jenna0818 's review for:

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

3.0

adventurous dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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I wanted to like this book more than I did, but I found it very dull and matter of fact, with less reflections and commentary than I had hoped. It was just reporting one terrible event after another, an apocalypse world unraveling while the protagonist barely emotes and starts a new faith that doesn’t quite make sense.  This book was likely prescient in 1993, it was certainly shocking to start reading about the 2024 election when I started the novel blindly at that exact day, but in 2024 it feels lacking in its inner world building and character development that would make the chaos of the events feel more meaningful, real, and scary. It feels like a chore to think of reading the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Grief, Abandonment

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Police brutality, Cannibalism, Medical trauma