This book doesn't shy away from the true horrors of slavery. It's uncomfortable and unsettling but there's something about the way Markus Redmond writes. It was so vivid it kept you wanting to read more. There are conversations about what constitutes humanity, who gets to decide what's wrong and right, what true revenge looks like. The pacing was also great where this story could've easily dragged the pacing felt very even.

Very cool story of revenge and reclamation of autonomy that plays with so many intricate themes surrounding what it means to be human, what evil truly is, and who gets to decide the spectrum on which right and wrong is measured. Many readers will relish the journey to reclaim voice and culture and identity in spite of those who wish to oppress. This story captivated from the start and that pace carried me through the entire read.

One of my favorite things is how this author composed his characters. The large cast felt very manageable and memorable while not being completely overshadowed by the stars of the show. The drama and moral dilemmas felt very realistic and appropriately handled, never contrived or exaggerated. There was a balance in this read that just felt so spot on.

There were a couple loose ends that I wish were tied up a bit more cleanly, but that's the only reason this wasn't a solid five stars for me. Still one of my favorite things I read in July. I will be recommending it widely with the caveat to be mindful of trigger warnings and the general premise of the book as some readers may find it more disturbing than intended.

Special thanks to Kensington Publishing for access to an ARC in exchange for review.

Thank you to Netgalley and Kensington Publishing/Dafina for an advanced copy of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily. 

This book is heavy and deals with heinous topics, such as physical abuse, physical and psychological torture (whipping, hot box punishment), trauma, sexual assault (against women, men, and minors), white supremacy, extremely racist language, the experiences of enslaved people on cotton and rice plantations, horrors of colonization, and depictions of kidnapping during the transatlantic slave trade. Please be mindful of your limitations and triggers. Protect your peace at all cost.

There is a unique African vampyre lore of the Ramangan that sets the tone for the events of this book and how an ancient African vampyre ended up on a rice and cotton plantation in the year 1710 in the Province of Carolina. The book displays the painful portrayal of the experience of enslaved persons: verbal and physical abuse, long and exhausting days working the crops, the incessant terror and anxiety of setting off one of the overseers who constantly patrolled and controlled the workers. To bear witness to the atrocities of slavery was incredibly sobering; even more frightening is the notion that nothing penned on paper could ever match the suffering and fear enslaved persons felt in real life. My stomach hurt during some of the scenes, I was horrified at the language and actions directed toward the people kidnapped from their homelands.

This book serves as a form of severe remembrance. While the paranormal aspect was quite scary (the vampyre transformation and presentation in this book is very cool and feels more traditionally terrifying), this was set during a time when the horrors and atrocities committed from human against human was the worst possible thing.

One of the discussion questions posits this: "The horror element in this book is two-fold: there is the horror of violence the Ramangans displayed against the colonizers, and there is the brutal horror of slavery. Which did you find to be more chilling and why?" Without a single thought, the more chilling and horrific is slavery. In today's political climate, I can imagine the actions and language depicted in this novel acted out in our present timeline with zero shame. And that is a deeply disturbing thought. It's one of the reasons why this book feels so poignant. The violence of the Ramangans against the colonizers was retribution. Slavery, however, is senselessly cruel. It reveals a diseased type of humanity. The colonizers were WRONG and anyone who disagrees should read this book and think hard about where you stand in history.

4.5/5

Thank you to NetGalley, Markus Redmond, and Kensington Publishing for a review copy of this book.

Content Warning: Use of slurs, violence, murder, death, blood, gore, guns and other weaponry, sexual assault, implied sexual assault of a minor, violence against women, misogyny, fire, injury from fire, animal death, animal violence, depiction of slavery in the American south, torture, pregnancy, and death of minors.

It is very, very rare for me these days to find a book that shakes me so deeply to my core, that I was so invested in, that I did not want it to end. "Blood Slaves" is a heavy, violent, hopeful tale of slaves in the American south roughly 100 years prior to the Civil War. It takes place in an alternate timeline where vampires are real and willing to aid a plantation of slaves in gaining their freedom.

"Blood Slaves" may seem like a silly premise at first. Vampires in the south? Yet the novel is less of a horror B-movie story and more of an exploration good versus evil. The characters within the story, all of them fighting for freedom in their own way, are forced to grapple with the idea that not all good is good, and not all evil is evil. Is it better to be non-violent, to wait and pray for peace, or must one turn to violence in order to find freedom? These topics are very heavy hitting, and I know I am not doing the themes of "Blood Slaves" justice.

When I was a very young child, I watched part of a documentary that I just happened to flip to on the television. I watched a reenactment of a slave--a mother, her child gripped tightly against her chest--being forced onto a small, wooden dais. There was a white man who pulled the baby away from his mother, grinning from ear to ear as he raised the child above his head. He started barking at the crowd, taking bids on the baby as though he were just an item, a thing to be possessed.

Even then, young as I was, I knew what was happening was wrong.

I remember shutting off the TV because I was so upset. It was the first time I had seen anything about the United States' history of slavery. In my tiny hometown in New Hampshire, it may have been the first time I saw a PoC (aside from my grandmother, who was Native American). I didn't understand why the baby was being sold like a toy to greedy looking men, and I wouldn't understand for a very, very long time.

I bring this story up because I know that, today, the horrors of slavery are being glossed over in schools. There are laws being put into practice that would outlaw the truth, or at the very least, soften the blow of the scars left on this country by slavery. "Blood Slaves" does not shy away from the violence that slaves had to endure. Every whip-crack, every ounce of blood, every tear, every scream. It is haunting. There were moments when I had to put the book down and ground myself.

"Blood Slaves" is not for the squeamish, but I highly recommend it. It is a difficult read. However, the story is well worth your time if you can stand your discomfort. I think it is a very important novel to read. I think it is important because it reminds you that people who may be different from you are still people. They are still human, just like you. They bleed, they cry, they laugh.

And they hope.

This book was absolutely amazing. I can't wait to get my hands on the physical copy. This was not your average slave story?

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for an advance copy for review! Unfortunately, I couldn't get into the writing. The premise is so up my alley, though, and I'll add a review in the future when I pick it up again!

Sadly for me, the premise for Blood Slaves was better than the actual execution.

After loving the film Sinners earlier this year, Blood Slaves felt like it would be a good read to pair with it. A Black vampire ends up working on a plantation and want to help the slaves revolt to freedom in a blood bath with their oppressors. Interesting premise right! The story itself unwove slowly, which wasn't a problem. It just felt very stagnant for the majority of the novel and the action in the final act wasn't worth it. The final act's confrontation felt hurried and a bit forced. Much like in Sinners, the vampires are the least horrifying thing in the novel. The brutality forced upon the slaves is more graphic than the brutality the vampires gave to the plantation owners. While Blood Slaves is set-up to be the beginning of a series, I'm not sure I would want to read the next book in the series. I honestly felt underwhelmed by the end of the novel.

Thank you to Kensington and Netgalley for a copy in exchange for review consideration.

Thanks to the publishers at Kensington Publishing for a chance to read “Blood Slaves” by Markus Redmond!

A true horror novel, “Blood Slaves” reimagines how differently the brutality of chattel slavery would have been if vampires would have been a part of the equation.

While it is gory and graphic in its different depictions of violence, at its core “Blood Slaves” is a book grounded in humanity. Our protagonist is a character that chooses dignity above all else, pays the ultimate price, and is never satisfied with just his freedom alone.

If you want a book that looks at the crimes against humanity unflinchingly, without falling prey to being mere trauma porn, this is a great pick. At the same time, this book features graphic depictions of sexual assault, physical assault, and more, so take care of yourselves should you choose to engage.

Let me just start off by saying I'm white so please take anything I have to say with a grain of salt and go read own voices reviews first. In fact seek out those reviews cause I'm not going to say much. I'm simply going to say this is a pretty heavy book with its subject matter but also the gore. Its hard to say you enjoyed a book like this but I read though it very quickly. I couldn't put it down.

BI loved that Bood Slaves was an interesting concept, blending together vampires and the historical south. There were great descriptions and a lot of memorable scenes.

The author could work on the instances of info-dumping in the first few chapters, and the grammar/syntax issues, such as long, convoluted sentences and filler phrases like "begin to." I could've done without the constant POV shifts as well. Two to three POV shifts are fine. I could even do with three; but, after that it's pretty ridiculous. I also wasn't a fan of how pictorial the sexual assault scenes were. I understood why they were there, I just thought they could use a bit more...care.

Overall, I found the book to be a decent read. I'll most likely buy a copy to support the author, but I do think it still needs some work before it can shine the way it should.

These are my preliminary thoughts since I ran out of time for my review. I plan to post a more detailed/ in depth one with spoilers on my website (www.jaleesamitchell.com) at a later date.

This was okay, but a little too heavy for me at the moment, so I had to quit for now. Will pick it back up later.

Fantastic story, writing, and dynamic characters. This was a unique twist on the typical vampire book. Empowering and scary at the same time.

I enjoyed reading this book. I can think of a few other books I've read about slaves and being a vampire. But this one stands out the most. Markus Redmond did not hold back on the historical part of this book. I see people keep talking about the abuse and trauma but that is exactly what happened and I'm glad they kept it in the book as such because it gives the revenge plot soo much more. The language was fitting and I like the plehtora of characters we get. We get all parts house slave, field slave, masters, overseers, abolitionist, native americans, the one uppity snitching slave, etc and he lets you in on how they each would feel about the revolt. Gertie annoyed me so bad because it's like girl either you want to be free or not. I like how the author intentionally persuades our view of Irene to change. At first when reading you couldn't stand her until she stepped up and when she gave her speech about being mixed. That was an important part too because the way she felt is still how some mixed people feel today and it isnt there fault they are just trying to exist.
Now i did think it took too long to get to the revenge part because we have so much being done to people without Rafazi or Willie doing anything. I wish more would have happened with the Native Americans or seeing them start working together. Although most people will say this gives Sinners mostly because of the vampires. But this is better than Sinners because who doesn't want to see the slavesget revenge. Everyone loves a good revenge story.

I rated this novel 3.5 stars. Although I felt that some of the statements in the Authors Note were extremely questionable, I decided to give this book a chance and I am glad that I did. Blood Slaves had me hooked from the start with its dark energy and intense revenge plot. The characters are layered and flawed in the best way, and the chemistry between them makes the story feel real and addictive. I loved how it balanced emotional moments with dangerous, high-stakes action, definitely one of those books you “just one more chapter” your way through. The messy relationship dynamics and relentless need for revenge kept me glued to the pages, and the emotional hit hard in all the right ways. The book did start slowly, but the pace picked up about halfway in and held my attention.

That said, it lost a star for me because some of the violence and gore felt unnecessary and a little over the top. I would 1000% recommend that readers check the trigger warnings before beginning this book as it discusses heavy topics such as slavery, abuse, and even sexual assault (of both women and children). It didn’t ruin the book, but at times the violence being depicted was so extreme that it distracted me from the powerful character arcs and emotional moments. There were definitely some moments where I had to put the book down for a few days to give myself a break which made it a little more difficult for me to finish the novel.

I also took off half a star because I felt there was so much focus on the violence and brutality of the slave masters that the author missed the opportunity to give the reader the history of the Ramangan people. I found myself wanting to know more about them and their culture. I wanted more background information about the characters. Also, I felt that the excessive use of the n word could have been done without. I wish there was more vampirism and focus on revenge. I love everything supernatural as was obsessed with the idea of abused slaves getting revenge on their abusive masters, however I believe the execution could have been better. Overall, I enjoyed the story, but it was a very difficult read.

Huge thank you to both Netgalley and Kensington Publishing for this advanced reader copy.

I wasn't able to read the last 20% of the book because the time ran out. But of what I read, it is very well written. Once I got used to the way slaves talk, and I must confess that choice surprised me and, at the same time, made so much sense, the story really gets interesting and made me travel to the south of the US. The descriptions were not boring or too much. It was just exact to have the scenery and characters play inside my mind. It has a steady pace, characters are well written and I could feel for the events. Unfortunately I don't know if the end got to be what I was expecting, but I will end it some other time, no doubt. Congratulations to the author!

The book exceeded my expectations. I will say LISTEN TO THE TRIGGER WARNINGS. As an ADOS and someone whose great grandfather was basically a creation of crime (rhymes with grape) I had to pause a lot reading this book. I needed to gather myself and exhale more times than I can count but it doesn’t take away from the literary masterpiece that this book is. It is so well written that it will evoke emotions you didn’t know you could feel. It conjured up things I couldn’t have imagined. The writing is cinematic in nature and if you’re like me you can picture the book like a movie in your mind as you read it. It is a powerful blend of historical fiction, horror, and well deserved revenge rolled into an amazing novel.

I wish there was a bit more of a warning for the graphic and horrible nature of this book. However it was dark and tragic and poignant. The vampires were scary asf and the plot being set on a plantation and being about enslaved people getting revenge is such a good concept.

I couldn’t put this book down! It’s exactly what I expected and lived up to all the hype that others gave it. No notes!

This book is not for the faint of heart.

The pacing of the story is slower than I had expected; whilst we are immediately introduced to vampires in the first chapter, they don't really become a significant part of the story until maybe ~30%. This pacing made the read particularly challenging for me as this is a story of Black pain with even scenes of joy being grounded in moments of sorrow, Without a sense that the slaves would be able to get their vengeance soon, it became really difficult to continue reading.

The level of graphic violence in this book is on a whole other level. Redmond clearly wanted to make the reality for the enslaved characters incredibly vivid so we have multiple scenes of torture and rape as well as continuous dehumanising language throughout. These scenes are painted in such haunting clarity that it felt gratuitous. This is a book that clearly wants the reader to feel uncomfortable but it is ✨a lot✨.

Choosing Willie as the main character / leader did not work for me. I couldn't quite put my finger on why Willie did not work for me as a character but I would have preferred Gertie or Irene to have been framed as the leader of the uprising. Willie's recklessness which resulted more in those around him being hurt was incredibly frustrating and he seemed completely unaware of this character flaw as he was always so unwaveringly sure that he was in the right.

I really wanted to love this book but the ultra-descriptive nature of many scenes combined with Willie because a really difficult-t0-like character made this book a bit of a miss for me. Whilst I get the comparison to Sinners given that it is very much the big thing du jour, there is a crucial absence of Black joy from this narrative which was very much the core of Sinners.

Author: Markus Redmond

Genres: AA Fiction/Supernatural/Fiction

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Summary: Rafazi was the last of his kind, from the Ramanga Tribe of Africa. After a plague wiped out his entire tribe in the 1400s, Rafazi stayed hidden in order to not be captured. After centuries of hiding, too weak to fight back, in 1700, he was finally captured and sent to The Barrow's Plantation and worked as a slave. There he met Willie and a revolution begins.

Tropes and Themes: breaking cycles of slavery, social injustice, revenge, revolution, resilience.

Character: I think one of the most notable characters for me was Irene. I loved her ambition, and she was demonstrated as a leader. Although Gertie may have saw her as inferior, she let everyone know she was not a child. She took control and I loved every minute of each scene.

Thoughts: I requested this as an ARC after seeing the author promoting his book. I was interested and I am glad that I had a chance to read it before it was released. From the very beginning, I was hooked as it starts off with character and cultural development in which we understand how Rafazi came to be. I love how the author creates a space for strong character development, which really enhances the story. Moreover, the story was executed perfectly as it was slow paced in the beginning in order to world build, but it was done in a way that it kept me reading and wanting to know what was going to happen on the next page.

Furthermore, I loved the historical aspect of the book as well. The author brings awareness of suffering not only of African Americans but other people of color, specifically Native Americans. In the same way, I loved the dialect that was utilized in the story. I think I actually know some older people that still speak this way, which made the story more relatable to the historical time of the book.

When it comes to the ending, I have no words! I don't want to spoil the book but when Kwadzo (Willie) consumed fire, I felt chills. Definitely a 5-star read!

** The book has some triggers as it can be painful to read about the excruciating way that people of color were treated. It includes sexual, physical, emotional abuse and neglect of women and minor children. Please check your mental health before reading this.