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anxiousnachos's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
Well I’m sad that I didn’t enjoy my first Butler book as much I expected to, I struggled with both content and writing style of this. I think I should have maybe started with another one but alas I was drawn in by the vampires and didn’t know much else about this book!
I’ll start with the writing style: it’s quite an abrupt and spare/brusque style of writing which I wasn’t a huge fan of. I’m keen to explore and see if this is common in all Butler’s work or if it was specific to this work. What wasn’t spare or abrupt, but was a bit more fleshed out however, and what I think was the best part about this book, was the fascinating development of the vampire lore. The way this was written with the amnesiac main character learning about her people and culture allowed us to also learn a lot about the vampires, and Butler’s take on them was so interesting.
However let’s get to the crux of it: I just didn’t get the whole point of the pedophilia. Okay, no that’s wrong. I do get the point of it. For readers not aware, the main character is a 53 year old vampire (note, this is still a child physically and sexually in vampire terms) who looks like a ten year old child in human terms. There is on page sex scenes between grown human adults and the 10 year old. I could have managed this, understood it, if it had been left at the whole ‘vampire bite causes sexual attraction’ thing, which for some of these human characters it was. Once they’ve been bitten, it causes them extreme pleasure, thus making them want to do anything to get that pleasure again. But then certain human characters also spoke about being sexually attracted to the main character, who looks like a ten year old child, *before* they were bitten… That’s where I got kind of lost, because that’s where the whole power imbalance suddenly changed and tipped? It was no longer the vampire in control but men openly wanting to have sex with a child? And I think I understand what Butler was trying to do: wanting to flip the vampire mythology on its head and make us think, instead of having centuries old vampire men preying on younger human women (physically and sexually mature but perhaps not as mentally mature as the older vampire?), whereas here you have a vampire who is mentally more mature but not physically or sexually mature preying on humans. Unfortunately, I don’t know if I think this intention actually works. I don’t know if I can personally equate a woman who is physically, sexually and mentally an *adult* by human definitions and thus *can consent* (I acknowledge power imbalances in other vampire relationships given the mental age difference) to a *child* who is not considered an adult by either human or vampire definitions. I feel like I’m making no sense. I feel like the flipping of this mythology doesn’t work because the two situations don’t equate power wise? I mean, I guess it’s made me think and it’s made me uncomfortable! Is that the point?
Content warnings: sex with a 53 year old in the body of a ten year old child, blood, animal death, racism, slurs including n-word, murder, violence, gun violence, pedophilia (characters are sexually attracted to 10 year old child *without/before* vampire bite/lure)
I’ll start with the writing style: it’s quite an abrupt and spare/brusque style of writing which I wasn’t a huge fan of. I’m keen to explore and see if this is common in all Butler’s work or if it was specific to this work. What wasn’t spare or abrupt, but was a bit more fleshed out however, and what I think was the best part about this book, was the fascinating development of the vampire lore. The way this was written with the amnesiac main character learning about her people and culture allowed us to also learn a lot about the vampires, and Butler’s take on them was so interesting.
However let’s get to the crux of it: I just didn’t get the whole point of the pedophilia. Okay, no that’s wrong. I do get the point of it. For readers not aware, the main character is a 53 year old vampire (note, this is still a child physically and sexually in vampire terms) who looks like a ten year old child in human terms. There is on page sex scenes between grown human adults and the 10 year old. I could have managed this, understood it, if it had been left at the whole ‘vampire bite causes sexual attraction’ thing, which for some of these human characters it was. Once they’ve been bitten, it causes them extreme pleasure, thus making them want to do anything to get that pleasure again. But then certain human characters also spoke about being sexually attracted to the main character, who looks like a ten year old child, *before* they were bitten… That’s where I got kind of lost, because that’s where the whole power imbalance suddenly changed and tipped? It was no longer the vampire in control but men openly wanting to have sex with a child? And I think I understand what Butler was trying to do: wanting to flip the vampire mythology on its head and make us think, instead of having centuries old vampire men preying on younger human women (physically and sexually mature but perhaps not as mentally mature as the older vampire?), whereas here you have a vampire who is mentally more mature but not physically or sexually mature preying on humans. Unfortunately, I don’t know if I think this intention actually works. I don’t know if I can personally equate a woman who is physically, sexually and mentally an *adult* by human definitions and thus *can consent* (I acknowledge power imbalances in other vampire relationships given the mental age difference) to a *child* who is not considered an adult by either human or vampire definitions. I feel like I’m making no sense. I feel like the flipping of this mythology doesn’t work because the two situations don’t equate power wise? I mean, I guess it’s made me think and it’s made me uncomfortable! Is that the point?
Content warnings: sex with a 53 year old in the body of a ten year old child, blood, animal death, racism, slurs including n-word, murder, violence, gun violence, pedophilia (characters are sexually attracted to 10 year old child *without/before* vampire bite/lure)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Blood, Animal death, Violence, Racism, Racial slurs, and Sexual content
bash5617's review against another edition
challenging
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? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Racial slurs, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Hate crime, Murder, and Racism
lola_milk's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Cannibalism, and Murder
Moderate: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Racism
botanicpanic's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
If you are planning on reading this, please check the content warnings. The story has rich lore and interesting themes, but has graphic scenes depicting sexual relationships with (essentially) a child and dubious consent with no clear resolution in the broader narrative. This made it almost impossible to like the main characters and no matter how long I read, I couldn't seem to get past it.
I had high hopes for this book and was so ready to love it, but the experience has left me very disappointed. This may be because it was university reading and needed deeper analysis which only compounded my issues with the graphic scenes, but I can't pretend it's an easy read.
I had high hopes for this book and was so ready to love it, but the experience has left me very disappointed. This may be because it was university reading and needed deeper analysis which only compounded my issues with the graphic scenes, but I can't pretend it's an easy read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Sexual content, Blood, and Racial slurs
Moderate: Pedophilia, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Grief, Murder, and Racism
Minor: Death of parent and Fire/Fire injury
bookwormewan's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Murder, and Adult/minor relationship
wherethewildreadsare's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Murder
booksandbrews's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Racial slurs, Racism, and Violence
Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Death, Gore, Grief, and Murder
Minor: Gun violence and Mass/school shootings
soitis's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, and Stalking
perpetualpages's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
CWs: Graphic descriptions of blood and injury, in-depth exploration of amnesia, graphic instances of death, mourning/grief, loss of family, trauma relating to fires/arson, murder, racism and racist slurs, some ableism, and some graphic depictions of sex
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Grief, Sexual content, Racism, Racial slurs, and Ableism
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