Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

229 reviews

maggiegirouard's review against another edition

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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

4.75


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lindseygcarden's review

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4.0


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bubblybelle's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

wow. this is such a harrowing story that bears terrifying resemblance to modern day America. Octavia Butler’s words and infinitely quotable and leave me feeling simultaneously heartbroken and hopeful. 

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bootsmom3's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

5.0


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teej7's review against another edition

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

3.75

 This will be my 3rd Octavia Butler novel. I was really looking forward to this one, and it felt spooky reading this in 2024 when that is the year this 1993 novel takes place (at least to start.) 

I saw a lot of people had problems with the format of the dates, and the skipping days and sometimes weeks. This didn’t really affect my reading experience. I actually somewhat liked it, there’s a lot of periods throughout the book where they’re just traveling for days with nothing that significant occurring, so it makes sense. 

Overall, I thought it was a smart concept. The events that take place that lead us to where the novel starts, this post-apocalyptic but still capitalist society seems very realistic, something that could very well happen in our lifetime. Until you start asking too many questions. Like how are property taxes a thing but people are setting fires everywhere and squatting wherever they can find? 

For a while, I thought this book felt very juvenile. In a YA type way - and I couldn’t figure out if I just thought that because our MC is 15 at the start. I think the problem is just what N.K. Jemison speaks of in her forward, Lauren feels too much like what a middle aged woman THINKS a 15 year old is like. I get that she’s very mature for her age, but it felt a little trite during some parts. Specifically Earthseed which I felt lacked depth --  a lot of it was just too surface level for me to consider it believable for these fully grown adults to be following her blindly into the seed. 

And then we can’t forget the elephant in the room.
The age gap relationship. What is going awnnn. Why is this the second wide age-gap present in one of her books that makes me feel icky? Lauren is repeatedly comparing him to her father, understandably so,  the man is the same age her father was when he disappeared. Is Butler trying to tell us Lauren is looking for her father in other men? Or is this a genuine connection? I’m unsure. All I know is I’m 2 books into the year and this is the second book I’ve read that has a icky relationship with someone old enough to be their father. Again - what is going on.


 Regardless, the relationship with Lauren and her father touched me, and was one of my favorite things about this book, reminiscent of my own relationship with my father.

I wish we learned more about Lauren’s abilities and the drug her mom took that left her with these abilities. Hopefully that’s expanded in the sequel? 

Speaking of the sequel - I feel like the ending to this book does feel like it’s missing a chapter. I have a feeling this is another case of the author sacrificing the ending for sake of blending the story into the sequel. 

You might finish reading this and think I hated this book. My opinion is far from that. I really enjoyed this book as I do with most of Butler’s books. Despite the icky age gap relationship.

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maxicosi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25


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ashleybakerwrites's review

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This is everything The Road by Cormac McCarthy wished it could have been. I'd say this is going to go down as one of those books that never really stops being talked about. It's my first Octavia Butler, but I immediately can tell why people are drawn to her writing style at the least. Loved the big concepts for a young girl- and although she was mature for her age- there were always things that kept it believable. It's definitely not a light read- read the TWs, nothing really happens "on-screen" it's talked about from a journaled perspective of what is going on. While the stuff about Earthseed may grate against some people's sensibilities, if you read this understanding it's not supposed to convert you to anything, you'll get around it. My favorite scenes were those that actually happened on the road. The village bits are so necessary for context, and Octavia really gets you into 'normal' before you are forced from safety. I loved almost everything about this book. I'd recommend the audio book- but I think you might experience this a bit more intensely by reading it more slowly. There is a way older, barely legal romance that develops at the end of the book- but in the time period/frame of reference it's respectful. Maybe could have done without that, but I think Octavia was trying to FOIL and be realistic with that one. So I wouldn't avoid the book because of that. 

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sarahbearas's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful 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

4.0

 What to say about this book…

I’m having a hard time articulating just how much this book has lived in my brain. It’s been almost a month since I’ve read it, and I’ve only just sat down to write my review. I usually write my reviews right away to get my thoughts to paper as quickly as possible before I forget, but I didn’t know how to feel about this. I didn’t really know what to say. Now, if you asked me to describe this book, I would say it’s the most hopeful and most devastating book, all at once. And I really, really love it. 

As a reader, dystopian/sci-fi/post-apocalyptic fiction are some of my favorite genres to read; specifically, the wave of YA dystopia in the 2010’s is what got me hooked onto reading in the first place. Parable of the Sower came highly recommended from reviewers I follow. However, this was somehow everything I expected and somehow nothing what I thought it would be at all. 

I love this book a lot. I really do. It’s not often I remember a book long after reading it, and that’s not to disparage anything I’ve read before, it’s just how it is. But when I think about Parable of the Sower, it’s because I’m looking at the world around me and realizing that this piece of fiction is not necessarily fiction at all. It’s really silly of me to say, considering that all good apocalypse and dystopia just takes what’s really happened in the world and puts it into a novel. But goddamn, seriously, sometimes I think Octavia E. Butler was an oracle or something, and we didn’t listen to her closely enough. I think part of the reason this novel feels so close to home right now is because it really is; images coming out of the world right now resemble close to the events happening in the novel, to the life that Lauren lives. And just on, like, a practical level, this novel begins in 2023/2024 and that’s just crazy to be reading in the years that Butler wrote of the downfalls of America. Sometimes I’d read a particular passage and say “Well, that’s crazy, we don’t live like that.” And then I’d sit and stare at my wall for a while and then go, “Well, actually…”. 

There are the things about the novel that I don’t completely love; the subject of Lauren’s hyper-empathy comes and goes, and doesn’t seem to have as much plot relevance as I anticipated. I felt the same about Lauren’s religion, Earthseed - relevant until it wasn’t, and then relevant again, even though that’s. There is a large cast of side characters that bring good life to the world, but there are just so many that really don’t go anywhere. A part of me feels like because this was intended to be a trilogy (hexology????) that this was the set-up for the payoff that would come in the following books. My jaw literally dropped when the book ended, I really sat there and was like “Hello!?!?! There’s got to be more???” A part of me hesitates reading the second book, just because I know this universe was left unfinished, but I really do like Butler’s writing. Very easy to read, never too simplistic or too flowery, for my tastes. Even if I don’t pick up Parable of The Talents (which I probably will, lol) I’ll definitely be reading everything she has to offer. 

I really love this book. Highly, highly recommend it. 

 

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annakagrace's review against another edition

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Too heavy for me right now, but I do want to revisit it. 

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seph268's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative sad tense fast-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

Octavia Butler wrote a manual for survival our unprecedented times and we’ve all been overlooking it. Would absolutely recommend, cannot wait to reread.

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