Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

106 reviews

chanlo1994's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? No

4.75

I wouldn't have picked this up if didn't get the free audiobook credit for it. It was fascinating to see a 90's perspective of 2024, which is the year I read this book, and the author's predictions of what the world would come to in a worst case scenario. Aside from the very extreme dystopian ideas, there are some parallels to today's world. I think we're lucky our government system hasn't failed us (yet) and this book is a stark reminder of what could come should we, as a community and society, fail. Not just each other, but ourselves. In the book, it's mentioned how "backwards we've become" and I know, with recent events, we've definitely heard that a time or two.

It is heavily Christian based, but it also expands from those teachings.

Pretty much if The Purge exists all day every day for years on end, this is what it would be like. I wouldn't be surprised if The Purge was partially inspired by this book.

Oh, and it's most certainly a book about the formation of a cult. Lol. But a good cult? It's yet to be seen.

Side note: because it was recorded in 1999, the end credits are delightfully dated lololol. Saying we could fax them to order a new book and such. I loved it lol.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Slavery, Police brutality, Trafficking, and Pregnancy

Minor: Hate crime and Kidnapping

This is a heavily triggered book for nearly every topic.

ashley_inwonderland's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-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

4.5

This book for sure hits my top 10. It is so thought provoking and deep. I thought a 15 year old main character would bother me, but it really didn’t. It’s sad, but also happy in a weird way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

trapdorr's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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? No

4.25

Dark but intriguing plot line. Interesting take on the human condition and survival. The premise seems so extreme and dystopian but it’s not that far off of the reality of some “third world” nations. I was worried the novel would come off preachy but it didn’t. I think this is a book I’ll think about for years to come. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gun violence, and Rape

Moderate: Sexual assault, Kidnapping, and Grief

Minor: Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Police brutality, and Classism

hotkoolaidpotato's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Octavia Butler is amazing. If I could give this book 10 stars I would. This book is definitely a modern day classic and scares me with how realistic it was.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Incest, Pedophilia, Racism, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, and Injury/Injury detail

lemonsaurus's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

5.0

"A sower went out to sow their seed; and as they sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. And some fell upon the thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. And others fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bore fruit an hundredfold. " - The Bible, Authorized King James Version, St. Luke 8 5-8

This is a classic for a reason, and should be required reading, frankly. The present Butler describes is only scifi in that it was speculative in the time she wrote it. While things are not this bad in the US yet, I still qualify that with the word 'yet', and the many parallels to our current situation are a constant reminder that we may not be walking in the general direction of North through the rotting corpse of our country, but we are within a stones throw of it. Lakes dried down to fractions of their former size is actively occuring, drinking water is scarce and only getting scarcer. We have a president named a version of Don, elected in 2024, on the platform of "Make American Great Again", in some cases gladly offering up our own rights in the name of a promise so esoteric and decoupled from our actual current situation it almost feels like we place votes on what best fantasy novel we want to believe is true the most. 

"I wish you could have known this country when it was still salvageable"

The question begs, if the country ultimately ended up in the situation it was in, was it ever really salvageable? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Slavery, Violence, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Trafficking, Cannibalism, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Chronic illness, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Incest, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Colonisation, and Classism

cobraforhire's review

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

3.0

It’s fun speculative world-building, but the actual story is a little ho-hum.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy

catz0rz's review

challenging dark emotional reflective 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: Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

missanareads's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

3.0

This book was heavy and hard to read. It’s hard to think that humanity would ever be like this so it’s hard to sink into. I also could have done without the religion creating, but maybe that just went over my head. Interesting read, but wouldn’t read again 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, and Classism

viporras's review

challenging dark emotional 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, Animal death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Infertility, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

zams's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.5

I really thought a long time about how to review this book and I'm still not sure what to say.
It's scary close to what's already happening in a lot of places, and it fed my brain with tons of material to think about. I don't know if Lauren being a teenager made a lot of sense to me the way her character is behaving, but maybe she's a product of what's happening, and it doesn't seem too unusual, considering how the others around her age are acting. I think all of the characters were very fleshed out, I still don't know why the love interest had to be this old, but maybe one day I will understand.
It didn't seem like a lot was happening for a good chunk of the book, but the writing style made this go by without much fuss as well, which was verey surprising to me. I definitly think I might have to re-read this again in some time, after I've had a bit more time to process my thoughts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Terminal illness, Torture, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Pregnancy