Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler

9 reviews

corriejn's review against another edition

2.75

The plot/world-building just isn't creative or novel enough to get over all the explicit and accepted pedophilia. I'm used to expecting some potentially challenging content in Butler's novels, but yikes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Racial slurs, and Toxic relationship

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

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

fenemiestolovers's review against another edition

Couldn’t get past the pedophilic relationship. According to Google searches I learned

Shori is not human and is actually over 50 years old

but I knew I could personally not read a story with that dynamic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Pedophilia, Body horror, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Rape, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood

Moderate: Animal death

plainpaige's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

1.5

Ooof. I would have liked this book more if not for the shadow cast over it by the explicit pedophilia of it all. Of course, some will say it's not actually pedophilia, the "child" protagonist was in her 50s! But let's just say, this book will never be made into a movie. Even disregarding the explicit relationships between this person who appears to be ~10 years old, I had trouble finding myself interested in the story or the characters. A third of this book was judicial bureaucratic boredom, and perhaps Butler could have expanded it into a more interesting series, but I personally wouldn't have read the sequel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Classism, Mental illness, Death of parent, Ableism, Gun violence, Addiction, Racism, Violence, Grief, Blood, Child abuse, Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Body shaming, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Alcohol, and Incest

excellent_taste's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

Really interesting, also disturbing. I do not know how I feel about it but it was well written. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Racism, Toxic relationship, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Murder, Grief, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Sexism, and Pedophilia

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

elderlingfool's review against another edition

I can't do it. I just can't and it pains me to write this because Octavia E. Butler is one of my favourite authors. I read six of her books and rated them all 5 stars (except for one that was 4 stars) so to say that this was a disappointment is an understatement.

To start with, the Ina, the "vampires" in this book, are really similar in power to the ooloi from the Xenogenesis/Lilith's Brood trilogy and, as far as I read, that trilogy addressed the issues better, which the initial perspective of a human woman also helped to ease in into the narrative and problematic aspects.

However, the main reason why I am giving up is because I visualize and create movies in my head while reading. It was extremely uncomfortable to picture a child having sex with a grown man no matter how much the author tells me she is actually 50 years old. She still has the body of a 10 year old and whether the man is into her because of the initial bite or not it is still too much for me to keep reading. I still managed to get past the sex scene that happened in the first pages, but on the second one I bailed and I didn't even finish reading. If I had known this had graphic sex and the main character appeared to be 10 years old I would have never even attempted it, but I was pleasantly surprised by the Xenogenesis trilogy that also seemed to have elements I hate in the synopsis and ended up being one of my favourite trilogies. I can't say the same for this one.

I watched a video in which a reviewer mentioned that Butler wrote this for fun while trying to come up with the third Earthseed book and I do believe it because it does feel less polished than her other works I've read. I am used to Butler repeating themes in her books, but there is always some originality that was lacking in this one. Maybe something new happens in the pages I haven't read, but I don't care enough to find out. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, and Toxic relationship