Reviews with content warning for Police brutality - La Parabole du semeur

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Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

La Parabole du semeur by Octavia E. Butler

200 reviews

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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apple_atcha_reading's review against another edition

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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? It's complicated

5.0

I am a buffoon for waiting this long to read any of Ms. Butler's works. I finished this in February and immediately wanted to select it as my top read of 2024. Although this was written in 1993 taking place in 2024, it felt like Butler could have written this today based on current events.

This is a deeply unsettling and uncomfortable novel to read, but I still enjoyed it. It took me a few weeks to read on audio because I took breaks due to heavy content, but this is a novel I can see myself re-reading every few years or so. There's a graphic novel version I'm interested in reading for comparison as well.

The main character, Lauren, was on unlikeable, but in a relatable sort of way that made sense given her circumstances. She was making uncomfortable decisions that no one else in her community was willing to make, although she should never have been in such a position. Lauren, her family, her community, and frankly the world, are living in an extreme climate crisis where water is treated as a luxury commodity instead of a life giving necessity, and the police and emergency services are (expensive) for hire workers instead of working in the best interest of a community. (wow, this isn't familiar at all /s) These are just some of the extreme measures being taken against the regular people in this universe. Because of the extreme state of the world, there are "company towns" being constructed eerily similar to the mining towns of 1800s Appalachia or even slavery within the United States empire. Money is rarely given for payment, prices are intentionally inflated requiring workers to go into debt, therefore ensuring the workers are unable to leave because they owe the company labor (even though they were unfairly compensated and grossly overcharged for goods and services).

It was so frustrating to me that the adults in Lauren's life refused to acknowledge the truth surrounding them. Her father was the only one to admit that things were "bad", but no one else was willing to accept they lived in a dying town in danger of being

brutally attacked and killed.

Yes, Lauren was technically a teenager who shouldn't of had to worry about

climate crisis and murder and death

and a dozen other things, but she was at least willing to accept her reality and make efforts to improve her circumstances, which should have been her parents' responsibilities.

Lauren's relationship with Bankole was essentially my big issue with this novel. I'm not a fan of any age gap relationship, but especially not one where the older partner

could be the younger partner's grandparent

. It gives me the ick, but I was warned in advance by @katsmedialibrary that Butler's novels do tend to feature relationships of this nature.

Overall, this was an amazing work of literature. I know understand why Octavia E. Butler is such a well respected author and so many people say her work was so influential to modern science fiction writing today.

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dragon_s_hoard's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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reads2cope's review against another edition

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5.0

“Do you think our world is coming to an end?” Dad asked, and with no warning at all, I almost started crying. I had all I could do to hold it back. What I thought was, “No, I think your world is coming to an end, and maybe you with it.” That was terrible. I hadn’t thought about it in such a personal way before. I turned and looked out a window until I felt calmer. When I faced him again, I said. “Yes. Don’t you?”

I can't believe it took me this long to read Parable of the Sower, but any time since it's publication has been the perfect time to read. On Instagram, @bookishcrimson pointed out how Zarah recommended sucking on a plum or apricot pits to stave off thirst while Palestinian mothers are giving their babies dates to suck on because of the lack of milk and all other foods in the genocide on Gaza.
Every time the political race came up in the book, it felt so much like the USA race today. Describing one of the candidates as "a symbol of the past for us to hold on to as we’re pushed into the future. He’s nothing. No substance. But having him there, the latest in a two-and-a-half-century-long line of American Presidents make people feel that the country, the culture that they grew up with is still here — that we’ll get through these bad times and back to normal.” That exactly explains the current candidates to me.
The disease and environmental collapse is so obviously on-point that it hardly feels worth mentioning. COVID-19 has been on constant high waves, disabling and killing people in horrifying numbers? Ignore it. Every season is warmer than ever and every marker for irreversible damage is being met? "'These things frighten people. It’s best not to talk about them.” “ But, Dad, that’s like… like ignoring a fire in the living room because we’re all in the kitchen, and, besides, house fires are too scary to talk about.'"

The only thing I didn't like about this book was Earthseed. While I understand Laura wanting to have a clear mantra to help her through societal collapse, the "belief" in Earthseed seemed less religious to everyone around her and more a unifying idea. By which I mean, her friends and fellow travelers were happy to hear about it and agreed with some basic points, but no one gave up worshiping a different God or fully believed in the space travel promise of Earthseed. I was annoyed that Lauren wanted to make a religious cult rather than a commune, but as her main focus was survival, it didn't take up too much of the book.

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sidekicksam's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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

Civilization is to groups what intelligence is to individuals. It is a means of combining the intelligence of many to achieve ongoing group adaptation.
Civilization, like intelligence, may serve well, serve adequately or fail to serve its adaptive function. When civilization fails to serve, it must disintegrate unless it is acted upon by unifying internal or external forces.

Parable of the Sower follows the story of Lauren Olamina, coming of age in the 2020s. The world has ignored climate change for years and now it's become a world of violence, water is scarce and there are always people lurking in the dark. There are few options: work in a company-owned town and risk becoming a debt-slave, or find your luck on the road, and risk losing everything to the pyro addicts, scavengers or cannibal kids.

This was terrifying to read. Did she know??? Of course, we've been murdering our planet for the last few decades so one only has to use logical, rational thinking to predict where we're going as a species, but this being set just after the pandemic is starting to slip from everyone's conscious mind again - incredible.

Butler's take on religion, society/humanity, capitalism, the police and government, and climate change, make for a grim but poignant novel that keeps you hooked. The world-building is very well done, and despite my desire to have a bit more (extensive) background about the state of the world and how it came to be, it was easy to get into and understand the choices of the characters in the world.

Parable of the Sower is exactly the thought-provoking, socially critical dystopian novel you hope it will be, and my only regret in reading this is that I now have to get my hands on Parable of the Talents to find out what happens next!!!

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gustgustgust's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.25

This book shocked me. It was written in the '90s and yet it felt prophetic. If it was written in this year, people would say it was too on-the-nose.

The story is beautiful. the main character, Lauren Olamina, is such a beautiful, complicated character. The relationships are complicated and dense and tentative. The real shining moment is just the world Bulter weaved. It felt not only like it happened, but that I was watching it happen in front of me. It's not for me to adapt, but it is definitely something that would make an incredible series if given full opportunity to be as dark, grim, and haunting as it needs to be.

The only thing that knocked it down for me was there was a lot of violence, and I understand that the world needed it so it's just a personal taste thing. I don't think anything was don't to scandalize or be outrageous, it was true to the world, I just got pulled out going "oh no, this is too much, too real"

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