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growintogardens's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Gore, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual content, Medical trauma, War, Grief, Misogyny, Torture, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Incest, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Slavery, Body horror, Confinement, and Medical content
Minor: Death of parent, Child death, Drug use, and Racial slurs
I'm probably forgetting stuff- there's a lot of triggers.trips's review against another edition
- 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
I don't really want to spoil anything, so here is how I felt about each story in a few words:
Blood Child: Oh wow, that is terrifying.
The Evening And The Morning And The Night: Creepy, yet made me feel empathy towards the characters.
Near of Kin: Eh? Huh?...Why?
Speech Sounds: Powerful in an unexpected way.
Cross over: Haunting.
Positive Obsession: I loved this!
Furor Scribendi: Beautiful and helpful!
Amnesty: What did I just read??
The Book of Martha: I wonder how it would work!
That is all I will say. I hope to read more Butler in the months to come, her words are always so powerful and gripping to me.
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Violence, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Gun violence
Moderate: Gore, Xenophobia, Child death, and Death
Minor: Alcohol
alspacedout's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Least Favorites: Crossover by a good margin, can't remember what happened in it for the life of me, even after rereading the afterword to try to spark my memory.
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Self harm, Xenophobia, War, Violence, Suicide attempt, Torture, Incest, Toxic relationship, and Rape
Every short story has its own number of content warnings as they are all pretty dark, but none are tittilating or explicit with the exception of BloodChild. light spoiler ---->readingsofaslinky's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Confinement, Child death, Alcohol, Terminal illness, Murder, Gun violence, Gore, Suicide attempt, Rape, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Blood, Suicide, Slavery, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Incest, and Torture
szuum's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
Graphic: Chronic illness, Body horror, Blood, Confinement, Death, Xenophobia, Violence, Terminal illness, Animal death, Death of parent, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Suicide, Torture, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, and Gore
Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Rape, Child death, and Miscarriage
Minor: Cancer
erikawynn's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Gun violence, Death, and Body horror
Moderate: Incest, Child death, Death of parent, Rape, Torture, and Confinement
queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler is a collection of fiction and science fiction short stories and two essays. As some of you know, Butler is my favorite author, and I am working on collecting all her works.
Butler has such a unique and poignant way of writing aliens. I loved the aliens in Bloodchild for how disturbing they were while also being integrated with human society. Butler always situates humans as the one being taken over and being the lesser beings. This particular story reminded me of her Xenogenesis series.
Speech Sounds was a story about an illness that impairs people in different ways, including destroying the ability of language, spoken and written. It was about finding different ways of communicating. Similarly, Amnesty explore alternate ways of communicating with the plan-like aliens that have come to Earth.
I even enjoyed the two essays included, especially the second essay with tips on writing. This is definitely a collection I will be rereading at some point. I just love absorbing all of Butler's ideas and concepts. I will never stop shouting about Butler's work!
Have you seen that one of Butler's works is going to be a tv show?! You know I'm hyped for it!
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Gore, Self harm, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Incest, Chronic illness, Murder, Death of parent, and Rape
Minor: Miscarriage and Child death
shebby's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Gore
Moderate: Forced institutionalization
Minor: Child death