Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler

36 reviews

dominiq_ec's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

My first vampire book, but with a very confusing set of sociocultural circumstances, which ultimately go uninvestigated. Honestly, this was about as good as a young adult vampire novel could get, with a dash of racism and pedophilia-adjacent relationships added. The issue is: this isn't a young adult novel, and sociocultural circumstances need to be investigated more than just being there. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Death, Hate crime, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Racism, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Stalking, Violence, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship

buttercat42's review

dark mysterious tense 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? No

3.75

Left me wanting to know more about the world and the characters, although I preferred the first half to the second half

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Violence, Murder, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Biphobia, Blood, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Sexual content, Pedophilia, and Injury/Injury detail

another_dahlia's review

dark medium-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Rape, Death, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Biphobia, Child abuse, Colonisation, Racial slurs, Racism, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Sexism, Animal death, and Child death

axel_p'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

3.5

I hate Wright with a burning passion. This book got to repetitive at times.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Genocide, Hate crime, Incest, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Death, Racial slurs, Violence, Xenophobia, Racism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Gore, Mass/school shootings, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Pedophilia, Body shaming, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Classism, Pregnancy, Ableism, Blood, and Gaslighting

birdie770's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Racism, Hate crime, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Blood

holasoyrohan's review

I really tried, but the pseudo-pedofiliac aspect just didn’t ever make sense or feel redeemed and I couldn’t keep pushing myself to read this. DNF before halfway. I’d heard only good things about this author and was excited to get started on one of her books finally, so it was pretty disappointing that this book is where I started because of the bad taste it has left in my mouth. Might’ve been different if the adult/minor dynamic made sense in any way, but there was nothing that made it feel understandable as a creative choice or pushed a deeper message - it was just icky. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury

adiajamille's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I found that i definitely wanted to see where it was going, but that it felt a bit dry. I supposed it’s because Shuri isn’t human and therefore doesn’t speak, think, or process like a human. I thought it was a great introduction to a new series (if that were the intent) and sad, because this one could definitely build into something really exciting. 


I thought a bigger issue than Shuri’s appearance was the excessive ableism displayed during the final chapters of the book. 

The continued discussion around Shuri’s appearance is interesting considering there are real human adults that have genetic conditions that make them appear as children. I would love to find out the reasoning behind Shuri’s appearance, although I felt it was thoroughly explained. (Potential spoilers)
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The part I felt curious about, and I’ll have to look in the book as I listened on audiobook and wasn’t able to rewind at the time, I’d was Wright actually a pedophile? I swear there was allusion to it. 

Overall I think this book brought up a lot of things that need to be examined. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Gaslighting, Death, Gun violence, Racism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Racial slurs, and Violence

cj13's review

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

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

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