A review by areadingstan
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

5.0

I found this book unlike any other I've read before. It was both a contemporary slavery narrative and a time travel tale, both science fiction and realism. Butler tears down the boundaries not only between genres but between time periods in Kindred, within which the protagonist Dana is pulled from her own time (1976) back into the 19th century, where she is assumed to be a slave in the antebellum South. 

It was really interesting and also heartbreaking to observe Dana's discovery of the time period she is stuck in, and the realisation that she cannot behave in ways she usually would, in ways she has taken for granted in her own time period, because of her race.
The fact that her husband, who is white, is also taken back with her, reveals the power dynamics that exist between them. His reactions to the cruelty and abuse that black people suffer are different to Dana's, more accepting even, which is revealing of the apathy people can have when they are not the one suffering.
 

The relationships Dana has with the people she is 'visiting' in the past and her husband from her own time are what makes the book as powerful as it is, and once again Butler builds characters that are multi faceted and flawed, good and bad - quite simply, real. 
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