Reviews with content warning for Religious bigotry - La Parabole du semeur

I can’t believe it took me this long to read a book by Butler.

The writing is engaging, the story devastating, and the whole concept deeply thought provoking.

So much of this story is terrifying and stomach churning and yet ….

Depressingly unsurprising.

Maybe that’s cynical but, or maybe it’s just a shame.

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katiebartmess's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

This book did what it was supposed to do: which was be deeply unsettling. First half of the book was a little hard to push through because it was pretty slow. Definitely picked up half way through but in a very dark nature. The writing was pretty incredible, the story just lacked a little bit in my opinion. Important to remember that this was written thirty years ago, it easily felt like it was written within the last five years just because of how spot on some of these predictions were. One of my biggest hesitations about this book is Lauren’s relationship with her father

and how strongly she reveres him as a good man. He is deeply flawed and even abusive. Admittedly as a victim of that it would make sense for Lauren not to see his faults. However the reader gets a high level understanding from their own observations and from character’s perspective about both obvious and nuanced problems in this dystopian world. Commentary is made on religious abuse of power, murder, racism, sexism, rape, greed etc through the entire book, practically on every page. But Lauren (who I believe we are supposed to think of as extremely mature for her age (also debatable)) never once confronts her father’s participation in the continuation of the world and culture that she so strongly resents.

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lectrixnoctis's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective 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? Yes

3.0

Octavia E. Butler was the renowned author of the novel numerous groundbreaking novels like "Kindred", "Wild Seed" or "Parable of the Sower". She has won many awards for her works and is a pioneer of her genre exploring black injustice, women's rights, global warming and political disparity.

When international climate instability and economic emergencies guide social chaos in the early 2020s, California evolves full of threats, from pervasive water poverty to the abundance of nomads who will do anything to stay alive.
Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina lives inside a gated neighbourhood with her priest father, family, and neighbours, harboured from the surrounding lawlessness. In a civilisation where exposure is a risk, she suffers from hyper empathy, a debilitating sensitivity to others' pain.
Developed and clear-eyed, Lauren must make her voice heard to save her loved ones from the coming disasters her tiny neighbourhood stubbornly disregards. But what starts as a fight for survival soon directs to something largely more: the birth of a renewed faith and a startling vision of human destiny.

The main themes of this book are dystopian. It talks about a not so bright future or even an awful lot where people fight for their lives. It is expected that people are getting killed just like that, and whole cities are destroyed due to climate change. It may seem horrific and terrible. Still, I think that the author made a strong point with it. We live in a global pandemic, and seeing all these things that could happen is pretty relatable to our current times. This novel is more for younger readers; however, I recommend it for anyone.

The author has an exciting writing style while following the main character throughout the story via journal entries. We see all the horror of the future, set in the early 2020s. I do not doubt that this book is an absolute classic, and it is a dystopian masterpiece; however, I am not that fond of dystopian works, and it is prolonged and a bit confusing at first. This book shows you that the journey is the end goal that took me a lot of time to get into it. While reading it, I felt disheartened because I couldn't connect with the characters at the first end. After all, the horrific topics this book talks about made it even harder. Yet, this book is probably worth reading, especially nowadays due to climate change and the black lives matter movement. I will read the second part of the book, and I hope it will be easier for me to follow along for the sequel after I get into this book.

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rynstagram's review against another edition

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3.75

I can't believe it took me this long to pick up an Octavia Butler book. I've been missing out!

The social/environmental/political/etc. issues dealt with in this book hit super close to home, especially since it takes place in the late 2020s... This is like the opposite of what happens when you watch Back to the Future now--it's funny to see what we've done and what's different and what we're still trying to do. But Parable of the Sower is almost like a worst-case scenario situation.

Sometimes the pacing was a little weird, especially when they got on the road. And the Earthseed stuff, while I understand its intrinsic value to Lauren's character and the plot, was sometimes too much for me. I kind of feel like Harry--it's interesting to learn about the belief system and some of it I can see being true, but it's also not quite right. I'm interested to see how the Earthseed community grows in the next book.

Kind of like reading The Poppy War, this is an emotionally difficult book to get through. There's a sense of urgency that runs through both books, except by the end of Parable of the Sower, the urgency seems to have slowly dwindled even though the actual characters must still feel that urgency. This is probably due to the pacing.

The diary entry format lent itself really well to this story, especially because it affects the story instead of just being a medium for the story. That was really clever.

(Also, though I really love how diverse the characters are ethnically, racially, religiously, etc., there's a dearth of queer characters so far. I think they mention gay people only once or twice, and even then only in passing. It's hard for me to believe that no one they've come across or seen of the thousands of strangers would be queer. And Lauren is perceptive enough to notice things like that--how people act when they're a couple, etc.)

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mscalls's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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? No

3.0

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