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Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, Slavery, Classism
Minor: Child abuse, Cursing, Racism, Sexual content, Police brutality, Cannibalism
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Sexual assault
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Rape, Slavery, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder
Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Rape, Slavery, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Animal death, Torture, Police brutality, Pregnancy
Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Abandonment
Moderate: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Police brutality, Trafficking, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Animal death
Graphic: Death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture
Minor: Animal death, Police brutality
There are two parts of the story: Lauren living with her family, and Lauren living on the streets. I liked the first part, seeing how Lauren could foresee how bad things were going to get, planning, hiding her vulnerabilities. I found this Lauren relatable. I had more issues with the second part. Several travelers join the main group in their walk to find a better place. I would have expected Lauren to grow, stumble, and evolve. But none of this happens. She keeps her cool all the way, even in her thoughts and the most intimate sentences in her diary. It's like she's not even human. Due to this, her character lacked the depth to make her real and relatable. I confess I found her annoying at times. Her travel companions weren't more than plain characters, most of the time plot devices to lead the story to certain places.
I liked her philosophy, if it could be called that. Change is an essential part of life, and working for the community's well-being is a great value. I wouldn't have gone that far as to call that religion or personify change and call it god. I think religions have done a lot of harm throughout history, and Lauren's god didn't make much sense to me.
While I found this story scarily plausible, it bored me from time to time. It's not that the stakes weren't high, but I didn't care enough for any of the characters, not even Lauren Olamina.
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Gun violence, Rape, Xenophobia, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Death of parent
Moderate: Animal death, Cannibalism
I may or may not be insane for voluntarily reading this given that it takes place in the present with very uncanny parallels, but here we are.
This was an incredible read. I would give it an infinite number of stars if I could! And I am half convinced that Octavia E. Butler either was a time traveler or could see into the future because the fact that this was written in 1993 but so much of what she wrote about 2024-2025 has literally happened.. here is to hoping and praying that the years to come that she wrote about do not come to fruition.
Her writing is amazing. This was dark and emotionally poetic. Will definitely be rereading this.
Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Cancer