Reviews tagging 'Trafficking'

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

61 reviews

kaitoro_walker13's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Wow. This was a fun read. I liked the characters, the overall plot and the

time manipulation stuff

. However, this book does not come without a flaw. I think that the

losing an arm

plot point was quite weak and was overall unnecessary. Overall though, I loved this book, and I would definitely recommend this to anyone

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Slavery

Moderate: Trafficking

Minor: Rape, Suicide, Self harm, and Death of parent

erebus53's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Blood, Child abuse, Colonisation, Grief, Gun violence, Violence, Vomit, Death of parent, Drug use, Gaslighting, Medical content, Racism, Trafficking, Alcoholism, Bullying, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Gore, Racial slurs, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Confinement, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Death, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Classism, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Child death

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Trafficking, Medical content, Torture, Slavery, Incest, Sexual violence, Violence, Confinement, Rape, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Racism

Moderate: Gun violence, Police brutality, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Ableism, Child abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, War, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Car accident, Dementia, and Drug abuse

bookswithbethx's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racial slurs, Sexism, Sexual content, Racism, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Torture, Grief, Death, Child death, Physical abuse, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Death of parent, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Rape, and Injury/Injury detail

bg_oseman_fan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative 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? It's complicated

5.0

The past isn’t so far away… This book is a must read.  Every word is gripping and visceral. Butler transports the reader through time and space. Truly this story stands alone because of how clearly it speaks about the horrors of slavery, the tangled web of complicity, suffering, and shame the accompanied it and the time, and how clear it is that hate and prejudice remain with us today, and still need to be battled with in all its forms. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Trafficking, Physical abuse, and Racism

Moderate: Suicide, Sexual violence, Grief, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Death, Racial slurs, Sexism, and Cursing

Minor: Infidelity, Infertility, Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Gun violence, and Child death

rosalind's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Violence, Torture, Slavery, and Misogyny

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Trafficking, and Rape

Minor: Vomit, Death, Religious bigotry, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, and Toxic relationship

rigor_mortis's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Misogyny, Drug use, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Torture, Racism, Slavery, and Trafficking

Moderate: Rape

nick13's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I have never read any of Octavia Butler's work before but now I need to check some more out because this read was astounding, emotional, but astounding. Every single character in this was incredibly well written and well thought out, making every one of them believable, even if some are VERY unlikable.

All I wish more for in this story was for the time the characters spent in their present to be more fleshed out along with Edana and Kevin's relationship to be a bit more expounded upon instead of just presumed throughout the book.

But really, if all I'm wishing for in a story is more of it, it clearly did something very well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Body horror, Murder, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Vomit, Sexism, Rape, Slavery, Racism, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Death of parent, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Sexual harassment, and Self harm

Moderate: Infidelity and Incest

Minor: Pregnancy, Miscarriage, and Infertility

thevioletfoxbookshop's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad 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

5.0

Kindred is one of those books that feels like it should be required reading for all Americans. I've never read a book that makes the suffering, the complexities, and the last effects of slavery feel so real and so clear. Octavia Butler has a way of bringing history and the present world awfully close together. The characters feel real, like people you know. And the story is layered in a way that will leave you thinking about the book long after you've finished it. 

This was an absolutely heartbreaking story to read, as it should be. And although it was written in 1979, it makes it very clear that even now (in 2023), the systemic racism, the learned behavior and roles, and the lasting impact of the slavery system in the US is still very present and very real. You realize how easily we might slip backwards and how important it is that we actively and purposefully make change, educate ourselves, and be better.

Beyond being important and valuable work, Kindred is also an incredible story. I was a little afraid that I would struggle through it (like I do with some "classic literature"), but I flew through this book! I found myself having read 20 pages at a time and not even realizing it. You become so invested in the characters and what's going to happen next! Prepare to really feel all the feels in this one!

Kindred is a 5 star read. Absolutely pick this one up!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, Slavery, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, and Rape

Moderate: Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Child death, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Torture, and Sexual assault

steveatwaywords's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

For a work so early in Butler's career, this is a remarkably stunning read. No need, really, to touch upon the now oft-described plot: Butler's aim is the experience--both graphically physical but more psychological: it works its way through our time-traveling narrator and her white husband; it impacts their relationship (alas, not as thoroughly explored as it might have been); but it is one of the first books I've read to explore the nuance of living in a culture of slavery rather than merely stating or claiming the complex challenges.

Butler's liberated (at least for the 1970s) narrator discovers how sinuous the workings of plantation life might well have been, how insidious the rationalizations of submission to authority. And while the book is tightly-written and highly suspenseful, her handling of dialogue and subtler action reveals the various pulls of power humans have over one another, because of and in spite of the power dynamics between them. 

There are no apologies, justifications, or qualifications for slavery and its adherents here. But we instead experience a kind of subjugation and oppression which moves far deeper than the given physicality of this institution. (Now to go see how Hulu has handled it . . . )

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, Slavery, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Rape, Trafficking, Grief, Sexual violence, Infidelity, Vomit, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Medical trauma, Domestic abuse, Death, and Blood

This work directly shows several scenes of nearly every kind of inhumanity from the institution of slavery, though the descriptions fall short of body horror or gore.