Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

30 reviews

shontellereads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

My first Octavia E. Butler! This was a slow start but did pick up around halfway through. What i liked: the bleak setting and the character work. What I didn't like: the religious element (just not really my cuppa tea), the sharing, and causuality around domestic violence (although this is hard to say if the book has a casual attitude about it or the MC does, either way imo a father who beats his kids is a shite man).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

sup3r_xn0va_maya's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

💬: "God is neither good nor evil, neither loving nor hating. God is Power. God is Change. We must find the rest of what we need within ourselves, in one another, in our Destiny."

Butler, Octavia E.. Parable of the Sower (p. 245). Open Road Media. Kindle Edition. 

📖Genres: sci-fi, speculative fiction, dystopia, post apocalyptic, classics 

📚Page Count: 330

🎧Audiobook Length: 12h 01min

👩🏾‍🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5 
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The very beginning of the book is very preachy, well a lot of this book is preachy because it's literally the story of a young woman creating her own religion. I'd say the story was overall enjoyable despite the preachiness of it all. I really enjoyed the way this was written and how, it started out hopeless, like a lot of Butler's works. Then, there's a little light at the end of the tunnel and the story suddenly becomes hopeful.

This is my second time reading Parable of the Sower and I finally understand that it's about community and keeping one another safe. Protecting one another in crisis. That is the answer to the question, "what do we do when disaster strikes?"

I also love the diversity in this book. The characters were very diverse like all other Butler books.

The beginning of the book was a bit slow even though the book was interesting overall. Therefore, I'm giving this 4.5 stars out of 5.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

plainpaige's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

A stunning work, gripping, remarkably prescient for its time. Butler may have had the timeline off by a few years, and been too optimistic about the pace of climate change, but she clearly saw the coming downturn of society that we're living through. We would all do well to read this enthralling book and follow its characters' example of preparing for, finding, building, and protecting community when societal safeguards fail. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cannibalism, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Incest, Infidelity, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Excrement, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

jaymem's review

adventurous challenging dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Police brutality, Trafficking, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

jlaz_13's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Gun violence, Blood, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Police brutality, Medical trauma, and Abandonment

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Pedophilia, Suicide, Torture, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Cannibalism

drinaiscold's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Trafficking, Mass/school shootings, and Medical trauma

schmidtly's review

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness and Death

Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

mscalls's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy

egmamaril's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Slavery, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Rape

peachmoni's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, and Grief