Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler

8 reviews

bilal_shumuus's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Death, Racism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Gore, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Body horror, Classism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcoholism, Infidelity, Animal death, Genocide, Grief, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Rape, and Sexual content

Minor: War, Cannibalism, Lesbophobia, and Religious bigotry

m_petranoff's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Death

Moderate: War, Rape, Racism, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Sexism

Minor: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Cannibalism, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Ableism, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, and Colonisation

Like many of Butler's books, this is a challenging look at the nature of humanity. It is dark and about how easy it can be to lose ones humanity, but not as challenging to read as some of her other novels. There are a lot of content warnings, and only a few are graphic, but the theme of the book itself is engaging with challenging themes.

amandadevoursbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

I can't even with this book. This was my first Octavia Butler book, and it was INTENSE. It's like Butler looked at every possible taboo and was like let's do this.  Slavery, yes. Eugenics, yes. Murder for compliance, yes. Incest, yes. 

 Anyanwu is a woman in Africa who can shapeshift and heal her self and others. Doro is an ancient "something" that can inhabit other bodies he kills. This book explores their dynamic as two people outside of time. 

Doro is one of darkest, nastiest villains in any book I have ever read. Check the trigger warnings. If you decided to read, go with god/the gods/your own convictions.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Child abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Stalking, Violence, Murder, Racism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Ableism, Death, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, and Xenophobia

lasafica_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Slavery, Racism, Racial slurs, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Grief, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Ableism, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Incest, and Sexual harassment

lexi17d's review against another edition

dark slow-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

3.0

Well that was weird.. not sure how I feel about it. Not my favorite of Octavia Butler’s books that I’ve read so far. It wasn’t bad necessarily, just.. meh.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Suicide, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, Slavery, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Self harm, Rape, Domestic abuse, Child death, Adult/minor relationship, Colonisation, Child abuse, Racism, Xenophobia, Sexism, Suicide attempt, Kidnapping, and Incest

ce_read's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Gore, Incest, Kidnapping, Slavery, Ableism, Genocide, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Grief, Mental illness, Rape, Gaslighting, Murder, Sexism, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Pregnancy, Torture, Xenophobia, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Cannibalism

Minor: War

zoe_'s review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.5

As you might be aware of, I usually refrain from rating books I read for university--unless they're extremely good book. So, yeah, this one is great. Like, holy shit. I feel like I've been emotionally run over by a truck. This made me quietly angry, frustrated, sad, and helpless and would not let up. And being all those things, even quietly, for two days straight (I didn't read it in one go, but whenever I wasn't reading, the story continued its hold on my emotions/brain) was/is exhausting. Exhausting to a point were I could so easily relate to Anyanwu's perspective at the end of the novel. 

Anyways, this was excellently written and incredibly interesting and so complex and fleshed-out feeling. There is so much that could still be explored, so much to see. The story is quite simple but so incredibly well crafted that it feel slike a much grander narrative. I highly, highly recommend this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, and Death

madamepincers's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Incest, Suicide, and Torture