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

dark reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I didn't find this book quite as upsetting as the first one but it also wasn't as compelling.  There was no propulsion to the narrative and the main characters mostly just wandered around, at mercy to authorial whim.  Finding that Lauren is just as dangerously self-righteous and blind as I'd suspected in Parable of the Sower wasn't really an enjoyable experience.  I had hoped she would learn more I had hoped for more "there" there but I didn't find it. 

Asha Vere's voice got tiresome after the third repeat, it would have been more impactful to have her sections at the start and end of the book, with Marcus' lone PoV moment in the middle.  Lauren's hypocrisy and (literally) deadly emotional manipulations of others got very difficult to take after a while, especially when other characters pointed out the flaws with her reasoning and projects, and yet because she had to be "right" they were simply pushed aside.  She got people killed, enslaved, and tortured and chalked it up to "a mistake".
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