Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler

19 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.

moon_dude's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Sexual violence

Minor: Torture and Suicide attempt

allymute's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Body horror

Minor: Incest

savvylit's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.5

Butler's skill as an author is just as present in these short stories as in her more well-known and critically acclaimed novels. If anything, Butler's talent combined with the short length of each tale leaves readers desiring more. The stories in Bloodchild cover a wide variety of speculative topics: alien contact, life-altering disease, utopia, medical ethics, and more. Not every story is incredible but most of them are, and that's quite an accomplishment for a short story collection.

Lastly, one of my favorite features of this particular collection was the afterwords written by Butler explaining her reasons for writing, which appeared after each story. This is the first time I've read a collection with that level of behind-the-scenes insight into an author's mind and I really appreciated it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Violence, Racism, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Death

trips's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

Its been quite a while since I've read Butler. And wow, I forgot how she had these crazy ideas come out of her head and turned them into compelling, beautifully written stories. Some of her stories made me shudder, and some made me reflect on what I had just written in a way no other book has done in a while.
I don't really want to spoil anything, so here is how I felt about each story in a few words: 

Blood Child: Oh wow, that is terrifying.
The Evening And The Morning And The Night: Creepy, yet made me feel empathy towards the characters.
Near of Kin: Eh? Huh?...Why?
Speech Sounds: Powerful in an unexpected way.
Cross over: Haunting.
Positive Obsession: I loved this!
Furor Scribendi: Beautiful and helpful!
Amnesty: What did I just read?? 
The Book of Martha: I wonder how it would work!

That is all I will say. I hope to read more Butler in the months to come, her words are always so powerful and gripping to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Violence, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Gun violence

Moderate: Gore, Xenophobia, Child death, and Death

Minor: Alcohol

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

annamorgan27's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Alcoholism, Violence, Torture, Medical trauma, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Animal death, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Incest

Minor: Rape and Sexual violence

sharonmalonza's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

My favorite short stories:
- The evening and the morning and the night
- Speech Sounds
- The Book of Martha

I loved this. And I can't wait to own a copy of my own and reread them. Already know someone I'd want to gift this to. It's also such a treat to hear from Octavia after each short story. She was such a fascinating individual. I love how her mind worked. It's such a privilege to have access to her work.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm and Violence

Minor: Incest