Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

64 reviews

djeanine's review

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Animal death, Body horror, Abandonment, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Grief, Violence, Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Child death, Gun violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, and Torture

mmestitches's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

Powerful boo, but stressful to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Child abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Classism, Ableism, Cannibalism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Hate crime, Incest, Body horror, Child death, Grief, Colonisation, Death, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Mass/school shootings, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Hate crime, Pedophilia, Murder, Grief, Suicide, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Physical abuse, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, War, Trafficking, Torture, Suicide attempt, Slavery, Sexual content, Self harm, Sexism, Rape, Gore, Police brutality, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, and Dysphoria

imogenclendinning's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Cannibalism, Confinement, Death of parent, Slavery, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Racism, Violence, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Murder, Child death, Colonisation, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Pregnancy

decie's review against another edition

4.75

I'm usually not a fan of dystopian books, but this one is stunning. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Classism, Murder, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Cannibalism, Blood, Violence, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Animal death, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Grief, Excrement, Child abuse, Child death, and Rape

Moderate: Slavery, Drug use, Drug abuse, Torture, Domestic abuse, Racism, Kidnapping, Misogyny, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Incest

pumpkinbisque's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

4.75

super heartbreaking but also supremely hopeful dystopian fiction. gritty, graphic, and gory, but never felt gratuitous. the world lauren and the various people she cares about inhabit is dark and every man for himself, but i loved how lauren did not let this harden her heart. butler did such a good job of balancing between blind optimism and complete lack of empathy. her characters constantly discussed the morality of living in a world where if you don't strike, the other person will, and how morality is relative. this book felt like an answer to doomer mentality in our day and age. sure, we could all eat each other and never care for anyone, butler says, but wouldn't you rather hold on to your humanity through empathy and loyalty? there was also commentary on race and racism which i found really fascinating, and how racism can weaken an already weak society. i appreciated the frank manner in which lauren looked at race and how she used power and privilege afforded some groups to protect the larger group.

when the earthseed group began forming, they protected each other through various stereotypes and assumptions (harry being white affording protection to nonwhite people, lauren posing as a man to protect herself and zahra, the whole group convening around the children) and i found that super interesting and effective. the religion aspect was fascinating, too, and i appreciated how earthseed was based on discourse and discussion by the people that adhere to it. nice change of pace from modern evangelical christianity.

i took off .25 because sometimes there was repetition of words or phrases/words or phrases felt juvenile which could have been tweaked a tiny bit. emphasis on sometimes, though, cuz butler is a master of prose. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Rape, Child death, Racism, and Child abuse

Moderate: Addiction, Rape, Blood, Cannibalism, Drug abuse, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Murder

Minor: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

madelinekramer2021's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Animal death, Cannibalism, Child death, Classism, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Trafficking, and Violence

thoseoldcrows23's review against another edition

dark tense slow-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

4.0

This is a masterfully written novel with incredible theme work and a world that feels startlingly real. I think if I had read this at a different time (when I wasn't still trying to get over a terrible reading slump) I would have liked it even more; however, as it stands, I still think this is an excellent work of dystopia, and I will be continuing on with the sequel later this year.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Animal death, Blood, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Trafficking, Violence, Child abuse, Murder, Racism, Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Rape, Sexual content, Cannibalism, Gun violence, Incest, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Gore and Cursing

beegster16's review against another edition

dark 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Body horror, Gun violence, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Mass/school shootings, and Sexual assault

Minor: Slavery, Incest, and Pedophilia

maameadwubi's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? No

3.0

This book is incredibly bleak; Octavia Butler was incredibly prescient and the parallels between this book and our potential reality made it even more horrifying/scary to read. I wasn’t aware of what I was getting into when I started reading it and had to put it down halfway through to spark not a the rest. 
Will be dealing with nightmares for the near future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Body horror, Death, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, Torture, Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Violence, Animal cruelty, Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cannibalism, Slavery, Child abuse, Drug use, Incest, Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, Vomit, Addiction, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Racism, and Suicide

scifi_rat's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.75

Plot: 4.5★
Prose: 4.5★
Pace: 4★
Concept/Execution: 4★/5★
Characters: 4.75★
Worldbuilding: 4.75★
Ending: 4.75★

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Gun violence

Moderate: Animal death, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Slavery, Torture, Bullying, Death of parent, Grief, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Addiction, Blood, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Police brutality, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child death, Cursing, Pregnancy, Trafficking, Gore, Infertility, Pedophilia, Suicide, Medical content, Cannibalism, and Excrement