Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

671 reviews

bluelilyblue's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Racism, Racial slurs, and Violence

Moderate: Self harm, Sexual violence, and Suicide

dreamer626's review

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Child abuse, Racial slurs, Child death, Gun violence, Rape, and Racism

badbadwolf's review

challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, and Racism

Moderate: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Bullying, Grief, Murder, Medical content, Rape, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Torture, Child death, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Trafficking, Vomit, Blood, Physical abuse, Colonisation, and Sexual violence

adisiki's review

4.5

Wow this was incredible! I’ve been meaning to get into Butler’s work for a while, and I’m glad I started here. So well-written and an unflinching, honest, and brutal look at slavery and racism and its lasting effects on everyone involved. I just wish there had been an explanation on how and why Dana was traveling through time, but I get that’s probably part of the speculative fiction that leaves it open-ended.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, Racial slurs, and Slavery

Moderate: Sexual violence, Suicide, and Rape

alrauna's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Slavery

Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, Suicide attempt, and Suicide

porshainielsen's review

adventurous reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.0

Going into this book I was expecting some more uppity-academic-like jargon, but was pleasantly surprised. This story was extremely fast-paced and digestible. It was almost too fast-paced, I wanted more from it.

I knocked down a star just because I felt that Dana was lacking emotional depth. When she is separated from her husband it's kind of an ehh situation and she just keeps moving. At the end of the book, even when there are two violent deaths, it feels like she almost immediately recovers, and not in a way to protect herself. At first, this feels like this is because she simply does not have time to feel these strong emotions as she is thrust in and out of the 18th century, but eventually, you'd think there would be a time for the reader to see some of it. Similarly, with Rufus, he is also lacking growth. Although it is a part of the plot for him to become a "man of the times," there still could have been more emotion from his character. The way that he and the other characters just accept Dana as a time traveler seems pretty crazy for the time; including her jeans, her aspirin pills, etc. I kind of enjoyed that part though, because in other time travel novels, it feels like they beat it over the head how different they are from the time they traveled to.

Overall, would check out more of Octavia Butler's books and might even watch the show!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual assault, and Suicide

sabripolin's review

reflective sad tense fast-paced

• 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? Yes

4.5

Totally transported (pun not intended…) by the vivid imagery of Dana’s experience in two time periods, but mostly by the complex, conflicting emotions and ethical dilemmas she encounters and how to manage situations in a period-appropriate manner. 

Minus points (?) for all characters’ lack of FREAKING OUT and Dana’s seemingly emotionless disposition all throughout. We also don’t really get a “why” to why this all happened or what triggered her first transportation. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Racism, Torture, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Rape, Murder, Ableism, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, and Medical content

dixiecarroll's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• 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? It's complicated

4.5

This was so interesting and horrific at the same time. I took off half a star because the complexities of slavery and how easy it *seemed* to be to adapt to horrible circumstances were a little too pointed in the first half, but the second half weaved this in very well. I listened to this and was audibly gasping left and right because I was so invested and heartbroken. Can’t believe I didn’t have to read this in school and hope that this can be required reading one day for everyone, especially white Americans. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Slavery, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Classism, Cursing, Grief, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, and Suicide

maddyreads89's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

Octavia butler sure knows how to write emotionally brutal books 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Slavery

Moderate: Rape and Self harm

miss_vonnegut's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

Butler is an incredible writer. I loved getting a time-travel novel in which the main character is a black woman. As you can imagine, this book gets really dark, but even as someone who has a hard time with certain types of dark books, this was fine. Not a bad idea to check content warnings, but nothing felt gratuitous. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Torture, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Vomit

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Alcoholism

Since she keeps getting transported back to the pre-civil war south, you see a lot of time-period typical violence, racism, etc.