A review by pumpkinbisque
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

super heartbreaking but also supremely hopeful dystopian fiction. gritty, graphic, and gory, but never felt gratuitous. the world lauren and the various people she cares about inhabit is dark and every man for himself, but i loved how lauren did not let this harden her heart. butler did such a good job of balancing between blind optimism and complete lack of empathy. her characters constantly discussed the morality of living in a world where if you don't strike, the other person will, and how morality is relative. this book felt like an answer to doomer mentality in our day and age. sure, we could all eat each other and never care for anyone, butler says, but wouldn't you rather hold on to your humanity through empathy and loyalty? there was also commentary on race and racism which i found really fascinating, and how racism can weaken an already weak society. i appreciated the frank manner in which lauren looked at race and how she used power and privilege afforded some groups to protect the larger group.
when the earthseed group began forming, they protected each other through various stereotypes and assumptions (harry being white affording protection to nonwhite people, lauren posing as a man to protect herself and zahra, the whole group convening around the children) and i found that super interesting and effective. the religion aspect was fascinating, too, and i appreciated how earthseed was based on discourse and discussion by the people that adhere to it. nice change of pace from modern evangelical christianity.

i took off .25 because sometimes there was repetition of words or phrases/words or phrases felt juvenile which could have been tweaked a tiny bit. emphasis on sometimes, though, cuz butler is a master of prose. 
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