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A review by rlgreen91
Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
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
5.0
I thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish. Granted, like most books by Octavia E. Butler, reading this would leave me with a slight feeling of existential dread, but I enjoyed every minute of it, oddly enough.
It's hard to review this book - it feels like the only way to truly do it justice would be a review that's more of an early draft of an academic research paper. Butler's novels tend to be like that, in my experience, but this is the book that seems to exemplify this phenomenon the most.
If I had to pick one aspect of the book to reflect on, it would be the many mistakes that Lauren made due to her youth. You start to see this a bit in Parable of the Sower, but the fact that Lauren's most formative experiences as a child and young adult occurred during such a chaotic time has an impact on the decisions she makes as things gets "better." On the one hand, she does display a maturity beyond what you might expect from a woman her age, simply because of how harsh her world was, and how it forced all children to grow up quickly if they wanted to survive. At the same time, we see that as the world slides back from the extremely harsh conditions to a more "normal" mode of society, Lauren is often ignorant of how people, organizations, and institutions will react and how social and cultural norms will change in response. So throughout the novel, we see Lauren make mistakes because she's unaware of how people and society will operate during "normal" times, beyond the mistakes you typically see young adults make as they start to make their way in the world. In some ways, Lauren is able to recover from those mistakes, but regardless, they do have far-reaching, unpredictable consequences in some cases. As readers, this should prompt us to question our common view of how leaders being "forged in the fire" during a crisis is always seen as a positive view of their work.
Again, there is a lot of thought-provoking content in this novel. A review can't do it justice - honestly, multiple dissertations probably couldn't do it justice. What a wonderful gift Butler has left us with. 5 stars.
It's hard to review this book - it feels like the only way to truly do it justice would be a review that's more of an early draft of an academic research paper. Butler's novels tend to be like that, in my experience, but this is the book that seems to exemplify this phenomenon the most.
If I had to pick one aspect of the book to reflect on, it would be the many mistakes that Lauren made due to her youth. You start to see this a bit in Parable of the Sower, but the fact that Lauren's most formative experiences as a child and young adult occurred during such a chaotic time has an impact on the decisions she makes as things gets "better." On the one hand, she does display a maturity beyond what you might expect from a woman her age, simply because of how harsh her world was, and how it forced all children to grow up quickly if they wanted to survive. At the same time, we see that as the world slides back from the extremely harsh conditions to a more "normal" mode of society, Lauren is often ignorant of how people, organizations, and institutions will react and how social and cultural norms will change in response. So throughout the novel, we see Lauren make mistakes because she's unaware of how people and society will operate during "normal" times, beyond the mistakes you typically see young adults make as they start to make their way in the world. In some ways, Lauren is able to recover from those mistakes, but regardless, they do have far-reaching, unpredictable consequences in some cases. As readers, this should prompt us to question our common view of how leaders being "forged in the fire" during a crisis is always seen as a positive view of their work.
Again, there is a lot of thought-provoking content in this novel. A review can't do it justice - honestly, multiple dissertations probably couldn't do it justice. What a wonderful gift Butler has left us with. 5 stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Rape, Religious bigotry, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Homophobia, Pregnancy, and Slavery