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A review by goldandsalt
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
5.0
I've meant to read this for years, but was scared off by a friend's warning that it was very dark and rather depressing. I don't have much room for depressing reading. I can depress myself just fine.
Interestingly, once I picked it up, I didn't find it unbearably grim. Maybe it was because the dystopian setting carries whispers of Dhalgren (the fires, the filth, the chaos, the particular timbre of broken-down society), which I recently read and loved, or maybe it was that Lauren, the narrator, is so sensible and loveable, and her relationship with her father so sweet. I'm a sucker for a loving father-daughter dynamic.
In any case, despite the hopelessness of the setting, the book ends with a hope for a new utopia. It's crazy and impossible, but it's built on mutual trust and care.
I almost never read a series straight through - I prefer to bounce around to different authors and settings - but I'm going to check the next Earthseed book out immediately.
Interestingly, once I picked it up, I didn't find it unbearably grim. Maybe it was because the dystopian setting carries whispers of Dhalgren (the fires, the filth, the chaos, the particular timbre of broken-down society), which I recently read and loved, or maybe it was that Lauren, the narrator, is so sensible and loveable, and her relationship with her father so sweet. I'm a sucker for a loving father-daughter dynamic.
In any case, despite the hopelessness of the setting, the book ends with a hope for a new utopia. It's crazy and impossible, but it's built on mutual trust and care.
I almost never read a series straight through - I prefer to bounce around to different authors and settings - but I'm going to check the next Earthseed book out immediately.