Reviews tagging 'Death'

Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler

140 reviews

lugysuperfly's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad 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

In this second book, we find Lauren and the Acorn community a few years later after being settled in Bankole's lands. They have learned to protect themselves and developed their community with Lauren's teachings of Earthseed. They educate their own, farm the lands, connect with the other communities and expand as they go. However, life outside of their community is chaos under Jarrett's rule led by the iron fist of Christian extremism in which the persecution of other's belief system is threatened in the worst ways. Technology has advanced but mostly accessible to the powerful and the government who uses it to control the masses. At times, the journey is hard and grueling for some of the people from Acorn. The story is mostly told from Lauren's words but shared with us by her adult daughter. We get some gems from Bankole and her brother the minister. As the conclusion for the Earthseed series, this was beautifully done. Octavia E. Butler gave us a prophetic view of our present day but we know that history repeats itself and she was  giving us additional tools to change the next time it happened. Her words marked me and it makes me sad that we do not get to read the 3rd installment of this series as she had planned. The writing is powerful to give the images of this world yet simple with the purpose bringing us back to the basics of humanity. The bare bones of this book is highlighting importance of human connection and the power we have to influence one another for the good of all. Always striving to do the best we can with the tools we have to survive. Anyway, I feel like this is the most basic way to explain this book for me. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Happy reading!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Torture, and Slavery

Moderate: Death, Slavery, and Torture

tafeeeeee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

It was interesting being in Olamina's head. I didn't agree with most of what she said and believed. I liked hearing her daughter's POV and being able to see Olamina through someone else's eyes. I don't know if I like Olamina as a character. On one hand she grew up in a horribly dangerous place and had to go through so much hardship and fear. On the other hand she was a charismatic woman capable of seducing people to follow her teachings. Whether you think Earth Seed is a cult or not, her methods were very cult-like. I'm left feeling unsatisfied by the ending, but dystopias usually don't end with rainbows and sunshine for all.

I didn't like the new narrator for Olamina. She stressed every other word so her sentences were constantly flowing up and down. It was distracting and made it hard to focus sometimes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Slavery, Death, Violence, Blood, Gore, Physical abuse, Confinement, Rape, and Trafficking

bass_clarinet's review

challenging dark hopeful informative inspiring sad fast-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

Beautiful and spiritual. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Genocide, Kidnapping, Death, Police brutality, Violence, Torture, Slavery, and Trafficking

Moderate: Misogyny, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Sexism, Gun violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Cursing, War, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Abandonment, Classism, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Confinement, Pregnancy, Death, and Sexual violence

woweewhoa's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Rape, Violence, Gun violence, and Death

Moderate: Suicide and Religious bigotry

Minor: War

phantomgecko's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Reading this in 2024 made me crazy. Octavia E Butler obviously understood human nature and the way our particular society is because the dystopian future in this book uncannily foreshadows today.

Aside from that. I agree with every character that said Earthseed is nothing. Aphorisms, platitudes, and some nonsense. Lauren says "it's truth" as if that's obvious. But it is not.

I digress. The format of Asha/Larkin reviewing/compiling Lauren's history was a good idea. Her commentary was a nice backdrop for the plot.

Everything about Marc infuriated me. It was realistic. But so aggravating.

Again, Butler really really understood people.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Murder, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Slavery, and Torture

madihoney's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Trafficking, Xenophobia, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Slavery, War, Classism, Violence, Rape, Pregnancy, Police brutality, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Death, Murder, Misogyny, Grief, Sexism, and Torture

brieparis's review against another edition

This book is very well-written, and though the author handles it skillfully, the subject matter is difficult and triggering. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Death, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault and Rape

saintswitchblade's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Rape, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, Sexual assault, Classism, Religious bigotry, War, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Child abuse, Murder, Forced institutionalization, Torture, Gun violence, Hate crime, and Slavery

eelitorr's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring sad tense fast-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

5.0

Chilled to the bone. An excellent book if you can make it through the tough content material. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Slavery, and Emotional abuse

victoria29's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

It’s a great story but a tough read.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Murder, Misogyny, Torture, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Racism, Pregnancy, Homophobia, Child abuse, Rape, Death, Classism, Violence, Slavery, Addiction, and Drug abuse