Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler

24 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Gore, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual content, Medical trauma, War, Grief, Misogyny, Torture, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Incest, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Slavery, Body horror, Confinement, and Medical content

Minor: Death of parent, Child death, Drug use, and Racial slurs

I'm probably forgetting stuff- there's a lot of triggers.

thatsgreatalex's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Minor: Rape

nica_chan's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

ahhh, octavia e. butler, quanto è stato piacevole fare la tua conoscenza!!!

essendo questo libro una raccolta di racconti, ho avuto l’onore di vedere butler brillare in più storie diverse, e alcune che hanno colpita più di altre; in particolare le mie preferite sono state “la sera, il giorno e la notte”, “fonemi” e “il libro di martha”.

scoprire la prima scrittrice donna Nera del genere fantascientifico alla mia età di 24 anni per me è una rivelazione. in 200 pagine, butler mi ha insegnato che non bisogna essere maschi bianchi per immaginarsi mondi fantastici, utopie o alieni arrivati sulla terra (anche se è ciò che sembra dal mondo della fantascienza mainstream).

grazie octavia, non vedo l’ora di leggere anche i tuoi romanzi, tra cui “legami di sangue” e “la parabola del seminatore”.

ps: la fantascienza non è il mio genere, ma la penna, bravura e dedizione di butler rende piacevole ogni suo scritto

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Body horror, Child abuse, Torture, Incest, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Kidnapping

Minor: Abortion and Rape

kellieligon's review against another edition

challenging 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

3.5

These short stories and essays are quite different from Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. I think I didn't resonate with so many because I was expecting more in the dytopian/post-apocalyptic realm rather than alien or deep human behavior and understanding. I was pleasantly intrigued by a couple, but then found it very difficult to get some of the others. This might have had a better impact for me if I waited to read this collection after a few more of her better known novels and series. Overall, she still stands as an incredibly thoughtful provoking science fiction author in my book!

Bloodchild 2.5/5
The Evening & the Morning & the Night 4/5
Near of Kin 2/5
Speech Sounds 5/5
Crossover 2/5

Positive Obsession 4/5
Furor Scribebdi 5/5

Amnesty 3.5/5
The Book of Martha 4/5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Incest, Rape, Suicide, Self harm, and Mental illness

readingbrb's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Rape, Confinement, and Self harm

Minor: Miscarriage, Death, and Gore

lycheejelly's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Mental illness, Death of parent, Gun violence, Addiction, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicidal thoughts, War, Body horror, Confinement, Torture, Death, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Grief, Toxic friendship, Suicide, and Terminal illness

Minor: Cancer, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Infertility, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Ableism, Incest, Abortion, Addiction, Bullying, Classism, Alcoholism, Cannibalism, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Xenophobia, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual content, Pregnancy, and Racism

sarahnh's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Incest, Pregnancy, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Cancer, Rape, Self harm, and Suicide

sup3r_xn0va_maya's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Terminal illness, Incest, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, Violence, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Murder, Rape, and Sexual violence

alspacedout's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Self harm, Xenophobia, War, Violence, Suicide attempt, Torture, Incest, Toxic relationship, and Rape

Every short story has its own number of content warnings as they are all pretty dark, but none are tittilating or explicit with the exception of BloodChild. light spoiler ---->

Description of non-sedated surgery involving parasites. Doesn't go on for pages and pages on end but its gross!

noahsingh's review against another edition

medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Police brutality, Medical trauma, Genocide, Colonisation, Confinement, War, Violence, Suicide, Racism, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Blood, Grief, Torture, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Rape, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Forced institutionalization, Death, Death of parent, Body horror, Incest, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts