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mromie's review
- 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
jojo_j's review
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Slavery, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Sexism, Self harm, and Rape
barbarella85'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
Graphic: Slavery
Moderate: Violence, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Racial slurs, Rape, Torture, Suicide, Racism, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child death, Death, Drug use, and Blood
kalubob's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Racial slurs, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Racism, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Rape
thecatspajamas7'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
4.5
Graphic: Violence, Racism, Physical abuse, Slavery, and Torture
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Death, Emotional abuse, Child death, Murder, Violence, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Violence
xwritingstoriesx'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? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Slavery, Self harm, Suicide, Racial slurs, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Racism, Murder, Rape, and Torture
lyndsay_bibliophile's review
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
The pace of storytelling keeps you constantly engaged. Butler writes with raw honesty on racism and violence, past and present. There is graphic violence that some may find difficult, but it is impactful and necessary for the story content. This book is not for the faint of heart, but it is important - a must-read for anyone interested in historical fiction, social justice, or exceptional storytelling.
The ending left a lot of unanswered questions, but I think that was the point. It’s a book intended to keep you thinking, long after finishing it.
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Self harm, Confinement, Racial slurs, Racism, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Classism, Domestic abuse, Death, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Violence
racheldallaire'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
Graphic: Suicide, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Murder, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Rape, Racism, Pregnancy, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Vomit, Death, Violence, Trafficking, Torture, Slavery, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol
em815ily'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
Graphic: Self harm, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Child death, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, and Racial slurs
cptmosley's review
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Sexual assault, Death, Racism, Emotional abuse, and Slavery