Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - Bloodchild and Other Stories

Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler

6 reviews

growintogardens's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.25

I've been meaning to read her work and this book fit one of my reading challenges. A great collection of stories. Some were super disturbing at times, but all them were well written and made me think. The second to last one was probably my favorite. So strange, but powerful. She's definitely great at Sci fi and I'm excited to read more of her stuff.

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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:

Bloodchild - Horrified me. And stephen King or any other thirller writer has never had.
Evening and morning and night - A world with a certain kind of extreme destructive disease alienates you
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.
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.
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:

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

Further new stories:

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.
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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