Reviews

Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler

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notesquotesscarletmotes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Unfortunately, this has been my least favorite of Octavia's works so far. I liked the idea of the Ina but didn't particularly enjoy the way the story was told. So much of the understanding of the world was just characters talking back and forth. There was so little of them experiencing it.

Aside from the way the story was told, I also struggled heavily with so many characters being attracted to someone who is described physically as a ten year old child. While I understand that mentally she's supposed to be significantly older in the story it just never sat well with me.

I liked the adding of science based elements to a vampire story, but I wish there had been more of a focus there.

Overall, this story was just lacking something in comparison with Octavia's other fantastic works.

lindsayreads_theworld's review against another edition

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3.75

Excellent writing. Sometimes the main character reminded me of others by this author

aarnireads's review against another edition

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DNF so fucking hard. Ive wanted to try out something from this author for a long time, but this is just dull.

And oh, constantly bringing up how she has the body of a prepubescent child was fucking disgusting. Bye.

ow_willow's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Classic Octavia - but missing some of the bite of her sci-fi explorations of family, queerness, and race. Still a fun romp in the vampire genre & one of the best vampire books I've read.

andrew_matteson's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

lauraborkpower's review against another edition

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1.0

Before reading this, I'd only read on book by Butler (Kindred, in high school), and this one sounded so interesting; I was especially intrigued when I learned that this was the last book she wrote before she passed away. But I was disappointed and, overall, pretty creeped out. Actually, not "pretty" creeped out. Really. Really creeped out.

And here's why:

The main character, Shori (called Rene at the start of the book before she learns who she is) is a fifty-something year old vampire creature who *looks* like an eleven year old girl. And the first character she gets involved with is a hairy twenty-three year old guy. And they get involved. It's beyond uncomfortable. I paused the audiobook after the first hour and realized that I'd been grimacing for twenty miles of my commute. My face hurt.

Now, Butler explains this relationship and others through an original twist on the vampire myth, the effects of vampire venom, and unconventional physical aging, but the fact is that this character looks like a child and throughout the book she's having sex with human adult characters in addition to feeding off of them in a highly sexualized way.

After I got over that (but let me be frank: I never got over it; in fact, I'm grimacing right now just thinking about it) I tried to get into the actual story. Butler brings up important and interesting themes of race, fear of the "other," family, community, and mortality. Interesting themes yes, but the story itself couldn't keep my attention. The plot was slow, there were about two dozen more characters than were necessary (and none of them were well developed, just described in detail by Butler), and the courtroom drama aspect during the last portion of the book was dull as dishwater. And it wasn't supposed to be.

Nothing in this story felt immediate or relevant. Maybe it was the style, the fact that the characters and the communities they lived in were so removed from "normal" human society, or the narrator (Tracey Leigh) who had to read about fifty character voices, some of them with accents, and forty-eight of them awkward. And I'm sure a lot of people really liked this book. I just wasn't one of them.

ratkowe's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious 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? No

3.25

Fascinating concept and well written. Had a difficult time finishing the book, however, as the main character had the physicality of a child despite being 53 (which is also technically still a child among the Ina) and engaging in sexual relationships with adult humans.