Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler

19 reviews

badbadwolf's review against another edition

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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual assault, Gore, Hate crime, Incest, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Miscarriage, Rape, Slavery, Abandonment, Classism, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Racism, Child abuse, Child death, Drug use, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Religious bigotry, Blood, Infidelity, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Vomit, Confinement, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, and Trafficking

bisexualwentworth's review against another edition

• 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? Yes

5.0

Oooooooh I liked this one even more than Parable of the Sower. I loved the non-linear narrative and the multiple contrasting points of view. I loved how Lauren Olamina's daughter's experiences and viewpoints complicated the narrative from Olamina's journals. 

This book is just as dark as the first one. Many horrifying things happen. It is a true dystopian exploration of a possible future from an author who keenly understood the many horrors at play in the United States. Some of it is so on the nose that it was hard to read. Some, especially the technology stuff, felt unlikely at times, but much more grounded than in almost any other near-future dystopian or sci-fi books I've read. Octavia E. Butler was just that good.

Also, this book has multiple central queer characters, which I never see mentioned when people are discussing it. Don't expect happy queer stories--Butler is as realistic about violent homophobia as she is about all other aspects of this world--but it is very present in ways that felt good and right as well as being harrowing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Misogyny, Suicide, War, Blood, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Religious bigotry, Torture, Sexual violence, Hate crime, Police brutality, Rape, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Slavery, Gun violence, Lesbophobia, Sexual assault, Violence, Death, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Racism, Death of parent, Gore, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Homophobia, Pregnancy, and Classism

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Vomit, Medical content, and Drug abuse

Minor: Incest

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

cadence99's review against another edition

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

4.25

To hear the phrase “make America great again” flowing from the pages of a book published in 1998 is haunting to say the least. I greatly appreciated the exploration of Christian extremism in relation to Laurens Earthseed, but as with the last book, I really wish there was more explanation for what appears to me as an incredibly  flawed and power imbalanced relationship between Bankole and Lauren

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Grief, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Child death, Torture, Gore, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Violence, War, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Suicide

eve81's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Death, Medical content, Sexual assault, Blood, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Genocide, Grief, Racism, Rape, Torture, Infertility, Mental illness, Slavery, Violence, War, Child death, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Classism, Islamophobia, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, and Xenophobia

rosemarykiessling's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Gore, Kidnapping, Rape, War, Violence, Trafficking, Torture, Suicide, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Religious bigotry, Racism, Pedophilia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Mass/school shootings, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Death

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

While I enjoyed Parable of the Sower more, I still found this dystopian novel to be reflective in many ways of our present day society. This book is difficult to read. It is interesting and important. It is a tale of selfishness and selflessness, love and hate, truth and lies. It is mortifying to imagine life like this, but also just barely outside the scope of what could happen, which makes it some of the best dystopian literature that exists. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Violence, Sexism, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Murder, Child abuse, Colonisation, Confinement, Genocide, Car accident, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Xenophobia, Torture, Rape, Hate crime, War, Transphobia, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, Forced institutionalization, Suicide, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Outing, Misogyny, Medical trauma, and Animal death

sup3r_xn0va_maya's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

4.0

TW: Sexual assault, slavery, theocracy 

edit// August 6th, 2023

Wow, this book was just as hard to get through as it was when I first read it in 2022. I really can't stand

Marc or Larken, I hate them both

. This was such a good book though, I think it was a bit long but it was still really good. I'm going to NOT adjust my rating this time around, I'm going to keep my rating at 4 stars. 

4 stars out of 5
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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This book was hard to get through but it was fantastic, I had so many emotions all through out reading this! Fear, anxiety, sadness, and hopefulness all coursed through me while I devoured this dystopian sci fi by Octavia E. Butler. I think the hardest parts for me were the sexual assault and the slavery. I gave this 4 stars because I'm torn on whether there needed to be so much sexual assault with such vivid imagery in the novel. As a sexual assault survivor I definitely got triggered more than once while reading this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexual assault, Confinement, Death of parent, Cannibalism, Pedophilia, Incest, Addiction, Body horror, Death, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Blood, Kidnapping, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Pregnancy, Rape, Trafficking, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence

chaoticnostalgia's review

dark sad 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Violence, Murder, Misogyny, Lesbophobia, Torture, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Grief, Gore, Child abuse, Blood, Slavery, Death, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Sexism, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Racism, and Gun violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Pregnancy, and Cursing

stevia333k's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

So I'm white, and I read this series because anti racist black tiktokers recommended this book series over the handmaid's tale. I took them up on their recommendations because I often cited THG for about a decade for similar purposes & yeah this series has a lot of overlap. So hence I read this 2nd book. I'm thankful for this series because for a while I was thinking of using religion preaching with uncommon canons as praxis, and this series has discouraged me from that in addition to hearing about the Jim Jones people's church, etc.

I came into this book wondering how to deal with a civil war situation & I came out wanting to get a good cry in about the social constructs of family. (Looking back I actually had a similar reaction with THG #1)  I came to this book to cry, yet that topic shift startled me.  While the plot does rely on certain technologies that don't exactly map onto our world it still has helpful info & strategies. For example the laying low & collecting info etc was inspiring & helpful in affirming lessons I had gotten.

I've also learned the teacher praxis was emphasized again. While I often hear this in reference to the GPCR & MLM (including Peru) it seems that Maoism's arena can be more generally described as "civil warfare" & political terror against people's war.

As a white disabled queer muslima feminist, this shit hits hard, especially considering that the 10 generations of enslaved people who were mentioned had muslims when they were kidnapped. Like holy shit this book touched on a mood. I read about half this book on a Friday, but it took nearly 2 weeks to read the first half. I've been busy but still.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Vomit, War, Xenophobia, Abandonment, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Deportation, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Lesbophobia, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Murder, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Racism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Trafficking

Moderate: Antisemitism, Homophobia, Islamophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, and Alcoholism