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samdalefox's review against another edition
- 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? No
5.0
A type of book that reaches beyond the traditional imagination and limitations of dystopian scifi. It felt so real, so easy to read, so important. As soon as I started reading I was hooked, and I would have finished it in one sitting if I wasn't interrupted. The story is both depressingly accurate in its assessment and predicitions of human society's collapse, but also beuatifully imaginative and almost optimisitic. The whole concept of Earthseed is fascinating and I'm sure there are many philosophical, psychological, anthropological, intersectional feminist, and theological interpretations from others I could read up on. I've been trying to read less books that will fuel my climate anxiety, but this strangely helped me, I felt less alone. Octavia E. Butler understood these dangers within our society so many years ago, I felt solidarity. I felt inspired and compelled to action. I have already bought the second book of the duology. I particularly enjoyed that Butler inroduced the concept of
Quotes:
"All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you. The only lasting truth is change. God is change."
"Then, someday when people are able to pay more attention to what I say than how old I am, I'll use these verses to pry them loose from their rotting past, and maybe push them into saving themselves and building a future that makes sense. That's if everything will just hold together for a few more years."
"Sometimes naming a thing - giving a name or discovering a name - helps one to begin to understand it. Knowing the name of a thing and knowing what that thing is for gives me even more of a handle on it."
"Things are changing now, too. Our adults haven't been wiped out by a plague so they're still anchored in the past, waiting for the good old days to come back. But things have change a lot, and they'll change more. Things are always changing. This is just one of the big jumps instead of the little step-by-step changes that are easier to take. People have changed the climate of the world. Now they're waiting for the old days to come back."
"She was afraid, and that made her defensive."
"Civilisation is to groups what intelligence is to individuals. It is a means of combining the intelligence of many to achieve ongoing group adaptation. Civilisation, like intelligence, may serve well, serve adequately, or fail to serve its adaptive function. When civilisation fails to serve, it must disintegrate unless it is acted upon by unifying internal or external forces. EARTHSEED: THE BOOKS OF THE LIVING."
"Intelligence is ongoing, individual adaptability. Adaptations that an intelligent specied may make in a single generation, other species may make over many generations of selective breeding and selective dying. Yet intelligence is demanding. If it is misdirected by accident or by intent, it can foster its own orgies of breeding and dying. EARTHSEED: THE BOOKS OF THE LIVING."
"Once people get the idea that it's all right to take what you want and destroy the rest, who know's when they'll stop."
"We aren't gang types. I don't want gang types with their need to dominate, rob and terrorize. And yet me wight have to dominate. We might have to rob to survive, and even terrorize to scare of or kill enemies. We'll have to be very careful how we allow our needs to shape us. But we must have arable land, a dependable water supply, and enough freedom from attack to let us establish ourselves and grow."
"Worship is no good without action. With action, it's only useful if it steadies you, focuses your efforts, eases your mind."
"Kindness eases change. EARTHSEED: THE BOOKS OF THE LIVING"
"Oh, God, there you go again. You've always got a disaster up your sleeve."
"I see what's out there. You see it too. You just deny it."
"I believe in something that I think my dying, denying, backward-looking people need. I don't have all of it yet. I don't even know how to oass on what I do have. I've got to learn how to do that. It scares me how many things I've got to learn. How will I learn them?"
"Belief initiates and guide action, or it does nothing. - earthseed: the books of the living."
"Embrace diversity, Unite - Or be divided, robbed, rules, killed, by those you see as prey. Embrace diversity or be destroyed."
"'Live!' Dad said. 'That's all anybody can do right now. Live. Hold out. Survive. I don't know if good times are coming back again. But I know it won't matter if we don't survive these times.'...And Dad is right...but he doesn't go far enough... It isn't enough for us to just survive, limping along, playing business as usual while things get worse and worse. If that's the shape we give to God, then someday we must become too weak - too poor, too hungry, too sick - to defend outselves. Then we'll be wiped out. There has to be more that we can do, a better destiny that we can shape. Another place. Another way. Something!"
Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
The content warnings seem extensive because many of these things are mentioned in passing as part of describing their commoness in the dystopian world the book is set in.sunschoenmai's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, Torture, Blood, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Classism
clare072's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Gun violence, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism
Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Blood, Police brutality, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Cursing, Incest, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Abortion
paukinra's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Cannibalism, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Racism, Rape, Slavery, Police brutality, and Injury/Injury detail
rlgreen91's review against another edition
- 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? No
5.0
Anyways, if I had to pick one topic about the book that is top of mind it would be Lauren's hyperempathy. I have a lot of thoughts of Lauren's disability, as evident by the many notes and marked pages in my copy. I can say that, when I think of the books I've read over my life, this is hands down the best portrayal I have encountered of what it is like to live with a mental illness. Granted, I could certainly read more literature by people with disabilities and mental illnesses, but I would be interested to see how their characters compare to Lauren. There's just so much that Butler hints at or suggests about how disabilities and mental illness affects people throughout the book.
One thing that comes to mind is how Lauren's mental illness wasn't just mental. Yes, her hyperempathy was a delusional disorder, and occurred within her mind, but it had real physical effects on her. She could, at certain times in life, start bleeding if she saw other people bleeding. If she sees someone on the ground due to pain, all of a sudden she's on the ground, unable to move as well. Even though the cause of her pain is entirely mental, she's still physically affected during any episodes. Her mental illness affected her physical health, which is something that I don't know that we've really grasped as a whole yet, or maybe we had and forgot at some point.
Another thing that comes to mind is how societal norms and expectations of race, gender, age, etc. can affect a person's experiences with disabilities and others' perceptions of people with disabilities. There's a moment in the novel where Lauren realizes that having hyperempathy, and its resulting reaction to pain, is probably a lot more accepted for women than it is for men. It's an aha moment that took her a bit to have, and you can see how it colors her interactions with Mora.
There's just so much in this book, not just about living with disabilities and mental illnesses, but also about community building, understanding when and how to trust and be vulnerable with others, what it means to really be secure in life, climate change, and so so much more. This is definitely a book I plan to reread at some point, fully expecting to come away amazed with a different set of new perspectives. Let's just hope that 2024 in real life isn't as bleak as the one in the novel.
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Physical abuse, and Violence
Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Mental illness, Rape, and Death of parent
bookcaptivated's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Drug use, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Vomit, Trafficking, and Cannibalism
Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Gaslighting, and Classism
shieldbearer's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism
Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Slavery, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Incest
courtneyfalling's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Rape, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Ableism, Drug use, and Death of parent
Minor: Slavery and Cannibalism
alexture's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Child abuse, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Cannibalism, and Pregnancy
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Incest, and Police brutality
mscalls's review against another edition
- 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
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