Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

121 reviews

racheldallaire's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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? Yes

5.0

This was incredible and every time I had to stop reading, it stayed in my mind until I could get back to it. Butler's unique way of presenting slavery through the eyes of a modern woman was amazing-clever, and so well-written. I grew to love Dana and Kevin. Rufus, Alice, and all the others were so well developed and I started to feel as if I knew them. This book is heartbreaking and honest about chattel slavery and the many, many abuses it allowed and even encouraged. Even so, it's an important book and one I believe you should make time for. I am coming away from it freshly horrified at our nation's history, pained at how little has changed, and introspective about what I can and need to do to change things for the future. I am also coming away with an incredible amount of respect and awe for Butler's writing-I cannot wait to read more of her books.

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maeverose's review against another edition

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4.5

I really do not have the words to properly review this. This book was just so good. I stayed up till 5am to finish it and should really be sleeping 😅

I love time travel stories and I think using that trope to discuss slavery in this way is so genius. It felt so real. The characters felt believable, particularly Rufus who was a very nuanced antagonist. Someone you could totally picture actually existing in that time. This was different than I expected in that I assumed Dana would have to be more covert and keep it a secret that she was from the future, but I think it was much more interesting this way. Alice’s story was so heartbreaking. I didn’t think it would go that way.

I think if you can handle the heavy content, you should read this. Especially if you’re a white American.

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nialiversuch's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

3.5


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mxfahrenheit's review against another edition

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4.5


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madelinejfink's review against another edition

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dark 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? Yes

4.0


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loesm's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-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

4.0


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ninamanon's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A haunting read, but how could a book about slavery ever be anything but?
I was as naïve as Dana in the beginning , thinking she could make a difference, influence Rufus for the better. Of course she couldn’t. No one could have. I grew disgusted of him more and more, but it was really insightful to learn about his worldview. He didn’t understand love. Relationships were transactional to him, especially when it came to black people.


Only reason I didn’t give a higher score is that I didn’t like the writing style. It was just fine, but never beautiful or remarkable. And the ending felt a little disconnected and flat. 

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michelle_my_belle's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative 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

5.0


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erebus53's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

This is a book that I read as part of the 52 Book Challenge 2023. I had heard the name Octavia E. Butler before but had never bothered looking into it because I thought the name sounded like an airport novel writer or cozy-mystery-old-lady read..  I was so wrong. So silly of me. This book is a nuanced piece of science fiction that explores life and slavery in Antebellum USA, through the eyes of an interracial couple from 1976.

This is a tale of survival. Dana finds herself dislocated from her time and place and landing in the early 1800s in the middle of emergency. At first she saves a small boy from drowning, and then later she stops a fire. As she follows the pattern she realises that she has a connection to a young man who has very bad luck and who she continually has to save from his misadventures.

First hand, she finds out how Black and White people are divided in status and role, and how those divisions are brutally enforced. She hopes that by befriending this small child she may be able to stop him from developing into the same sort of man as his brutal, plantation-owner father.

In the same vein as Time Traveler's Wife (a book published 24 years after it)... hmm, ok I'm going there. *Incredible Tangent Person! go!* Time Traveler's Wife was interpreted for screen 6 years after its publication and Kindred, a book that also deals with slipping through time involuntarily, was adapted for screen 43 years after its publication in 1979. OK, one of those books was about a man who met the woman he eventually married when she was a child and who develops a relationship with her in chronologically asynchronous order, and the other was about a Black woman coming to understand her family's history, slavery and the brutality of oppression, by rescuing her White, several times great grandfather from death.. so I guess it's more about whether or not people want to discuss Grooming, or Inter-Racial marriage and the brutality of slavery... but why did we have to wait so long before that was a thing? 

Kindred is a thoroughly compelling read and I seriously raced through the book, not wanting to put it down. The relationships are rich and messy, and offer a convincing look at what happens when we care about people despite their faults. It is a story of survival, and through Dana we are allowed a glimpse of the real life, love, fear, and survival that was endured by those living and working plantations.

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cassmills's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense 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? It's complicated

4.5


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