Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler

58 reviews

runefactories's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Physical abuse, Police brutality, Suicide, Trafficking, Incest, and Kidnapping

Minor: War

franklola's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Torture, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Outing, Abandonment, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Gaslighting, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Trafficking, Violence, Child abuse, Homophobia, Death, Forced institutionalization, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Rape, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, and Slavery

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Pregnancy, Body horror, Death of parent, Pedophilia, and Sexual content

Minor: Alcohol, Islamophobia, Antisemitism, Vomit, War, Deadnaming, Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, and Xenophobia

crondeau_yvr's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? N/A

4.5

This book was incredibly challenging to read. One can’t help look at the state of the world currently and see how we could be heading this way. Hopefully not… although there’s hope at the end, there’s so much terrible human behaviour. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, War, Racism, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Slavery, and Confinement

therewillbenewsuns's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring 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

4.25

This book took me a lot of time to get through, even more so than the first book of this duo. Octavia E. Butler was really a seer; although this is science fiction, she was writing about the 2020s and there are many parallels to how we are living/being governed today. I think it was very interesting to have the perspective of Lauren's daughter, someone who, as we discover on the second page (which is why i'm not saying it's a spoiler) very much disagrees with her biological mother's Earthseed teachings. Okay now i'm going to talk more in detail so, spoilers:

I want to read any interviews Ms. Butler did on this series, specifically on Lauren's character. I believe she was attracted to Bankole because he filled the void her father left when he disappeared/died, but the acceptance of the age difference made me so uncomfortable. I don't think Lauren/Olamina is meant to be a character who is "liked," but rather a character who is someone you might sit with over a meal to hear her perspective, which is what some people in the book actually do. I think the desire to go to space and have communities take root there also feels very akin to the 1% goals in present-day, and I questioned why she didn't want to use Earthseed as a way to improve the land she was currently on. It seemed like some societal changes were made once Christian America/Jarret semi-collapsed, but she didn't use her new power (which is exactly what she had: power) to enact change outside of the space mission. God is Change, right? I can see why Asha/Larkin had a distrust for her biological mother, and I also feel very sad for them both. Whether or not she realizes, Asha was indoctrinated and all that time had an impact on the way she viewed Olamina. Plus Marc's self-hatred/internalized homophobia and how it existed in opposition to his religion, the same one that enslaved his own sister, absolutely influenced his desire to make a family by keeping his niece away from her mother. No amount of sympathy for his situation will make me understand why, if he knew about Asha, he kept that away from Olamina.

It's a very disturbing, prophetic(?), insightful study of religion, power, community building, and the decay/rebuilding of society. Did I enjoy it? No, but it's a very good book. I don't think it's meant to be enjoyed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Suicide, Murder, Trafficking, Slavery, Sexual assault, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Rape, Misogyny, Blood, Classism, Homophobia, Death, and Kidnapping

allison_turner_1999's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Torture, Misogyny, and Slavery

Moderate: Rape, Trafficking, and Suicide

gabivitale's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Slavery, Rape, Physical abuse, Torture, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, and Murder

Moderate: War

plainpaige's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I think I liked this book more than its predecessor, despite the often disturbing, challenging storyline. Butler again made predictions that seem to be coming true to some degree. I enjoyed this book's foray into the politics of a crumbling society, though I suspect it may be difficult for some people who endorse Christianity to swallow. I love a good cautionary tale, though, and if you can struggle through the hard concepts, you will be rewarded with a beautiful story of the human experience. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual harassment, Torture, Medical content, Abandonment, Child abuse, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual violence, Body horror, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Confinement, Medical trauma, Murder, Suicide, Gun violence, Pregnancy, War, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Pedophilia, and Self harm

Minor: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Addiction, Excrement, Infidelity, Infertility, Cursing, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Alcohol, Car accident, Drug abuse, and Colonisation

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

eamador's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Hate crime, Incest, Classism, Murder, Child abuse, Child death, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Misogyny, and Pedophilia

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