Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Dawn

so intriguing and against all odds, enticing, despite also being deeply horrifying. ms butler loves to make you uncomfortable, and by god does she do it here. i liked how butler really keenly portrayed the bond that occurs between a victim and abuser(s)

and how often sexual assault is used as a way to create that tether

and was able to sketch out the appeal that can exist in that relationship for a victim against all odds.

lilith and nikanji are both very sympathetic yet also ambiguous figures (nikanji, more so, but lilith is beginning to gain on it towards the end) who's attachment to one another is very clear to the reader. the ethics of consent is something i've long been interested in and i'm intrigued by how its explored here, even if i don't necessarily agree with the alien's conclusions.

i'd say my one complaint was that

this book is rather essentialist. its from 1987 so like, yeah obviously but i would've liked more exploration on it in a world building point of view. the onakali's essentialism didn't quite bother me, it fit with the attitudes the book potrayed them with but i would've liked a deeper explanation into it. what about onakali's who don't fit into the frame work of male-female-ooloi pairings? what in the culture or history led them here. but considering this book was founded off of octavia butler assuming something was wrong with humans in our genetics, i'm not too sure that's the aim of the book.

very dismayed at octavia butler becoming one of those black author's everyone quotes but never reads and posits as a moralizing figure here to teach ignorant white people. she's not one for moralizing and isn't trying to preach an agenda. many of her focuses lie in the frequent eroticism in fraught and distressing topics. this is because octavia butler at her core was a fucking freak.

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peachani's review against another edition

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challenging slow-paced

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

1.75

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callistagrace's review against another edition

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emotional 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? Yes

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dreareads_'s review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

The way I love this book with everything I am.

Listen I’m making an unnecessarily long video review about this book, don’t worry. Just know…. It’s perfect.

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bringlaurasnacks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

3.5

This book was... weird. Probably the most creative and unique take on extraterrestrials and the apocalypse that I've ever read. The world building and xenology was fascinating. I was hooked in the first half.

However, the second half was disturbing. This book is basically about aliens trying to repopulate the earth with human/alien hybrids after the a nuclear apocalypse so they can use them as "trade" partners. They understand consent even less than the very one dimensional and stereotypically misogynistic human males in the story. I found the human characters, other than the MC, to be somewhat unrealistic or overly simplified. Everyone was frustratingly bad at communicating to the point where it caused the social collapse of the human group.

I've loved everything Octavia Butler thus far, but it's impossible to overlook the general glossing over all the alien rape. Call it what it is.

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