Reviews

Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler

ra_meat's review against another edition

mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.75

adrianr's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

eleri's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious fast-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

4.75

jeaton2's review against another edition

dark reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

alliezeff847's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

foreverarose's review against another edition

medium-paced

4.25

thefriedone's review against another edition

3.0

I enjoyed Butler's style enough to plan on starting one of her novels soon. I think short stories aren't a great format for fantasy & science fiction though. In some of the stories entire strange new worlds/creatures need to be introduced and there isn't much room for the plot to develop before it's over. I think Butler explained that these were kind of left over story ideas that she never managed to flesh out into novels, and it shows. Still some of the ideas introduced were pretty captivating. I also really liked her quick essays about the writing process in this collection, as well as the 1-2 page postscripts after each story.

dean_ax's review against another edition

dark funny hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.75

ice119's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

valsometimesreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Bloodchild is phenomenal, others stories and essays fall on a spectrum of engaging (as expected from a short story collection)