Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler

46 reviews

vee_nusflytrap's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

One of my favorites! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Racism, War, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, and Grief

Moderate: Incest

ekmook's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexism, Murder, Animal death, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Grief, and Hate crime

jenny_d's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.0

This was... okay. I enjoyed a fair amount of it, but parts of the ethical dilemmas felt kind of half-baked, or not as well explored as they could have been, especially the "it's okay because she only looks like a child but is actually 53 in human years" issue. I felt that it dragged a bit around 2/3rds of the way in. Very informative in regards to the setting, but very slow otherwise.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Racism

daisylady's review against another edition

3.5

I was not expecting the relationship between a girl who appears to be 10 or 11 at most, and a man in his early 20s

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, and Death

generalalarm's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Racism

Moderate: Death of parent

noctadea's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, and Blood

Minor: Death of parent

lola_milk's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Cannibalism, and Murder

Moderate: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Racism

botanicpanic's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious fast-paced

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

2.0

If you are planning on reading this, please check the content warnings. The story has rich lore and interesting themes, but has graphic scenes depicting sexual relationships with (essentially) a child and dubious consent with no clear resolution in the broader narrative. This made it almost impossible to like the main characters and no matter how long I read, I couldn't seem to get past it.

I had high hopes for this book and was so ready to love it, but the experience has left me very disappointed. This may be because it was university reading and needed deeper analysis which only compounded my issues with the graphic scenes, but I can't pretend it's an easy read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Sexual content, Blood, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Pedophilia, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Grief, Murder, and Racism

Minor: Death of parent and Fire/Fire injury

Shori is a 53-year-old vampire (or ‘Ina’) who looks like an 11-year-old girl and is considered a child by other Ina. She begins sexual relationships with five adult humans and a suggested future relationship with an adult Ina. Shori is also the target of multiple racially-motivated attacks and slurs, as she is the first Ina to have dark skin.

rlgreen91's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

Overall I thought this was a solid novel.  Not my favorite by Butler, but interesting and thought-provoking nonetheless.

One of the things that stood out most to me about the book was this implicit reference to adultification of black girls in the real world.  Yes, we learn that Shori is actually closer to an adolescent in her society, but even then, she's still explicitly not an adult.  And yet in many of the situations throughout the book, Shori is expected to behave as if she were an adult - until, of course, it's convenient for other people to treat her like a child in a given situation.  It was frustrating to see that play out over and over again in the novel.

But what I kept coming back to when reading the book was Shori's grief.  Her recognition that she couldn't mourn her families the way people normally would was so sad but also a part of her grieving process.  Her realization that she couldn't fall apart over Theodora was maddening because it ties back directly into the adultification aspect, but also how Black women in general are pressured to just "soldier on" during times of stress because they have to hold everyone else together and make sure everything gets taken care of.  It all feels so familiar, and for that reason, I couldn't escape that.  No matter what other points Butler was making about race or gender or family, no matter how much I just wanted to rail about the adultification - what I always got stuck on was the grief.

In terms of what I didn't like - like a large number of people, I definitely had to power my way through the first few chapters and other sections later on.  And many of the characters felt flat to me. Since the book is written from Shori's point of view and other characters are frequently having to explain things to her due to the memory loss, what often felt like info dumps are just the necessary exposition.  But even beyond that, it felt like there were situations that happened with various characters but we never saw any exploration after that - for example, with the name shift of Renee to Shori, or Wright's reaction to Joel.  I would have liked to see that explored more beyond the initial scene.

But like I said, overall it's a solid novel, and definitely worth a read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

Moderate: Cannibalism

hayleyvharrington's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Violence, Genocide, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Cannibalism, Sexual content, Racism, Pedophilia, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, and Hate crime

Minor: Addiction and Xenophobia