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sammymilfort'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? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Racism, Terminal illness, and Kidnapping
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 to pillage the community. With 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 not as a singular event, but as a slow, downward spiral wrought by environmental devastation and selfishly destructive human responses to such. The world as we know it ends with a long, drawn out 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 begrudging 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
dragongirl271'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: Fire/Fire injury and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Racism, and Violence
Minor: Rape, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, and Cannibalism
aniloracccc's review
- 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: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Drug use, Gun violence, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Addiction, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, and Cannibalism
oddpilot97's review against another edition
It’s too dark for me right now. 😬 There were mentions of rape in the first 10 minutes and more soon after. Plus a completed suicide. Really bleak.
Another reviewer said they felt it was less dystopian or post-apocalyptic and more apocalyptic. I didn’t get far in but that reflects my feelings.
I have no doubt this is an important work, but I need to protect my brain space by setting this down.
Moderate: Rape, Suicide, Violence, and Blood
psistillreadyou'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: Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Mental illness, Rape, Slavery, Suicide, and Cannibalism
Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Incest, Pedophilia, and Trafficking
Age gap relationshipgremlinjane's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Despite the horrors and atrocities of this world (that holds so many prescient parallels to our own), this book is full of humanity. The author offers us hopeful ideas and also forces the reader to create and discover their own
Graphic: Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Child death, Rape, Torture, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Suicide, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Cannibalism
t4t1312's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and War
murray3'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? It's complicated
3.25
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Cannibalism
Minor: Animal death
This has probably like every trigger warning ever to some degree, far warning. Also it includes elements of religion if you are not into religion. It also talks a lot about politics and government. This is the first book of a two book series.lisacanteven'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? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Incest, Sexual content, Suicide, and Alcohol