Reviews tagging 'Incest'

Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler

41 reviews

allymute's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
A fabulous writer, as always. Noted that this collection doesn’t run with one cohesive theme, but are just compiled together. My highlights are Bloodchild, Speech Sounds, and Amnesty. 
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mint7's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

Have to disagree with Butler, reading her essays was very enjoyable. Other highlights were: Bloodchild, Amnesty, The Book of Martha, and Near of Kin.
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dpmpgh's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-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? N/A

4.75

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emissaryorca's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

I thought I loved this collection after "Speech Sounds", then again after "Amnesty". "The Book of Martha" then proceeded to knock me flat on my ass. It's my own love for how we play with dreams and future-faith together, what precognition joins the heart to the mind, what "'[my] life has prepared [me] to see'". I wish I had been in a more welcoming mood with certain stories ("Near of Kin" specifically), but that's a fault of mine, not the book. Will provide a warning though.
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suchsweetsorrow89's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

Similar to many of the other reviews, it is crazy to believe that Butler was not a person fond of short stories, since she really excels in this little collection! And like all short story collections, there will be some that are not the most interesting, are harder to get into and envision, and some that hit powerfully and, before you know it, you are reading the same page over and over again to picture the scene again and savor such. All in all, something that I really loved about this collection, and where I think every story connects, is that— whether they be utopias or personal hells— every story centers on communication. By communication I mean what it takes for one to understand another while also relaying messages common to any science-fiction stories on self-determination, hope/longing/desire (what defines and separates them), and critically wondering what humanity has to offer in times of great political, social, or even moments of intense moral despair. Mesh that with slightly philosophical musings on free will, religion, and human domination in our interactions with our environments, and in the end you get a stunning and powerful book that fits itself well within Butler's collection. In particular, I really enjoyed Bloodchild, Speech Sounds, Positive Obsession, and The Book of Martha!
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koberreads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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

5.0

I love strong, smart black women. Refreshing because saw far sadly I am only able to read white men authors.

I am glad she regarding quite well in the science fiction community

Bloodchild and other stories by Octavia Butler - Review 

Older Stories:
  1. Bloodchild - Horrified me. And stephen King or any other thirller writer has never had. 
  2. Evening and morning and night - A world with a certain kind of extreme destructive disease alienates you 
  3. Near of Kin - Taboo. If you like some of the familiar plot of game of thrones. Here it is. And I am not talking about Dragons and knights and shit.
  4. Speech sounds - Post apocalyptic - Soviet bomb or war virus made everyone either dead or mentally impaired to the point of not being able to speak or read or write.
  5. Crossover  - a semi autobioc of the author is in her 5 year life at a day job at the factory (She needs the day job to sustain her daily expenses until she is able to sell her writng and quit her day job.) 

Essays:
  1. Positive Obession - Her birth as a writer. She hates the title of Birth  of writer but for me Positive obsession is enough
  2. Furor Scribendi - Some advice on writing 

Further new stories:
  1. Amnesty - (From Google: an official pardon for people who have been convicted of political offenses."an amnesty for political prisoners")  - The aliens she creates are as unique as Ted Chiang’s. And I never though political things could be so weaved well in Science fiction about aliens. And also Noah should have began with the short history of strangers/community human wars to quiet down the disbelieving, war hungry applicants.
  2. Book of Martha - I like stories about God or meeting God. And I dont give a damn if the author belives in God or not. As long as he writes it well and provokes thoughts regarding the question of God, Philisophy (or in other words, a love for wisdom or the insights regarding the best way to live. This is Octavia's Utopia Stories. 

I never read something like this before. Another person attempt for a utopian world for everyone that actually works. She is right to say that for one to have a Utopia, the other person might think it would be there hell. 

But personally, I would have just ask God to make peopel more mindful by making everyone in the world at an age they understand to meditate daily for every 10 mins each morning. And they can meditate further if they want to during the rest of the day. But dreams that you have control of well that could work: 

" “THE BOOK OF MARTHA” is my Utopia story. I don’t like most Utopia stories because I don’t believe them for a moment. It seems inevitable that my Utopia would be someone else’s hell. So, of course, I have God demand of poor Martha that she come up with a Utopia that would work. And where else could it work but in everyone’s private, individual dreams?"

I love her way of describing God.
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sarahnh's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-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

5.0

Amnesty was my favorite story in the collection, but all of them are fantastic and thought provoking. I loved reading the afterwords where Butler discussed her stories and what inspired them. How I felt about each story changed a lot with the added context, and made it more interesting.
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sup3r_xn0va_maya's review

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adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-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

4.5

I really love Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler. It's a book of short stories and a few essays by Butler and it's just so damn good. 

My favorite stories in the book are The Evening and The Morning and The Night, Speech Sounds, Amnesty, and The Book of Martha. Although the other stories aren't my favorite, I still think they were very good. 

Overall I give this book a 4.5 out of 5 stars.
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alspacedout's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

A mostly great mixed bag! Favorites: Bloodchild, Speech Sounds, and Amnesty (plus the author essays). 
Least Favorites: Crossover by a good margin, can't remember what happened in it for the life of me, even after rereading the afterword to try to spark my memory.
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sshabein's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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