Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Adulthood Rites

Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler

7 reviews

gemstonejasper's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Octavia E Butler doesn't write books that should be read all at once. In my experience, they're much better when you take time to digest each section. This is to her credit because she has this unique way of mirroring humanity back to the reader. This book follows Akin, the first human-born male construct (human/alien hybrid). It follows him as he grows up in this role. How do others treat him because of these things he has no control over? How can he find his place in the world while facing this contradiction within him? It also has an interesting commentary on consent vs coercion and is allowing people to live always a mercy, or can it be a cruelty. There are so many themes that are explored and I love it. I would recommend all of her books that I've read, this one included.

I just want to talk about how horrible all parties are to Akin. The resister humans kidnap him and are often very abusive towards him. But it's revealed that the aliens left him with the humans for a prolonged period on purpose. This caused great pain for both him and his sibling. This thing that is so crucial to his development and life as an alien was stolen from him by both parties. I would even argue that the aliens are more to blame because they fully understood what they were doing to him and how it would affect him, whereas the humans couldn't fully understand. They used him as an experimental rat without a care for his well-being. I think all of it was cruel. That's one thing that irks me about the aliens. They are so calculated, clinical and logical. Sure, they can feel emotions. But they lean much farther towards the calculated, logical side than humans normally would. This comes with positives, like being about to do things with their bodies and advance themselves. But it also comes with the negatives of being unable to really relate to the other species they encounter (such as humans). Maybe the third book will introduce the aliens as having their own contradiction.

After I finished, there was a passage I kept coming back to read. Akin is advocating for the humans to have Mars. An older alien (I forget what it was called) basically told him that they would let him do what he believes is right, but that it is a cruelty. Akin protests, but is forced to acknowledge that it likely is a cruelty. Yet he still holds out hope for the possibility that the humans will be able to overcome their contradiction.

Content Warnings

mar's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark 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

ever read something so exceptionally well crafted and nuanced it makes everything you've ever read before worse in retrospect? that's what reading octavia butler feels like to me

Content Warnings

sup3r_xn0va_maya's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective 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

4.5

Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler is book two in the Xenogenesis series, it's a direct sequel to the first book in the series, Dawn. Adulthood Rites takes place almost 30 years after Dawn and although Lilith, the main character from Dawn, is in Adulthood Rites, the main character of this book is not Lilith.

This story was really interesting, it follows

Lilith's first son

. I really loved the world building and the character development.

There was only one part that I didn't like in this book and that was part three. It just wasn't as exciting as the rest of the book so I'm going to knock off .5 stars. I plan on reading every piece of work Butler has written at least 10 times each, so I might appreciate part three of this book during a later read.

Overall this was an amazing sequel to Dawn, I can't wait to finish the trilogy! I'm giving this 4.5 stars out of 5.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4.5/5 Stars

I read this for free on [Libbyapp.com]

Content Warnings

belovedsnail's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging fast-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

Still very interesting workd building, but this was the weakest of the 3 for me

Content Warnings

cupidcove's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

This story has a fascinating way of dealing with sex and gender that offers really interesting criticism of both genetic essentialism and human conception of self. While I did think it was a bit too fast-paced at times and wished there wasn't such a big time jump between books one and two, I think the story that was meant to be told in this book was conveyed well. Overall a great installment to the series and I can't wait to read the final book.

Content Warnings

sunbathingturtle's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

There is just so much to chew on in this world! I really appreciated the reprise of a couple characters from Dawn.
The story starts a bit slow but quickly hits pace once the narrator grows.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The only disappointment I’ll note is that we don’t hear much from Lilith in this book. But Akin is a superb character as well.
And there is so much to grab onto besides past characters; from Oankali-Human constructs to life back on Earth, this book hits enough untied plot points from Dawn to stay satisfying.
Not only was this an enjoyable read, but it also pushed me to interrogate and widen my paradigms about humanity and our collective future. Thank you Octavia Butler.

Content Warnings

doug_benton's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

More...