Reviews tagging 'Cannibalism'

Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler

13 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

brynalexa's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Pregnancy, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Addiction, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Kidnapping, Slavery, Child abuse, Infertility, Murder, Body horror, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Colonisation, Death, and Violence

Minor: Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Adult/minor relationship, and Rape

bonriki's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Confinement, Slavery, Pregnancy, Racism, Racial slurs, Rape, Incest, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Abandonment, Ableism, and Alcoholism

Minor: Cannibalism

thenextbookdilemma's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Child death, and Incest

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Racial slurs, Adult/minor relationship, and Slavery

Minor: Pedophilia, Cannibalism, Infertility, Pregnancy, and Sexual violence

yomireads's review

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

So, as a whole, this book is well written, and its clear that Octavia E Butler has a strong grasp of her craft. Anyanwu and Doror both are well shaped characters with strong wills that clash, neither bending easily to the other. The abilities and the exploration of these otherworldly abilities is captivating to be sure. The dark and keen look at slavery and the loss of autonomy is very intentional and poignant. 

But God was I uncomfortable the entirety of this novel. I'm positive the discomfort is intentional, the fear, rage, and overall frustration simmering just below boiling from the start is intentional, but the obstinate refusal of the clearly villainous Doro to have any sort of real character growth for literal centuries made me want to chuck this book into an ocean.

The incest was obscene. Eugenics at its finest (most disturbing). And the strange pervasive nature of misogyny in characters who can shift their sex at will wildly frustrating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Cannibalism, Incest, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

abmochapman's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.25

this just confirms octavia butler is a FREAK

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Incest, Adult/minor relationship, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Slavery

kefeshe's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-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

3.0

The concept was really weird. I found my own preconceived notions of what is socially acceptable coming into play. I was faced with my own biases and discomfort with engineering people to produce desirable characteristics like food produce. I appreciated how the characters developed and changed, I don't think I would have felt satisfied with the ending if they had not evolved in the way they had 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, and Colonisation

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Cannibalism, Adult/minor relationship, and Rape

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.

nurseamandarose's review

dark emotional sad slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Death, Slavery, Violence, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Blood, Cannibalism, Abandonment, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Racism, and Rape

summerb's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Incest

Moderate: Blood, Death, Murder, Slavery, Incest, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Misogyny

Minor: Abortion, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Cannibalism, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, War, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Infertility, Medical content, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, and Violence