Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

476 reviews

kcuster13's review

adventurous challenging dark inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Wowie is this book relevant in this day and age! Thoroughly enjoyed

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Excrement, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

tlvz721's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-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: Animal death

pandoraschaos's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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? No

5.0

Has your world ever been so dystopian that you create a new religion that’s for the people? No, well this may inspire you to do just that. 

The story is set in 2024-2027. And is one of the many reasons I love dystopian fiction is the idea that it’s an “alternative reality”, but I swear that Octavia E Butler is a freaking psychic with her accuracy. 

Measles outbreaks, the poor attacking the only slightly less poor, food prices only going up, never down, and even a drug epidemic that also only seems to destroy poor communities. It’s hard NOT to see the direct resemblance to 2025 in the United States.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual content, Police brutality, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Cannibalism

hayleyvharrington's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug use, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Trafficking, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Gun violence, Blood, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death and Racism

rnbhargava's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

4.75

This is quite near a perfect post apocalyptic novel. The only thing keeping it from being considered perfect is that it’s inconclusive. I do look forward to the sequel but it would be nice if this novel was a bit more conclusive.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Incest, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

This is a post-apocalyptic tale where the characters find themselves in relationships with whoever, even potentially cousins and other forms of incest. The violence is very graphic. Much of it is rooted in drug addiction. The racism between characters is rampant too. Well worth the read but please not triggers.

jaimc's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful 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? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Medical content

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Incest, Infertility, Pedophilia, Slavery, Torture, Vomit, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

booksdogsandcoffee's review

emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.75

Powerful, prophetic, and poignant. Butler took issues she saw such as climate change, religion, racism and many more that we as humans were struggling with in the 1990’s and extrapolated them to what they could look like in 30 years. And quite honestly she was not far off on how society is described in Parable. This book hits hard and needs to be read by everyone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, and Death of parent

_david_'s review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• 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

2.5

I don't really see a reason to pick up this book.

The book did not manage to grip me. There was a lot of repetition and the constant same amount of tension and chaos made it oddly boring. I didn't feel immersed and stopped caring about the character, I just felt like I was on a slow monorail just logging through the chapters.

I didn't like the main character, she felt very young with the naive "I've figured out the world" mindset, without ever being punished for it. She never questioned her own way of thinking either.

The world building was lackluster, the multiple themes which seemed to make this book special (pyromania, dystopia, starting a new religion) were never really expanded on or even challenged. It's just as it is and you only read about the direct current consequences to the characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Incest, Miscarriage, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Trafficking, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Infertility and Vomit

manyofmae's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

kolonfrancis's review

dark emotional 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

4.75

A beautiful and almost prescient read. This was my first book by Butler that I have read and I was instantly captured by the prose and world building. The relationships that build, collapse, and die are beautifully executed.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury