that felt incredibly slow, to the point where I left the book for a few days and didn’t want to read it anymore. This wasn’t helped by chapters that were regularly 50 pages long. I think a lot of this could have been taken out (maybe some of those graphic scenes I mentioned earlier) without damaging the plot and probably improving how we viewed the characters.

Speaking of characters, James gives us a fellowship of incredibly complex individuals - each motivated by something different, all with different skills and a few with intricate plots and schemes. There were only a few characters who I truly liked in this and spent the whole book rooting for. I liked that each character felt ready to step off the page, each with his or her own flaws and all of them willing to lie, murder and betray each other in the blink of an eye. These cunning characters made the story much more interesting and were much of the reason I stuck with this book.

The climax of the story was amazing, as was the ending as I mentioned at the start of this review. I still plan on reading the next book in the series - hopefully more prepared for James’… unusual… writing style and graphic scenes. This book felt more like a VERY long prologue, preparing us for something more epic in the next book. Hopefully, James won’t disappoint. Don’t believe the hype on this - it is not a fantasy book for everyone, it certainly isn’t the next Tolkien. At times it reads as a pretentious attempt at high-brow fantasy, a unnecessarily graphic snuff book and, occasionally, a genuinely riveting mythology-inspired adventure. Let’s hope we get more of the latter in book 2.