Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

554 reviews

tommeyer3's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

This one took a while to grow on me, but it really did. I loved the plot device, found the story riveting (and disturbing) and thought the characters were well-developed, but the writing style was a little over-prescriptive at times to me. But over time it wore me down and ultimately I liked it a lot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, and Racism

bblob's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Sexual violence

anabak's review against another edition

challenging dark informative fast-paced

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

4.0

Realism about time travel and slavery 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery and Violence

heathernependa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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? Yes

5.0

“Like all good works of fiction, it lies like the truth.”

This made my skin crawl. I think it should be required reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Slavery, Sexual violence, Violence, Death, Racism, Racial slurs, and Suicide

bluelilyblue's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Racism, Racial slurs, and Violence

Moderate: Self harm, Sexual violence, and Suicide

badbadwolf's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, and Racism

Moderate: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Bullying, Grief, Murder, Medical content, Rape, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Torture, Child death, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Trafficking, Vomit, Blood, Physical abuse, Colonisation, and Sexual violence

adisiki's review against another edition

4.5

Wow this was incredible! I’ve been meaning to get into Butler’s work for a while, and I’m glad I started here. So well-written and an unflinching, honest, and brutal look at slavery and racism and its lasting effects on everyone involved. I just wish there had been an explanation on how and why Dana was traveling through time, but I get that’s probably part of the speculative fiction that leaves it open-ended.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, Racial slurs, and Slavery

Moderate: Sexual violence, Suicide, and Rape

sabripolin's review against another edition

reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Totally transported (pun not intended…) by the vivid imagery of Dana’s experience in two time periods, but mostly by the complex, conflicting emotions and ethical dilemmas she encounters and how to manage situations in a period-appropriate manner. 

Minus points (?) for all characters’ lack of FREAKING OUT and Dana’s seemingly emotionless disposition all throughout. We also don’t really get a “why” to why this all happened or what triggered her first transportation. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Racism, Torture, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Rape, Murder, Ableism, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, and Medical content

miss_vonnegut's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

Butler is an incredible writer. I loved getting a time-travel novel in which the main character is a black woman. As you can imagine, this book gets really dark, but even as someone who has a hard time with certain types of dark books, this was fine. Not a bad idea to check content warnings, but nothing felt gratuitous. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Torture, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Vomit

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Alcoholism

Since she keeps getting transported back to the pre-civil war south, you see a lot of time-period typical violence, racism, etc.

alpaca_in_space's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

This book is an example of what makes Octavia Butler a great author. While it has darker themes, they don't feel added for the sake of shock value - instead they were clearly added to ensure the story was handling the implications of its premise. It is an incredible work of literature inviting readers into one of the darkest parts of the United States's past and to think about what lasting impacts it had into today.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Murder, Self harm, Violence, Sexual assault, Racial slurs, Racism, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Rape

At the beginning of the book we see that Dana is missing an arm due to the events of the book, as time passes it is revealed that it is because

it was phased into the wall when she was sent back to her time after she killed the man trying to assault her

.