This book was recommended to me by my mom, who bought it for me when I was in Ohio last. She said it was gay and that she liked it, and with only that recommendation I was entirely prepared for how great this book turned out to be. Black Leopard Red Wolf is a depiction of a bestial, feral world, and it is therefore horny and violent as can be, and full of love and hearbtreak in painfully equal measures. It is more dense with myth than American Gods (and no wonder Neil Gaiman is one of the praise blurbs on the back of the book), but I knew none of these deities or monsters and so I spent a good amount of time googling, or just accepting that I would not know the cultural context of what was being desscribed. The plot is action-packed but winding, occasionally confusing in a delightful way, and always maybe lying to the reader. I am very much looking forward to reading the next installment.