A review by ashleysbookthoughts
Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler

challenging dark reflective 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

So, I know I’ve said it before and I know I am far from the first person to say it, but Octavia Butler’s knack for seeing where we’re headed based on the events of her time is truly uncanny. 

“I have also read that the Pox was caused by accidentally coinciding climactic, economic, and social crises. It would be more honest to say that the Pox was caused by our own refusal to deal with obvious problems in these areas. We caused the problems: then we sat and watched as they grew into crises.”

Butler’s dystopia feels particularly American. It’s not so much the government seeking more and more power and control that occurs in a lot of dystopian fiction. Rather, Butler’s dystopian America really begins with the people. She explores how inflammatory rhetoric can combine with an increasingly desperate lower class to seed chaos as the downtrodden attempt to eke out a place in a new power structure by any means necessary. 

What feels particularly real about this world she’s created is that these things totally could happen. In fact, they have in the past: slavery, re-education camps, residential schools/forced assimilation, religious persecution, and subjugation of those who don’t conform. This book feels like a novelized version of the Stanford Prison Experiment: an investigation of how even a small amount of power over another person’s autonomy can be incredibly corrupting and lead to extreme abuse. It also explores the cognitive dissonance that allows people to justify their behavior: “People blame you for the things they do to you.”

Word to the wise: this book is BRUTAL. It’s excellent, but it’s so much darker than Parable of the Sower. Content warnings are below, but I may have missed some, so make sure you’re in a healthy place if you pick this one up. 

CW: rape, murder, suicide, physical abuse, kidnapping, slavery, home invasion, child abuse, child sexual abuse, incarceration, homophobia
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