Moon Witch, Spider King

Another powerful and visceral depiction of African fantasy from Marlon James. I listened to the audio book with a very strong performance by Bahni Turpin who does a stupendous job of bringing Sogolon to life. In this story we follow the life story of Sogolon (the Moon Witch in [b:Black Leopard, Red Wolf 50608676 Black Leopard, Red Wolf (The Dark Star Trilogy #1) Marlon James https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1579618622l/50608676.SX50.jpg 48215793]) and here ongoing struggle with the Aesi (one half of the Spider King). While technically a sequel to [b:Black Leopard, Red Wolf 50608676 Black Leopard, Red Wolf (The Dark Star Trilogy #1) Marlon James https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1579618622l/50608676.SX50.jpg 48215793] the book goes back further in time and neatly swallows it whole. The change in point of view from a gay man to a woman dramatically changes the context of the book and the themes the book explores . Moon Witch's story is the struggle for self determination and the freedom to make her own decisions and the slow realisation of her power and agency. She is a power and often unlikeable character. I enjoyed the book in spite of its profanity and challenging scenes. There are a lot of situations that are hard to read (sexual and non-sexual violence and coercion, slavery). The story does a good job of dealing with difficult topics without being exploitative (in my opinion).