Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler

9 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

thomasdj's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Slavery, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Sexual assault, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Rape, Murder, and Abandonment

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

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

dreamnotoftoday's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Slavery, Torture, Death, and Child abuse

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Suicide, and Child death

nmellace08's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Trafficking, and Slavery

Moderate: Kidnapping, Gun violence, Death, Colonisation, Classism, Physical abuse, Rape, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Addiction, Blood, Child abuse, and Grief

haileybones's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Murder, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, Violence, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Vomit

Minor: Abandonment, Death of parent, Medical content, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, War, and Xenophobia

chilicrispy's review against another edition

dark emotional informative sad tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Violence, Trafficking, Torture, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Racism, Racial slurs, Police brutality, War, Xenophobia, Vomit, Slavery, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Murder, Misogyny, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Death, Death of parent, Hate crime, and Kidnapping

astridrv's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

I almost gave up halfway through because of how horrific and depressing it got - much more so than the first book, which is really saying something. But I loved the complexity of that too, where I am used to saga's going "upwards", Butler made the brave choice of having someone who's arc is to build see everything destroyed and go through worse than ever before. I'm not sold on the second perspective we get in the book, and I would have loved the last chapters to last way longer (there is a slight pacing problem between micro and macro story there) but otherwise this is definitely the most remarkable work of fiction I read this year. I will never forget Earthseed, and the claustrophobic,terrifying, hopeful, strong, heart wrenching, generous, crushing journey it was to share this story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Sexual violence, Violence, Torture, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Murder, and Homophobia

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Grief, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Abandonment, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Racism, and Misogyny