A review by sarahbearas
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

challenging emotional hopeful 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

 What to say about this book…

I’m having a hard time articulating just how much this book has lived in my brain. It’s been almost a month since I’ve read it, and I’ve only just sat down to write my review. I usually write my reviews right away to get my thoughts to paper as quickly as possible before I forget, but I didn’t know how to feel about this. I didn’t really know what to say. Now, if you asked me to describe this book, I would say it’s the most hopeful and most devastating book, all at once. And I really, really love it. 

As a reader, dystopian/sci-fi/post-apocalyptic fiction are some of my favorite genres to read; specifically, the wave of YA dystopia in the 2010’s is what got me hooked onto reading in the first place. Parable of the Sower came highly recommended from reviewers I follow. However, this was somehow everything I expected and somehow nothing what I thought it would be at all. 

I love this book a lot. I really do. It’s not often I remember a book long after reading it, and that’s not to disparage anything I’ve read before, it’s just how it is. But when I think about Parable of the Sower, it’s because I’m looking at the world around me and realizing that this piece of fiction is not necessarily fiction at all. It’s really silly of me to say, considering that all good apocalypse and dystopia just takes what’s really happened in the world and puts it into a novel. But goddamn, seriously, sometimes I think Octavia E. Butler was an oracle or something, and we didn’t listen to her closely enough. I think part of the reason this novel feels so close to home right now is because it really is; images coming out of the world right now resemble close to the events happening in the novel, to the life that Lauren lives. And just on, like, a practical level, this novel begins in 2023/2024 and that’s just crazy to be reading in the years that Butler wrote of the downfalls of America. Sometimes I’d read a particular passage and say “Well, that’s crazy, we don’t live like that.” And then I’d sit and stare at my wall for a while and then go, “Well, actually…”. 

There are the things about the novel that I don’t completely love; the subject of Lauren’s hyper-empathy comes and goes, and doesn’t seem to have as much plot relevance as I anticipated. I felt the same about Lauren’s religion, Earthseed - relevant until it wasn’t, and then relevant again, even though that’s. There is a large cast of side characters that bring good life to the world, but there are just so many that really don’t go anywhere. A part of me feels like because this was intended to be a trilogy (hexology????) that this was the set-up for the payoff that would come in the following books. My jaw literally dropped when the book ended, I really sat there and was like “Hello!?!?! There’s got to be more???” A part of me hesitates reading the second book, just because I know this universe was left unfinished, but I really do like Butler’s writing. Very easy to read, never too simplistic or too flowery, for my tastes. Even if I don’t pick up Parable of The Talents (which I probably will, lol) I’ll definitely be reading everything she has to offer. 

I really love this book. Highly, highly recommend it. 

 
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