Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler

12 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.

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

doctorw0rm's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Medical trauma, Body horror, Chronic illness, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Incest, and Gun violence

Minor: Drug use

suchsweetsorrow89's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Suicide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Blood, Body horror, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Colonisation and Incest

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

peachani's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt

Moderate: Violence, Incest, Xenophobia, Death, Death of parent, Body horror, Colonisation, Gore, War, Torture, and Murder

Minor: Blood, Kidnapping, Vomit, Alcoholism, Sexual harassment, Rape, and Pregnancy

readingsofaslinky's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

So very excellent! My first Octavia Butler, and I’m now a fan for life ♥️

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Confinement, Child death, Alcohol, Terminal illness, Murder, Gun violence, Gore, Suicide attempt, Rape, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Blood, Suicide, Slavery, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Incest, and Torture

bookinsect's review against another edition

challenging dark

4.5

• Octavia butler DOES NOT MISS
• featuring classic hits such as incest, sketchy/no consent, future scenarios that are incredibly depressing and not that crazy of a stretch (cannot remember all the things that need to be tw’s but theres quite a few)
• Really liked how in my copy there were little afterwords for each story by octavia butler, found out the reason why shes fascinated with incest is from biblical stories growing up (what i wouldnt give to have a long conversation with this woman)
• Bloodchild itself didnt fully live up to the hype for me but it was still cool
• Favourite stories included: the evening the morning and the night, SPEECH SOUNDS (5 stars), and amnesty 
• Also both essays were good!!
• This collection is definitely on the darker side of her writing so be warned

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Rape, and Violence

Moderate: Incest

tasha_rose's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Torture

Moderate: Physical abuse

Minor: Rape

queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious 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? No

5.0

 5 ⭐ CW: Body horror, parasitic aliens, descriptions of blood and gore, self harm, suicide, abusive mental institutions, abuse/neglect, incest, illness, murder, death of a parent, miscarriage mention, still birth mention, street harassment, rape

Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler is a collection of fiction and science fiction short stories and two essays. As some of you know, Butler is my favorite author, and I am working on collecting all her works.

Butler has such a unique and poignant way of writing aliens. I loved the aliens in Bloodchild for how disturbing they were while also being integrated with human society. Butler always situates humans as the one being taken over and being the lesser beings. This particular story reminded me of her Xenogenesis series.

Speech Sounds was a story about an illness that impairs people in different ways, including destroying the ability of language, spoken and written. It was about finding different ways of communicating. Similarly, Amnesty explore alternate ways of communicating with the plan-like aliens that have come to Earth.

I even enjoyed the two essays included, especially the second essay with tips on writing. This is definitely a collection I will be rereading at some point. I just love absorbing all of Butler's ideas and concepts. I will never stop shouting about Butler's work!

Have you seen that one of Butler's works is going to be a tv show?! You know I'm hyped for it! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Gore, Self harm, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Incest, Chronic illness, Murder, Death of parent, and Rape

Minor: Miscarriage and Child death