Considering the world this book takes place in, it's a given that there'll be some truly nightmare inducing stuff in this novel.
- In one of the most infamous and graphic scenes in the novel, Tracker is betrayed by his companion Nyka and sold as a Sex Slave to a pack of werehyenas, who gang-rape him and then suck his freakin' eyeball out for good measure. They release him so they can hunt him down, but fortunately Tracker escapes.
- Tracker asks Nyka why he betrayed him years later, Nyka merely shrugs and says he did it because he could.
- Tracker's wolf eye. He's even aware that people are intimidated by it, and uses it to his advantage.
- Tracker and Leopard witness two slaves being beaten for having a relationship, with the slaver being disappointed that the female one isn't a virgin anymore, and thus less valuable. The slaver orders the female killed and the male castrated. For what crime, one might ask? Conceiving a child.
- Amandu's general disregard for his slaves. He doesn't even see them as human, merely products to use, abuse, and get rid of as he pleases. When Tracker expresses disgust at his practice, he mocks Tracker for thinking he's any better than him.
- The inpundulu: they are a type of vampire that feasts on blood and then replaces it with lightning. When turned, you lose control of your faculties and attack anyone who is unfortunate enough to get in your way, and when you regain them, you're left with a craving for human blood, akin to an addict.
- Nyka suffers this fate, and while Tracker writes him off as an Asshole Victim, it's clear that this is a Fate Worse than Death. He then kills his lover Nsaka when initially turned.
- Everything about the white scientists.
- We never even learn how Mossi and all the mingi children die at Sasabonsam and the boy's hands, what we do know is that Tracker can't even talk about it unless he tells it as a story, and one of the children called Smoke Girl was so traumatized that she was driven insane.
- Tracker's increasing Sanity Slippage as the story moves along, becoming especially unhinged and murderous after his family dies, murdering a black market dealer's wife and child in cold blood. The guy was a monster, but nonetheless... damn.
- Gender mutilation, both male and female, is a recurrent thing throughout this story. It says something that this is near the bottom of the list.
