Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

66 reviews

dean_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Abandonment, Blood, War, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Colonisation, Cursing, Death of parent, Excrement, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Bullying, Drug abuse, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Drug use, Genocide, Pregnancy, Addiction, Hate crime, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Vomit, Violence, War, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cannibalism, Car accident, Murder, and Stalking

kit_kate's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Child abuse, Grief, Rape, Animal cruelty, and Physical abuse

Minor: Blood, Slavery, and Police brutality

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

4.5

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.

 

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Content Warnings

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

poppiesandsun4's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Gore, Animal cruelty, and Blood

Minor: Sexual violence

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

thehawksflight's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.25

A sobering read from start to finish.

For those familiar with the Handmaid's Tale, this title carries similar heft and pathos, and a similarly dystopian America. What makes this read distinct is the voice of the protagonist, Lauren. The framed narrative/diary style is a bit clunky and occasionally Lauren is very long winded, betraying brevity for over-explanation.

A product of the now-called Afrofuturism genre, this is nonetheless important reading even if you can't make it through to the end.

Though society has collapsed, poverty is rampant and extreme looting is the norm, Lauren embarks on a theological quest to re-invent herself in a new religion of her own making, and through the process of proselytising, change the world. She is a hyper-empath: able to feel the physical pain of other living beings, and has a strong desire to form communities wherever she goes, though finds great strain in her personal relationships.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Violence

Moderate: Grief, Dysphoria, and Death

Minor: Gun violence, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, and Misogyny

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

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

bailiehildebrand's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Addiction, Child death, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Trafficking, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Slavery, Police brutality, and Rape