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parue 's review for:

Dawn by Octavia E. Butler
3.0

This book is... hard to describe. I wanted to love it as much as everyone else seems to. I wanted to love it as much as I loved Parable of the Sower.

And I really liked it at first. The Oankali are extremely interesting and I loved hearing about their lives, their culture, their way of living. They're so fully realized and I wish more scifi books delved deep into what their aliens are like.

It went really downhill for me though once
SpoilerLilith started to awaken more humans.
I mean... it was a really great study of human psychology. But man oh man did it stress me out so much, because I could picture those exact scenarios playing out.
SpoilerAND I JUST WANT HUMANS TO BE BETTER AND THEY AREN'T and it sucks a lot. Not to mention, I really did not care for any of the humans aside from Lilith. They had no redeeming qualities for me.
It felt like I was taken on a nice bit of an escapism journey learning about the Oankali, and then suddenly slapped with reminders of
Spoilerhow absolutely shitty people can be
.

But of course, Butler did an incredible job showing Lilith's complex emotions. There's a lot to think about here, especially regarding consent, human psychology, violence, culture, and survival.

All in all, I'm not sure how I would rate this book. I'm going to leave it unrated until I have more time to think about this.