Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

245 reviews

danielle_sips_tea's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad medium-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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Child death, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Cannibalism, Slavery, Blood, Pregnancy, Incest, Racism, and Trafficking

Minor: Drug use

sustainably_lucia's review

challenging tense medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Gore

girish0731's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective 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

4.75

One of the most hard hitting books of the year which falls under Dystopian genre of books but it doesn't seem far off from current situation of life. The story telling and characters are brilliantly written. There is a sense of genuine dread in situations which keeps the story an intense page turner. The crux of this books does fall under the deep philosophical and discussions about religion and how it helps in such a broken down society.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Hate crime, Child abuse, Racism, Gun violence, Rape, Slavery, and Cannibalism

pumpkinbisque's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad 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

4.75

super heartbreaking but also supremely hopeful dystopian fiction. gritty, graphic, and gory, but never felt gratuitous. the world lauren and the various people she cares about inhabit is dark and every man for himself, but i loved how lauren did not let this harden her heart. butler did such a good job of balancing between blind optimism and complete lack of empathy. her characters constantly discussed the morality of living in a world where if you don't strike, the other person will, and how morality is relative. this book felt like an answer to doomer mentality in our day and age. sure, we could all eat each other and never care for anyone, butler says, but wouldn't you rather hold on to your humanity through empathy and loyalty? there was also commentary on race and racism which i found really fascinating, and how racism can weaken an already weak society. i appreciated the frank manner in which lauren looked at race and how she used power and privilege afforded some groups to protect the larger group.

when the earthseed group began forming, they protected each other through various stereotypes and assumptions (harry being white affording protection to nonwhite people, lauren posing as a man to protect herself and zahra, the whole group convening around the children) and i found that super interesting and effective. the religion aspect was fascinating, too, and i appreciated how earthseed was based on discourse and discussion by the people that adhere to it. nice change of pace from modern evangelical christianity.

i took off .25 because sometimes there was repetition of words or phrases/words or phrases felt juvenile which could have been tweaked a tiny bit. emphasis on sometimes, though, cuz butler is a master of prose. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Rape, Child death, Racism, and Child abuse

Moderate: Addiction, Rape, Blood, Cannibalism, Drug abuse, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Murder

Minor: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

latebush's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Slavery, Racism, and Police brutality

ugoglen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Violence, Racism, and Racial slurs

brittknee52's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Slavery, Rape, Racism, Death, Animal death, Child death, and Drug abuse

thoseoldcrows23's review against another edition

dark tense slow-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 is a masterfully written novel with incredible theme work and a world that feels startlingly real. I think if I had read this at a different time (when I wasn't still trying to get over a terrible reading slump) I would have liked it even more; however, as it stands, I still think this is an excellent work of dystopia, and I will be continuing on with the sequel later this year.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Animal death, Blood, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Trafficking, Violence, Child abuse, Murder, Racism, Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Rape, Sexual content, Cannibalism, Gun violence, Incest, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Gore and Cursing

corriejn's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Drug abuse, Animal death, Torture, Cannibalism, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Child abuse, Child death, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Slavery, Sexual violence, Racism, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual assault

Minor: Religious bigotry

maameadwubi's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-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? No

3.0

This book is incredibly bleak; Octavia Butler was incredibly prescient and the parallels between this book and our potential reality made it even more horrifying/scary to read. I wasn’t aware of what I was getting into when I started reading it and had to put it down halfway through to spark not a the rest. 
Will be dealing with nightmares for the near future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Body horror, Death, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, Torture, Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Violence, Animal cruelty, Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cannibalism, Slavery, Child abuse, Drug use, Incest, Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, Vomit, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Racism, and Suicide