Reviews tagging 'Incest'

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

85 reviews

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

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Content Warnings

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

sup3r_xn0va_maya's review

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 
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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.

 

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Content Warnings

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

notartgarfunkel's review

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.

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Content Warnings

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

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

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

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Content Warnings

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

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

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

plainpaige's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

A stunning work, gripping, remarkably prescient for its time. Butler may have had the timeline off by a few years, and been too optimistic about the pace of climate change, but she clearly saw the coming downturn of society that we're living through. We would all do well to read this enthralling book and follow its characters' example of preparing for, finding, building, and protecting community when societal safeguards fail. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Murder, Animal death, Blood, Grief, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Classism, Gun violence, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Classism, Addiction, Child death, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Child abuse, and Chronic illness

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Drug use, Kidnapping, Racism, Incest, Infidelity, Death of parent, Excrement, Police brutality, Sexual content, Drug abuse, Medical content, and Sexism

vivvs's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Death, Gore, Rape, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Cursing, Death of parent, Suicide, Physical abuse, Child death, Cannibalism, Incest, Drug use, Pedophilia, Abortion, and Grief

Minor: Animal death, Classism, and Racism

very heavy

chaoticnostalgia's review against another edition

challenging 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Violence, Sexual assault, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Trafficking, Addiction, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

Moderate: Racism, Suicide, Rape, and Sexual content

Minor: Excrement, Pregnancy, Cursing, Incest, and Infertility

courtsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Incest, Murder, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Racism, Torture, Trafficking, Violence, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Rape, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Classism, Death, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Animal death, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Physical abuse, Slavery, and Drug use

elia_elizabeth_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Police brutality, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, War, Cannibalism, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Slavery, Abandonment, Addiction, Classism, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, and Rape

dfbballinger's review

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Gore, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Violence, War, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Police brutality, Trafficking, Animal death, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Blood, Cannibalism, Child death, Grief, and Gun violence