Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

455 reviews

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

auntslayla's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Really great, slow to start but once you’re in you can’t stop. Excited to read the second one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Slavery, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Rape and Sexual violence

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

djtoebeans's review against another edition

dark hopeful reflective 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, and Gun violence

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Trafficking, Cannibalism, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Racism, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Classism

thisreadingcorner's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

In Parable of the Sower, Butler introduces us to Lauren Olamina, a teenage girl navigating a dystopian California in 2024 (published in 1993). In the discussion guide at the back of my edition, Butler names her inspiration quite succinctly - she’s not a psychic, the doom and gloom of Lauren’s world was a natural extrapolation of all the failures of the world she existed (and we continue to exist) in. The “growing rich/poor gap…throwaway labor…our willingness to build and fill prisons, our reluctance to build and repair schools and libraries…our assault on the environment…global warming…food-price driven inflation…increased vulnerability to disease.” You get it.

Through her fight for survival and the birth of her belief system - Earthseed - Lauren learns a lot about community and community building, loss, safety, love, and power. The parallels are never ending - policed borders causing increased violence and racial polarization, economic instability collapsing class and privilege across the nation, refugees being marched from city to city in pursuit of “safety” from oppressive forces, capitalistic exploitation of the working class, and a despotic president to top it all off.

Butler’s questions capture it best: Where are we going? What sort of future are we creating? Is this the kind of future you want to live in? If It isn’t, what can we do to create a better future? Individually and in groups, what can we do?

Perhaps we’d be in a better place if more of our individual and group actions came in response to these prompts, and that is a great guide to keep in mind as we enter this season of hibernation and annual renewal.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence

Moderate: Child death, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual content

shadowsinger17's review

dark emotional sad 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

3.75

Well written but I found it depressing.  yet the message is indomitable. There is hope within the protagonist by accepting what is and to have a belief bigger than yourself. The focus is change, change is god. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

justine16's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Rape, and Cannibalism

Minor: Animal death, Suicide, Torture, and Trafficking

augie_'s review

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

sabiecee's review

dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-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

Jarring, real, and thought-provoking. Having a hard time to coming to terms with it still.
The main character's relationship at the end and the weird age gap is making me really uncomfortable though, and I'm hoping that doesn't last long in the next book 😭

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Trafficking, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, War, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

glassdanse's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

this book is not for the faint of heart. it is a beautifully written book though. not one I would recommend to everybody