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A review by katsbooks
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
dark
emotional
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
“Repressive societies always seemed to understand the danger of "wrong" ideas.”
“Like all good works of fiction, it lies like the truth.”
“I never realized how easily people could be trained to accept slavery.”
Umm. Excuse me. Why was I not forced to read this book sooner? I binged this over two days. It was so captivating. People have told me that Butler's writing is fantastic. They've told me her novels are classics for a reason. However, I'm always still a little bit wary of anything someone labels "classic," especially if it was written more than 20ish years ago. I find that a lot of classics are too cerebral and abstract for my brain to focus on sometimes. Like the Handmaid's Tale, for example. The story was fantastic but the writing was hard for me to focus on. This obviously gets harder for me the older the book is. Once the language starts feeling antiquated I absolutely have to listen to the audio to get through a "classic." Listening is actually how I ended up reading (and enjoying!) Frankenstein. So, to be safe, I started reading this on audiobook first and, holy cannoli, I binged right through it in a day and a half!!
First of all, the writing is absolutely captivating. I appreciated that the chapters weren't too long and the readability. The characters were also entirely believable despite the fantasy/time-jumping element. I could envision these characters as real people. They were flawed and awful sometimes but so real. The atmosphere was so consuming. I literally couldn't put this book down!
I'm planning on watching the Hulu series literally immediately. I can already tell I'm going to have a giant book hangover after this.
“Like all good works of fiction, it lies like the truth.”
“I never realized how easily people could be trained to accept slavery.”
Umm. Excuse me. Why was I not forced to read this book sooner? I binged this over two days. It was so captivating. People have told me that Butler's writing is fantastic. They've told me her novels are classics for a reason. However, I'm always still a little bit wary of anything someone labels "classic," especially if it was written more than 20ish years ago. I find that a lot of classics are too cerebral and abstract for my brain to focus on sometimes. Like the Handmaid's Tale, for example. The story was fantastic but the writing was hard for me to focus on. This obviously gets harder for me the older the book is. Once the language starts feeling antiquated I absolutely have to listen to the audio to get through a "classic." Listening is actually how I ended up reading (and enjoying!) Frankenstein. So, to be safe, I started reading this on audiobook first and, holy cannoli, I binged right through it in a day and a half!!
First of all, the writing is absolutely captivating. I appreciated that the chapters weren't too long and the readability. The characters were also entirely believable despite the fantasy/time-jumping element. I could envision these characters as real people. They were flawed and awful sometimes but so real. The atmosphere was so consuming. I literally couldn't put this book down!
I'm planning on watching the Hulu series literally immediately. I can already tell I'm going to have a giant book hangover after this.