A review by violentdelights
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

5.0

For such a difficult read, I read this book whenever I had even a spare moment, which should tell you how good it was. It’s hard to articulate how I felt about this book; all I can say is that Octavia Butler is clearly a genius, and I’m not the first person to say that. I’m not normally a fan of science fiction, but this book captured my attention right away. It made life on a plantation come alive, brought to life the various characters in the novel and the roles they took on, and explained their complex motivations for staying. This book made me understand things I didn’t even know were gaps in my knowledge. There were times where I felt like this book was even too smart for me, symbolism I was missing out on. I felt like I could read this book a hundred times and pull something new from it every time if I was smart enough. That’s how layered this book felt. A brilliant work by an original great - will definitely be picking up more of her work.