Reviews

Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler

xentrrix's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

beepatriz's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

4.75

Octavia Butler cooked

clfenters's review against another edition

dark 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

3.25

Plot 0.7 - apart from a general desire to create children who could live long lives like themselves, I didn't see much of a driving force behind the plot
Characters 1
setting 1
writing style 1 - really easy to read, much appreciated
themes 1
Pacing 1 - at no point did I feel it dragging
originality 1 - at time of publication, it was probably way out there; less so now, but still pushes boundaries
Emotional impact 0.5
Ending 0.8 - eh, life goes on
Overall enjoyment - 0.9

Total = 8.9/10

Does not correspond to my intuitive rating of 3.25/5

Interestingly, I recently read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and I see a lot of parallels between the two stories. Was Schwab influenced by Wild Seed?

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Incest and Murder

Minor: Racism

jennyfromtheburbs's review against another edition

3.5

I had mixed feelings about this book. My friends and I read this for book club and we’d heard it’s the first book chronologically, but the last to be published. I think that will affect how you react to this book. 

I kept thinking where are we going with this story? What is the pay off? And I think the other books may have those answers.

The characters were engaging and interesting, but I kept questioning why characters acted a certain way and didn’t feel as satisfied as I hoped. I am in tricked to read the other books in the series and potentially revisit this book. 

ktasche's review

emotional mysterious 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

3.75

blindse3's review

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? No

4.5

maddun's review

5.0

This was a really interesting read - accessible writing style, difficult/disturbing content. I'm definitely going to continue the series. I found the protagonist compelling and though I did not much like how things ended for her, that's fine, I don't have to

trankz's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

3.75

janderson3494's review

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

4.0

acwhit17's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective 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? Yes

5.0