Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Fledgling

i don't read much vampire or sci-fi stuff but i like Octavia Butler so i read this. i enjoyed her unique take on vampires. the apparent age of the main character is difficult to accept and uncomfortable to deal with in many parts of the book. Shori is placed in a lot of sexual contexts while appearing as a 10 year old child (idc if she's really 53,

she's still considered a child by her own peoples' standards

) i'm sure this was intentional on the behalf of the author however i really struggled with not thinking of every character as a perv.

Wright is lesbophobic as fuck for saying that Shori's relationships with women didn't affect him as much but when she gets a male symbiont suddenly polyamory is a big deal.

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mwass's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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

I love how Butler explores morally grey relationships and uses the reader’s uncomfortablity as a tool to do so! She effortlessly builds a fleshed out believable world that sucks you in, while also tackling issues such as racism and consent.

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maurareads13's review against another edition

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challenging dark 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? It's complicated

2.5

⭐️2.5⭐️ I went into this book not having any idea what to expect. I’ve never read an Octavia Butler work, so this was new territory. I’m also not a vampire aficionado, having only read Twilight & ADOW, so I decided to take a step outside of my comfort zone.

What I liked- Ms Butler’s writing style. It did keep me hooked the entire time. )My lower rating was definitely not for lack of interest, but I’ll get to that later.). Her world building for the vampiric culture & society was intricate but I could understand it. It was a totally different take on vampires, or Ina, as they call themselves. Even with quite a few characters, the story was easy to follow & it was intriguing. I was also thankful it wasn’t as “horror” as I anticipated.

What I didn’t like- there was too much pedo-type things throughout. The MC, Shori, is a young 53-year-old Ina, but looks like an 11-year-old girl. She seduces a 23-year-old human to “feed” her and then have sex with her. I thought that once her true age was revealed & discussed, the pedo feel to the narrative would leave as the story progressed, but no. It was referenced & used to describe her often, from her flat-chested appearance to her height being that of a 10/11 year old. Also- everything with her feeding off of humans was sexualized, and coupled with the childlike references, I just didn’t like it.

I will for sure try another one of Octavia Butler’s books, as not all of them are this storyline.

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gingerale06's review against another edition

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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

3.5

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cinderrunner's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Butler's writing is incredible. It's so simplistic and straight forward, so it's so easy to lose yourself into the novel, but she never looses the deep, powerful world building and commentary. I have genuinely never read anyone else who manages to do what she does. There is a "slice of life" feel to Butler's books and Fledgling is no exception. The concepts explored around racism, hatred, love, power and consent are so artfully done. I get where other reviews are coming from saying it is info dumpy or too slow/boring. I found having Shori loose her memory was an incredible way for us to be on the journey of discovering and judging the world of the Ina with her. I didn't find it info dumpy because of it being handled through that lens. And yes, the story isn't very action packed or over the top in the giant wars and mythic quests way a lot of fantasy/scifi books are. The drama, violence, and tension is much more of a slow burn that really allows you to melt into Shori and her journey. This is the most unique vampire novel I've ever read. It blurs the lines of scifi and fantasy really well. The vampire world of the Ina is so fascinating as is their relationship to humans. They hold themselves so far above humans but, as we see more of how they behave and the crimes they commit, are they? Absolutely love everything Butler accomplished here. I wish it could have been a series, I'd love to know what the future holds for Shori and her eventual children.

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plainpaige's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

Ooof. I would have liked this book more if not for the shadow cast over it by the explicit pedophilia of it all. Of course, some will say it's not actually pedophilia, the "child" protagonist was in her 50s! But let's just say, this book will never be made into a movie. Even disregarding the explicit relationships between this person who appears to be ~10 years old, I had trouble finding myself interested in the story or the characters. A third of this book was judicial bureaucratic boredom, and perhaps Butler could have expanded it into a more interesting series, but I personally wouldn't have read the sequel.

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nikkiacat's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

4.75

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excellent_taste's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

3.75

Really interesting, also disturbing. I do not know how I feel about it but it was well written.

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