Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Dawn by Octavia E. Butler

45 reviews

30something_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.75

 I am at an utter loss for words. This was incredible. It was deeply unsettling. I couldn't sleep last night.

I'm so torn between wanting to pick up the next book immediately but also needing 2-3 business days to process everything that happened. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and Violence

Minor: Cursing, Death, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, and War

lanid's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Confinement, and Body horror

Moderate: Colonisation, War, Violence, Murder, and Gore

Minor: Sexual content, Death, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, and Kidnapping

vigil's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Misogyny, Violence, Rape, Genocide, Colonisation, Confinement, War, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Grief, Death, Sexual assault, Medical content, and Blood

emnordhoff's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

remescient's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense 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? Yes

4.5

I'm not fully sure what I feel about this book. It's good, yes, but also part of me is unhappy with it in a way I can't really describe. It's worth reading and deciding for yourself. I'm interested to see where it goes from here in the next book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Rape, Sexism, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, and Confinement

Minor: Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Cancer, and Car accident

lo_vana's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content

tanilian's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-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? No

3.5

I honestly have no idea what I just read...

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide, Gaslighting, Infertility, Sexual content, and Body horror

Minor: Xenophobia and War

meowsloudlyinyourear's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

4.5

I didn't love Parable of the Sower so I was pleasantly surprised by this!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, War, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Suicide, Death, Medical content, Sexual content, Confinement, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, and Forced institutionalization

toricanread's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Moderate: Child death, Kidnapping, Death, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Murder, Physical abuse, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, and Suicidal thoughts

leanneymu's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.0

I don't read a lot of dystopian fiction, and I'm not sure I truly 'enjoyed' this book, though the story and themes were really compelling, and it did make me think a lot about humanity and why we're so destructive. It was also refreshing to have a black woman in the role of main character - especially in the context of sci fi.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual assault, Violence, and Xenophobia