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mromie's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
We do not live in a time so far removed from systems and acts of oppression, violence, sexual torture, and racism as many would prefer to believe. With the blurring of time through time travel, Butler reminds us that the time from enslavement period was only few generations before us and could have been us too. To this day, enslavement exists in parts of the world, in places of war, and in renamed forms in America.
Robert Crossley’s Reader’s Guide had insightful comments, including:
- Butler: Science fiction has long treated people who might or might not exist — ETs. Unfortunately, however, many of the same science-fiction writers who started us thinking about the possibility of extraterrestrial life did nothing to make us think about here-at-home human variation”
- Butler “has redrawn science fiction’s cultural boundaries…deployed the genre’s conventions to tell stories with a political and sociological edge to them, stories that speak to issues, feelings, and historical truths arising out of African-American experience. In centering her fiction on women who lack power and suffer abuse but are committed to claiming power over their own lives and to exercising that power harshly when necessary, Butler has not merely used science fiction as a “feminist didactic,” in Beverly Friend’s terminology, but she has generated her fiction out of a black feminist aesthetic.”
- time travel as a metaphor and medium; “traveling to the past is a dramatic means to make the past live, to get the reader to live imaginatively, in the recreated past, to grasp it as a felt reality rather than merely a learned abstraction”
- Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as a metaphor for the exclusion of women from acts of creation
- subtle parallels between Rufus Weylin and Kevin Franklin, system of white supremacist culture
- first hand narratives of enslavement vs Hollywood retellings and novels that sanitize or glamorize it
- Kindred as the title, literary kinship with the memoirs of formerly enslaved peoples, “chained to her ancestral past by the genealogical link that requires her to keep the oppressive slave master alive until her own family is initiated”
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Racial slurs, Self harm, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Ableism, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Racism, Rape, Classism, Colonisation, and Murder
aksmith92'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? Yes
5.0
When all is said and done, this book may be sci-fi/fantasy (I believe Butler noted that she would call it "grim fantasy" in an interview since there was nothing scientific about it), but it's more real than we would like it to be. It's about race and an incredibly dark time in American history. Butler manages to intersect historical records and research with the time-traveling trope in a fascinating and beautiful (but, as most books about this time, horrible) way. It is incredibly well-written and emotional. It pained me to read this, but it was so important to read it at the same time.
As a note, Butler has decided to forgo a lot of explanation around this somewhat science fiction novel and has instead relied on metaphor and allegory during the more "fantastical" times of the novel. We don't get intense descriptions of the time travel or the "science" behind it - we just know it happens and its impacts. This is no spoiler and won't take away from the story, but those who are itching for more detail may find themselves frustrated. But, for a book of this caliber, I don't think it was at all needed.
I loved it and yet hated it so much because America at this time was awful. I had all the feels reading this book, but I thought it was incredibly well done. I'm sure excited to read more of Octavia Butler's stuff in the future.
Graphic: Slavery, Death, Death of parent, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Violence, Vomit, Racial slurs, Gore, Medical trauma, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Suicide, and Torture
Moderate: Alcoholism and Alcohol
amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Death, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Trafficking, Blood, Classism, Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic relationship, Gore, Racial slurs, and Violence
Moderate: Addiction and Alcohol
bookish_gremlin's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Torture, Rape, Child death, Emotional abuse, Slavery, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Cursing, Violence, Child abuse, Colonisation, Racism, Murder, Gore, Domestic abuse, Death, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, and Injury/Injury detail
kelseyr713's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Torture, Death of parent, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, Death, Blood, Racism, Child abuse, Medical content, Gore, Self harm, Racial slurs, and Slavery
Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, Infidelity, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Alcohol
nialiversuch'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
3.5
Graphic: Hate crime, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Blood, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Classism, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Alcohol, Bullying, Colonisation, Grief, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Gore, Abandonment, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Child death, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Body horror, Physical abuse, and Vomit
Moderate: Rape, Religious bigotry, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, and Pregnancy
apaolillo24's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Gun violence, Slavery, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Self harm, Racial slurs, Fire/Fire injury, Rape, Gore, Torture, Body horror, Child abuse, Grief, Hate crime, and Blood
desana75'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
4.5
Graphic: Slavery, Racial slurs, Violence, Gore, and Suicide
yyes'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? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Torture, Racial slurs, Slavery, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, and Suicide
yaoipaddle's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Cursing, Racial slurs, Violence, Torture, Slavery, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicide, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Suicide attempt, Sexism, Misogyny, Murder, Death, Child abuse, Self harm, Police brutality, Confinement, Child death, Emotional abuse, and Blood
Moderate: Alcoholism and Alcohol
Minor: Pregnancy, Infidelity, and Ableism