A review by saturdayreaderinpink
Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

General Thoughts

So, wow. This was my first Octavia Butler read. It was good! So good that I read five-hundred-and-thirty pages with little wear or tiredness of the story. It took me two or three hundred pages before I even noticed how long the book was.

Butler has a way with words. With most modern writing style the curt/plain writing disconnects me with the characters. But I felt both that Butler took care to share the thoughts and vivid experiences of her characters. The plainness did not wear on me as much and suited the story.

I am too tired and still digesting the story to properly comment on it. But it is so smart. It, on the part of pov switching, does a fantastic job weaving the story between two main characters. It terms of history, Butler’s Wild Seed is not squeamish. Violence and abuse

on Black bodies is not censored, and in the main Antagonist's’ case, not disapproved of. Forced birth, breeding, and rape (though it’s not called that) is normalized and done to woman and men of all races in this book. It’s not considered moral by the narrative, but in the service of telling the story like the characters would tell it, it is not named as such or fully condemned.

But I never felt like this was an accident. When Butler describes brutality, it is always with intent and  purpose.

The dynamic between the two immortals is more imbalanced (

(Doro is Anyanwu’s abuser)

) than I expected coming in. The story between them is told sometimes in inches and sometimes in broad strokes. In that sense, it’s like someone would expect between two immortals. They both develop a lot. I think their ending felt cut off— but publishers have word limits, and this is part of a series.

I would recommend this book if you like explorations of amorality, immortals, animal traits ascribed to humans through metaphor or otherwise, or a book that pushes the envelope on what is acceptable to write.

Favorite Quotes

She followed him almost grimly, wondering what it would be like finally to be married to a man she could neither escape nor outlive. The prospect made her cautious and gentle. Her earlier husbands would not have known her. She sought to make him value her and care for her. Thus she might have some leverage with him, some control over him later when she needed it. Much married as she was, she knew she would eventually need it

“Could you have done it? Your son?” “Anyone,” he said.

These quotes are incomplete because my Libby loan on Wild Seed expired! Sorry!