Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler

38 reviews

cj13's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Racism, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Ableism, Biphobia, and Grief

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

Narrator is a fifty-three-year-old vampire whose body looks like that of a prepubescent human child. The narrator has sex with several adult humans.

tishtashohmygosh's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? Yes

4.0

 

Octavia Butler expertly explores themes of racism and ageism—among others—in a take on vampires that I haven’t encountered before. The novel follows a young Ina named Shori who awakens in a cave heavily injured and with no memories. She learns of the history and culture of the Ina, the political ties between Ina families, and the conspiracy that led to her being injured in the first place. 

Things I Liked: 

The characters feel like authentic people rather than tropes or caricatures and the relationships they build with each other are engaging. There is LGBTQ+ representation in the cast of characters which is something I'm always seeking out. The pacing is consistent and at no point did it feel too fast or too slow to me. The world building is thorough and in depth and feels naturally integrated into the modern setting. It has the found family trope, which I am always on board for.

Disliked: 

My primary dislike/discomfort with the novel comes from

the explicit sexual scenes between a person who has the physical appearance of a 10-year-old (even though she is said to be 53 years old) and multiple adults.

I know that this is an intentional discomfort, but it is something I wanted to mention also as a potential trigger warning. 

Overall, I very much enjoyed Fledgling as much I have enjoyed reading some of Butler’s other works. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Blood and Violence

I didn't tag it as pedophilia because the characters are technically all adults (which is explicitly stated in the novel), but the main character has the appearance of a child and she does engage in sexual acts with adult characters.

lucyatoz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler has been the most challenging read for me in the 52 Book Challenge. Yes, it is a original book focused around vampire lore and confronting many of the tired fables about them head on. It also tackles issues around identity and race in a novel way. However, I just did not gel with this book at all. It was not a book I could read before bed, which is my normal habit. Instead I read it over a long weekend and was glad that I have finished it but left feeling slight out of kilter, which I think is what the author was aiming for with this novel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Abandonment, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Racial slurs

risaleel's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Adult/minor relationship, Gun violence, Murder, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, and Genocide

Moderate: Misogyny, Mass/school shootings, Racism, War, Violence, and Racial slurs

Minor: Gaslighting, Classism, Gore, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Death, and Drug use

linblythe_pub22's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Murder, Grief, Violence, Medical trauma, Blood, and Gun violence

steph_steph's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

This book is wild. It starts very isolated, primal, and animal; then eventually turns into a legal drama with tons of prior history. This book will make you uncomfortable, but on purpose to make you think about consent, identity, and morality.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Injury/Injury detail and Racial slurs

halfbloodprincess_hogwarts's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-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

This is the first book I have ever read by Octavia E. Butler and I am over the MOON happy after reading this.

The MC is a Black Vampire whom is desirable, courageous, brave, unforgettable and a refreshing character. She wakes up in a cave in excruciating pain with no memory of what happened to her nor who she is. We come to know the world through her eyes and who she is as the story progresses. Along with help from those on the way.

I did mentally clutch my metaphoric pearls (especially while driving) listening to the audiobook. This is definitely more for mature audiences. It's so difficult to express my love for this novel without dumping spoilers. Just impossible.

Found family, my favorite trope, plays a major role in Fledgling and I could 100% relisten to this again and again.    

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Death, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, and Genocide

Moderate: Racism and Racial slurs

kisara's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Pedophilia, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Xenophobia, Violence, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

dubious consent

taroroot's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

i don't read much vampire or sci-fi stuff but i like Octavia Butler so i read this. i enjoyed her unique take on vampires. the apparent age of the main character is difficult to accept and uncomfortable to deal with in many parts of the book. Shori is placed in a lot of sexual contexts while appearing as a 10 year old child (idc if she's really 53,

she's still considered a child by her own peoples' standards

) i'm sure this was intentional on the behalf of the author however i really struggled with not thinking of every character as a perv.

Wright is lesbophobic as fuck for saying that Shori's relationships with women didn't affect him as much but when she gets a male symbiont suddenly polyamory is a big deal.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Death, Death of parent, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual content

Minor: Lesbophobia

islandbookwyrm's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, Racial slurs, and Murder

Moderate: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, and Death

Minor: Animal death