Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

550 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

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

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

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.

alpaca_in_space's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective 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

This book is an example of what makes Octavia Butler a great author. While it has darker themes, they don't feel added for the sake of shock value - instead they were clearly added to ensure the story was handling the implications of its premise. It is an incredible work of literature inviting readers into one of the darkest parts of the United States's past and to think about what lasting impacts it had into today.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Murder, Self harm, Violence, Sexual assault, Racial slurs, Racism, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Rape

At the beginning of the book we see that Dana is missing an arm due to the events of the book, as time passes it is revealed that it is because

it was phased into the wall when she was sent back to her time after she killed the man trying to assault her

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kiwichill's review against another edition

adventurous 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Slavery, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Self harm, Bullying, Death, Murder, Rape, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Vomit, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racism, Torture, Violence, Sexual violence, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexism, Excrement, Pregnancy, Chronic illness, Death of parent, and Cursing

alexklinect's review against another edition

challenging sad slow-paced

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

2.5

It feels like the author was given this prompt for a high school English class: “A time-traveler, but no one understands her, she criticizes everything, there’s no character development, nothing makes sense, and the book ends without resolution.” Although the beginning was a bit slow, the middle was interesting, yet the ending seemed rushed and unclear. I would have given three stars if there had better character development and a clearer, more impactful ending. 
2.5 stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse and Violence

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Vomit, and Suicide

Minor: Rape

mspringer7122's review

dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Sexual assault, Racism, Racial slurs, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Physical abuse

lbyars99's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Suicide attempt, Slavery, Rape, Racism, Pregnancy, Grief, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Self harm, Vomit, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, and Death