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emready's review against another edition
- 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? No
3.5
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Animal death and Gun violence
Minor: Racism
marareading's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
Shori is a 52 yr old vampire that appears to humans as a 10-12 year old girl. The way thay sexuality is discussed with her gabe me a BIG ICK. It honestly made it very hard for me to get through the book at all. Despite that we do learn that she is in fact 53 in vampire years, the author hammers home REPEATEDLY that she presents as a small child. Yet adults of both genders continually sexualize openly. It was something I couldn't get past throughout the book. Without this portion of the story I would have loved it, but I can't get past it.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
anxiousnachos's review against another edition
3.0
I’ll start with the writing style: it’s quite an abrupt and spare/brusque style of writing which I wasn’t a huge fan of. I’m keen to explore and see if this is common in all Butler’s work or if it was specific to this work. What wasn’t spare or abrupt, but was a bit more fleshed out however, and what I think was the best part about this book, was the fascinating development of the vampire lore. The way this was written with the amnesiac main character learning about her people and culture allowed us to also learn a lot about the vampires, and Butler’s take on them was so interesting.
However let’s get to the crux of it: I just didn’t get the whole point of the pedophilia. Okay, no that’s wrong. I do get the point of it. For readers not aware, the main character is a 53 year old vampire (note, this is still a child physically and sexually in vampire terms) who looks like a ten year old child in human terms. There is on page sex scenes between grown human adults and the 10 year old. I could have managed this, understood it, if it had been left at the whole ‘vampire bite causes sexual attraction’ thing, which for some of these human characters it was. Once they’ve been bitten, it causes them extreme pleasure, thus making them want to do anything to get that pleasure again. But then certain human characters also spoke about being sexually attracted to the main character, who looks like a ten year old child, *before* they were bitten… That’s where I got kind of lost, because that’s where the whole power imbalance suddenly changed and tipped? It was no longer the vampire in control but men openly wanting to have sex with a child? And I think I understand what Butler was trying to do: wanting to flip the vampire mythology on its head and make us think, instead of having centuries old vampire men preying on younger human women (physically and sexually mature but perhaps not as mentally mature as the older vampire?), whereas here you have a vampire who is mentally more mature but not physically or sexually mature preying on humans. Unfortunately, I don’t know if I think this intention actually works. I don’t know if I can personally equate a woman who is physically, sexually and mentally an *adult* by human definitions and thus *can consent* (I acknowledge power imbalances in other vampire relationships given the mental age difference) to a *child* who is not considered an adult by either human or vampire definitions. I feel like I’m making no sense. I feel like the flipping of this mythology doesn’t work because the two situations don’t equate power wise? I mean, I guess it’s made me think and it’s made me uncomfortable! Is that the point?
Content warnings: sex with a 53 year old in the body of a ten year old child, blood, animal death, racism, slurs including n-word, murder, violence, gun violence, pedophilia (characters are sexually attracted to 10 year old child *without/before* vampire bite/lure)
Graphic: Animal death, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, and Murder
bash5617's review against another edition
- 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? No
5.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
ztifhael's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury
hayleyvharrington's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Hate crime, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual content, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Addiction and Xenophobia
bookwormewan's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Gun violence, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
literarylion's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.75
- Impeccable world-building without falling into the trap of over-description
- Well-paced and engaging
- A unique take on a trope
Cons:
- I wish Butler had continued this in a series!
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Death of parent
Moderate: Animal death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Racism, and Cannibalism
booksandbrews's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Racial slurs, Racism, and Violence
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Gore, Blood, Grief, and Murder
Minor: Gun violence and Mass/school shootings
montyroz's review against another edition
- 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? No
3.0
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual content, and Violence
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Racial slurs, and Racism