Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler

35 reviews

jayeless's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Murder, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Hate crime

Minor: Racism, Trafficking, and Racial slurs

There is a sexual relationship between an adult man and a 53-year-old vampire who LOOKS like a prepubescent girl.

vee_nusflytrap's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

One of my favorites! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Racism, War, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, and Grief

Moderate: Incest

redcapediver's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

Weird! Let’s pray they never make a movie 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Animal death, Body horror, Cannibalism, Classism, Blood, Child abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Xenophobia

solenekeleroux's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Racism, Racial slurs, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, and Fire/Fire injury

livlosiewicz's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

5.0

 Our narrator wakes up in a cave, badly injured with no memory of her previous life. She comes to realize that she craves human blood, belonging to a species of vampire-like creatures. Now she must relearn everything about her kind that she once forgot, while dealing with the fact that someone is out to get her family. 

 

Pros: 

· I found this to be super interesting; I loved learning about the Ina through Shori’s eyes, and I thought the memory loss was a cool plot device to introduce the reader to everything at an easy pace 

·Butler has a way of building a world that still centers around people, even though she’s using fantastical/scifi concepts. I find it so fascinating and so easy and fun to jump into. Plus, she manages to use these concepts to highlight important themes like racism and sexuality 

 

Cons: 

· towards the beginning of the end/end of the middle, the pacing starts to slow a bit. 

·There are a lot of characters to keep track of, which didn’t bother me but I could see it being difficult for others 

 

Recommendation: I recommend if you like scifi or speculative fiction. I usually find myself disappointed with scifi, but this one did not disappoint. If you’re turned off by the vampire thing because of YA romance novels, don’t be- this is Queen Octavia, we’re in good hands. Avoid if you dislike supernatural/scifi elements in novels or want something light. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Hate crime

abmochapman's review

dark funny informative mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I’m a huge fan of Octavia Butler but I don’t know what compelled her to create a world that would make relationships between a adult humans and vampire children a moral grey area.

I mean, I can’t lie and say that I hated Fledgling; its overarching conflict was extremely compelling and slow world-building super interesting. I was literally — and a little ironically — hooked. 

This could easily be one of my favorites, but the uncomfortable grey area in the relationships central to the book is a hard sell. Sure, it makes some sense within the confines of the book and its world, but I just don’t understand why she decided to write it so that

the young protagonist appears as a prepubescent child who has sexual relationships with adults

. Like, pray tell, what does this say about society?

A lot of other readers have mixed feelings about the book and I honestly don’t know how to feel, but I wouldn’t say that it’s simply not worth reading at all (unless the topic matter is triggering to you — then please skip this one). However, if you choose to read with a grain of salt, maybe you’ll understand Butler’s intentions better than I could.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Hate crime, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, and Murder

Moderate: Misogyny, Racial slurs, and Homophobia

ekmook's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexism, Murder, Animal death, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Grief, and Hate crime

bash5617's review

challenging mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Racial slurs, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Hate crime, Murder, and Racism

ztifhael's review

challenging slow-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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Violence, Gun violence, Hate crime, Fire/Fire injury, and Death

botanicpanic's review

challenging dark mysterious fast-paced

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

2.0

If you are planning on reading this, please check the content warnings. The story has rich lore and interesting themes, but has graphic scenes depicting sexual relationships with (essentially) a child and dubious consent with no clear resolution in the broader narrative. This made it almost impossible to like the main characters and no matter how long I read, I couldn't seem to get past it.

I had high hopes for this book and was so ready to love it, but the experience has left me very disappointed. This may be because it was university reading and needed deeper analysis which only compounded my issues with the graphic scenes, but I can't pretend it's an easy read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Sexual content, Blood, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Pedophilia, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Grief, Murder, and Racism

Minor: Death of parent and Fire/Fire injury

Shori is a 53-year-old vampire (or ‘Ina’) who looks like an 11-year-old girl and is considered a child by other Ina. She begins sexual relationships with five adult humans and a suggested future relationship with an adult Ina. Shori is also the target of multiple racially-motivated attacks and slurs, as she is the first Ina to have dark skin.