emissaryorca's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
I thought I loved this collection after "Speech Sounds", then again after "Amnesty". "The Book of Martha" then proceeded to knock me flat on my ass. It's my own love for how we play with dreams and future-faith together, what precognition joins the heart to the mind, what "'[my] life has prepared [me] to see'". I wish I had been in a more welcoming mood with certain stories ("Near of Kin" specifically), but that's a fault of mine, not the book. Will provide a warning though.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Self harm and Incest
sarahnh's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Amnesty was my favorite story in the collection, but all of them are fantastic and thought provoking. I loved reading the afterwords where Butler discussed her stories and what inspired them. How I felt about each story changed a lot with the added context, and made it more interesting.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Incest, Pregnancy, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death of parent, and Grief
Moderate: Cancer, Rape, Self harm, and Suicide
alspacedout's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
A mostly great mixed bag! Favorites: Bloodchild, Speech Sounds, and Amnesty (plus the author essays).
Least Favorites: Crossover by a good margin, can't remember what happened in it for the life of me, even after rereading the afterword to try to spark my memory.
Least Favorites: Crossover by a good margin, can't remember what happened in it for the life of me, even after rereading the afterword to try to spark my memory.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Self harm, Xenophobia, War, Violence, Suicide attempt, Torture, Incest, Toxic relationship, and Rape
Every short story has its own number of content warnings as they are all pretty dark, but none are tittilating or explicit with the exception of BloodChild. light spoiler ---->Spoiler
Description of non-sedated surgery involving parasites. Doesn't go on for pages and pages on end but its gross!sharonmm's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
My favorite short stories:
- The evening and the morning and the night
- Speech Sounds
- The Book of Martha
I loved this. And I can't wait to own a copy of my own and reread them. Already know someone I'd want to gift this to. It's also such a treat to hear from Octavia after each short story. She was such a fascinating individual. I love how her mind worked. It's such a privilege to have access to her work.
- The evening and the morning and the night
- Speech Sounds
- The Book of Martha
I loved this. And I can't wait to own a copy of my own and reread them. Already know someone I'd want to gift this to. It's also such a treat to hear from Octavia after each short story. She was such a fascinating individual. I love how her mind worked. It's such a privilege to have access to her work.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm and Violence
Minor: Incest
lmaowolf's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, Body horror, Gore, and Self harm
Moderate: Animal death
Minor: Abortion and Rape
minor self cannibalism, male pregnancyivy123's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Really interesting mix of stories and incredible writing. The creativity of this author is out of this world and the afterwards added some great context to the stories. Would definitely read more from her.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gore, Self harm, Incest, Abandonment, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Body horror, Chronic illness, Colonisation, and Death
minariffo's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
relaxing
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Self harm, Mental illness, Terminal illness, and Death
Minor: Incest
alexhempstxck's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Slavery, Self harm, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Racism
emudds's review
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
my final entry into the butler canon! this collection is probably not my favorite of hers (which i think she would agree with based on her foreword about not enjoying short stories) but her writing is so immersive and engaging that it's still a more enjoyable reading experience than most. her trademarks are very much present, both good (aphorisms like "if you work hard enough at something that doesn't matter, you can forget for a while about the things that do") and the bad (..... incest again?). overall bittersweet to have no more new content to read but knowing that going back to my favorites will be even more rewarding the next time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest and Self harm
Moderate: Violence and Chronic illness
queer_bookwyrm's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
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? No
5.0
5 ⭐ CW: Body horror, parasitic aliens, descriptions of blood and gore, self harm, suicide, abusive mental institutions, abuse/neglect, incest, illness, murder, death of a parent, miscarriage mention, still birth mention, street harassment, rape
Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler is a collection of fiction and science fiction short stories and two essays. As some of you know, Butler is my favorite author, and I am working on collecting all her works.
Butler has such a unique and poignant way of writing aliens. I loved the aliens in Bloodchild for how disturbing they were while also being integrated with human society. Butler always situates humans as the one being taken over and being the lesser beings. This particular story reminded me of her Xenogenesis series.
Speech Sounds was a story about an illness that impairs people in different ways, including destroying the ability of language, spoken and written. It was about finding different ways of communicating. Similarly, Amnesty explore alternate ways of communicating with the plan-like aliens that have come to Earth.
I even enjoyed the two essays included, especially the second essay with tips on writing. This is definitely a collection I will be rereading at some point. I just love absorbing all of Butler's ideas and concepts. I will never stop shouting about Butler's work!
Have you seen that one of Butler's works is going to be a tv show?! You know I'm hyped for it!
Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler is a collection of fiction and science fiction short stories and two essays. As some of you know, Butler is my favorite author, and I am working on collecting all her works.
Butler has such a unique and poignant way of writing aliens. I loved the aliens in Bloodchild for how disturbing they were while also being integrated with human society. Butler always situates humans as the one being taken over and being the lesser beings. This particular story reminded me of her Xenogenesis series.
Speech Sounds was a story about an illness that impairs people in different ways, including destroying the ability of language, spoken and written. It was about finding different ways of communicating. Similarly, Amnesty explore alternate ways of communicating with the plan-like aliens that have come to Earth.
I even enjoyed the two essays included, especially the second essay with tips on writing. This is definitely a collection I will be rereading at some point. I just love absorbing all of Butler's ideas and concepts. I will never stop shouting about Butler's work!
Have you seen that one of Butler's works is going to be a tv show?! You know I'm hyped for it!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Gore, Self harm, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Incest, Chronic illness, Murder, Death of parent, and Rape
Minor: Miscarriage and Child death