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library_bee'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? No
5.0
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Death of parent, Murder, and Colonisation
Minor: Cannibalism
reading_bunny'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? Yes
3.5
Writing: 4/5
Characters: 3/5
Plot: 4/5
Overall: 3.5/5
Review:
I only read this book because it was assigned reading for a university class but I really enjoyed it!
The themes and topics were really heavy but the way that Lauren talked about them makes it both more palatable and devastating.
The whole climate apocalypse theme is always fun to read, especially when it's written in the past, so debit seems to be more if a reality as the years go by.
The whole book has the theme of perspective with how Lauren sees the world and her opinions, and how others see the world and their opinions, it's a huge point if conflict in the book and makes Lauren add to and change Earthseed
I have MAJOR beef with that guy though! I don't even wanna wrote his name because he is the same age as my FATHER and that is gross!!!! Plus the way he sees Earthseed and Laurens want to spread the word and start a community pisses me off.
ANYWAYS
would I recommend this book to others? No, not unless I knew they would be able to handle the extensive triggers and themes of the book.
Would I personally read this again? Absolutely not, but I did really enjoy the read though
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Incest, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Miscarriage, Racism, Slavery, Police brutality, Trafficking, and Murder
Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, Confinement, Misogyny, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Kidnapping, Colonisation, and Classism
mabuu's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Child death, Gore, Sexual assault, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Animal death, Drug use, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, and Classism
novel_nymph's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
adalinemccormick's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism
Moderate: Addiction, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Trafficking, Pregnancy, and Alcohol
thesapphiccelticbookworm'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? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Child death, Death, Rape, Slavery, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Incest, Misogyny, and Pedophilia
Minor: Addiction
nonamenogender's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
The crazies/paints/junkies in the book are all murderous psychopaths who take pleasure in burning things and people. They are portrayed as less than human, monsters. And their behavior IS monstrous, but we get no explanation for this other than the drug makes watching fire better than sex. None of the primary characters, other than Keith, who is also a monster, use drugs.
The moment I kept waiting for that never came was either for Lauren to meet a drug user who doesn't fulfill the mold established earlier, or for the crazies to be more than just junkies, and some kind of violent political group or criminal enterprise. But no, their violence is always senseless and brutal.
This wouldn't bother me so much if the drug "pyro" wasn't such a major part of the storytelling. It plays on the racist fears around the crack epidemic, but not in any way that challenges them. The only hint that how Lauren describes drug users is not accurate to the world she lives in, is that her perspective is often naive, and sometimes narrow minded. Butler says the parable books are what she imagined could happen if the worst of societies problems were allowed to continue unchecked. in that context, "pyro" is the least realistic aspect of the book.
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
emergencily's review
4.25
The teenaged protagonist, Lauren, lives in a small, majority Black gated community just outside LA, led by her pastor father. As the world deteriorates around them, Lauren loses faith in the Christian teachings her father preaches, and begins to secretly develop her own religious system that she calls "Earthseed" -- the belief that change is the only constant and akin to God, and that humanity is destined to leave the doomed earth and live in the stars. Her community is poor, but relative to the desperate poverty outside their guarded walls, downright privileged. They manage to eke out a living through mutual aid and redistribution of their scant resources and running armed watches. This tenuous peace is shattered when invaders knock down the walls. With the few survivors left, Lauren decides to travel north to try to seek refuge across the border in Canada. Along the way, she picks up other survivors and spreads belief in Earthseed among their small group.
I thought the world that Butler built was fascinating and eerie, like a funhouse mirror reflection of our current world. She captured all the same sociopolitical and environmental problems we have and dialed them to a hypothetical max, envisioning the apocalypse as a slow, downward spiral wrought by environmental devastation. The world as we know it ends with a long whimpering death knell, not a bang. I can imagine how fresh this book's take on a post-apocalyptic world was when it was published in the 90s, with its deliberate focus on a Black woman's experiences, on imagining the shape of race and gender relations in a crumbling empire, and its parallels of slavery imagined in a future fascist state. It was horrifying, scary and a crazy page-turner that I stayed up to finish in one night.
But I felt like the climax of the book (the destruction of the community) came a little early. The second half of the book sort of fizzles out and drags on repetitively as she wanders down the highway picking up stray survivors. Like a monster-of-the-week format show, every chapter she finds a scrappy and vulnerable survivor, earns their trust, and inducts them into Earthseed - wash and repeat like 10 times in a row.
I also felt like it was hard to understand Lauren's Earthseed religion and her emotional stakes in it, although a lot of her core beliefs were super fascinating -- the idea of God as a Trickster, as an intangible and ever-changing concept. But at times, I felt that Earthseed existed less as a religion with actual impact on the world and characters than as sprinkled blocks of exposition in the book. Maybe it was my own problem connecting to it as a generally not very spiritual person myself? But I also know she planned this series as a trilogy (sadly passing before she could complete the third book) so it's possible she handles the Earthseed plotline and religious themes more in depth in later books.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Police brutality, Trafficking, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
timmytunter's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Police brutality, and Classism
iamcarlib'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
4.75
Graphic: Child death, Gun violence, Slavery, Violence, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Incest, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail