Reviews tagging 'Incest'

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

101 reviews

clare072's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? No

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Gun violence, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Blood, Police brutality, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Cursing, Incest, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Abortion

jabakken's review against another edition

dark 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

nojerama's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

Terrifyingly plausible, absolutely gripping, should be required reading everywhere. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Dementia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

keato's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense slow-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? Yes

4.0

This book is so unlike other books I’ve read. It started off pretty slow and I didn’t really get into it until like 1/3 of the way through, but wow it’s so thought provoking and beautiful and I ended up loving it. It’s wild to make the general mood of such a violent and terrifying book reflective. And it’s wild to have such a reflective book without focusing much on emotions. Like,

Lauren does not process her grief about literally everyone she knows dying. And it doesn’t seem to change the way she acts. She doesn’t get irrational or angry or anything, she just focuses on what she needs to do and adopts strays along the journey

. Ugh I’m so excited to talk about this book at book club.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Drug use, Gore, Incest, Rape, Torture, Trafficking, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Slavery, Kidnapping, and Cannibalism

vrkinase0411's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

3.5

I can now see why people find this work to be prophetic. When we stand still long enough to look around us we can absolutely see what our hypo-empathetic and lack of history will turn us into.

I can't say I'm not offended, however, in Butler's portrayal of poor and homeless people along with conflating middle class "privileges" as something inherently communal.  While, she does draw attention to the widening rich-poor gap, the ACTUAL poor seem to figuratively discarded for a sympathetic view of middle class destruction. Not sure that was her intention, but the demonizing of addicts and actual poor people while engendering sympathy for the loss of the middle class feels on brand for neoliberalism.

Aside from that, it was pointedly written to examine our current conditions and really look at where we are headed.

Olamina makes stark obersevations and creates a coping mechanism that drives her to action while allowing herself to submit to change.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Incest and Cannibalism

abisam's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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? No

4.5

love love love. an excellent story, wonderful writing, wonderful characters. DID make me very very down at times but overall a wonderful story 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

gmortg3's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense 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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

sup3r_xn0va_maya's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense 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

5.0

💬: "God is neither good nor evil, neither loving nor hating. God is Power. God is Change. We must find the rest of what we need within ourselves, in one another, in our Destiny."

Butler, Octavia E.. Parable of the Sower (p. 245). Open Road Media. Kindle Edition. 

📖Genres: sci-fi, speculative fiction, dystopia, post apocalyptic, classics 

📚Page Count: 330

🎧Audiobook Length: 12h 01min

👩🏾‍🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5/5 
-----

The very beginning of the book is very preachy, well a lot of this book is preachy because it's literally the story of a young woman creating her own religion. I'd say the story was overall enjoyable despite the preachiness of it all. I really enjoyed the way this was written and how, it started out hopeless, like a lot of Butler's works. Then, there's a little light at the end of the tunnel and the story suddenly becomes hopeful.

This is my second time reading Parable of the Sower and I finally understand that it's about community and keeping one another safe. Protecting one another in crisis. That is the answer to the question, "what do we do when disaster strikes?"

I also love the diversity in this book. The characters were very diverse like all other Butler books.

The beginning of the book was a bit slow even though the book was interesting overall. Therefore, I'm giving this 4.5 stars out of 5.

 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

notartgarfunkel's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.0

Whew, this was hard to read. Butler created a very brutal near-future for these characters, and she does not pull any punches in her descriptions of that world. Big CW for just about any tough topic you can think of; I won’t list them here, but if there’s anything that’s particularly triggering for you, you may want to do a little research before picking this up. But if you’re able to, it’s very much worth reading.

I kept thinking of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road as I read this. The post-apocalyptic world is just as well-developed and you root for the main characters in the same way as they struggle to survive. I’d even say it’s a more interesting book because it considers race, gender, social inequality, etc. (not to mention the main character, Lauren’s, hyperempathy). It seems like the only reason Parable of the Sower is not as widely read as The Road is because it’s by a Black woman author with characters that are mostly people of color. I think it’s more worth reading for that reason.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Trafficking, and Death of parent

Moderate: Incest, Racism, Suicide, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

cuddlygryphon's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail