Reviews with content warning for Xenophobia - Dawn

Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Dawn by Octavia E. Butler

57 reviews

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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kyahs's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense fast-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

4.0

Appreciated the parallel to race, colonisation and gender identity. Looking forward to the next book.

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meant2breading's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.0

Very odd and thought provoking, but in a good way!!

This was my first time really reading a book like this and from this author. Dawn was seriously fascinating, yet horrifying. Octavia certainly has you dive right in. With books I’ve read lately, I feel like it takes time to get going, but WHAM! You are right in there moving and I was captivated from start to finish.

I read this a few weeks ago, and I am still sitting with how the author makes us think and feel about gender, reproduction, discrimination (multiple TWs), western medicine, societal norms, nature, etc. I’m sure my wheels will be spinning on this for a while, even after I dive into the next one(s)…

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aliyah21's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.5

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miraclesnow's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.5

This book is made to be messy. As someone with a cursory interest in ethics, Octavia Butler made the Oankali truly alien in ways that go beyond their exteriors, while still feeling like sentient individuals. Nothing about this book is simple and it’s such a good way of making you think about not very common topics. I feel like I’m in knots just trying to parse everything that happened.

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ashenlar's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

5.0

The first Octavia Butler book I've read - thank you book club! Incredible writing and imagination - simply written with no need for over-explanation/elaboration in areas like setting/time (like some, esp softer, sci-fi, can get bogged down in). The Ooankali are such a uniquely conceived 'alien' species (again, unlike lots of sci-fi where 'alien' means 'humanoid but different') that simply having them as the focus of a novel would be fascinating, but Butler uses them brilliantly to generate reflection on the whole range of big topics - gender, ethics, humanity, power, colonialism... The perfect example of science-fiction as a genre both of fantasy world-building and of philosophy

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lizzy_op_destiny's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

3.5

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pandact's review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad 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

5.0

It's wild to think that this book came less than a decade after the HeLa cell line was revealed to be Henrietta Lacks! The worldbuilding was so good that I liked the Ooankali when I read it as a kid, unaware of how they were colonizing human DNA! I think about Xenogenesis every time I hear genetic engineering, and I need to reread now that I know more about scientific ethics

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malessia's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Alien sex made me uncomfortable ngl

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ithinkiamcelia's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

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