Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler

93 reviews

alexareads27's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

This is a tough one to rate. The premise of a Black vampire with amnesia was really intriguing to  me and there were many points where I was invested in the storyline. But, I  couldn’t really get past the basically pedophilic content of Shori looking like an 11 year old with an adult brain. Some parts were very disturbing to read and I only kept going because this was a pick for my book club. The writing felt really off in a lot of parts. 
It’s very heavy on description and felt very slow in the last third of the novel. I think I understand what Butler was trying to do here and in some sections it was successful but it ultimately didn’t work for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia

Moderate: Gun violence, Racial slurs, and Violence

peachani's review against another edition

challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

1. This is about vampires, but
   they work much like the aliens in Butler's other books.
2. Again, I struggle with understanding why Butler includes taboo sex acts. I don't think it's for shock value. 
3. The
   trial and detective work
   were the most interesting parts.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Sexual content, and Violence

Minor: Animal death, Cursing, Gore, Hate crime, Infertility, Racial slurs, Racism, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Murder

chrobin's review against another edition

challenging fast-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? No

4.0

While clear and simple in style, the convoluted mess of power dynamics will twist around inside you. Occasionally the prose will lull you into a sense of safety, only for you to round the corner on  extreme discomfort.

As someone who has been obsessed with vampire stories since I was a pre-teen, raised on Anne Rice, I always knew that vampire stories were allegories for sexual desire, lust, consent, etc. Many vampire stories are written as romantic fantasies of women losing agency, but wanting it so badly… romanticizing age gaps, enthrallment, violent acts of all natures, always coming back to pleasure, repressed sexuality. Just look at Twilight...  Butler takes all of these themes, flips them around, and makes you look hard at them, very plainly - which for me adds to the discomfort. And while many claim she didn’t address the pedophilia appropriately, I think that her ability to make you so very uncomfortable in so few words is a part of this matter-of-fact horror.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, and Fire/Fire injury

hannahhank13's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, and Death of parent

smorris2012's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Racial slurs

owl_in_tra1ning's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia

Moderate: Racial slurs and Blood

fannylaine's review against another edition

dark inspiring mysterious reflective fast-paced

• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Animal death

roseandivy's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

this was kind of just... solidly mediocre? i want to try something else of octavia butler's, but i found the back half of this kind of boring and confusing (i couldn't keep the names of all the council ina and symbionts straight), and the fact that shori looked like a child was really off-putting-- which i suppose was the point, but it made it hard for me to focus on anything else in the book. i thought the take on vampires was interesting, but that couldn't make up for the fact that i found wright irritating and the plot dragged on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Blood, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Incest, Grief, and Gaslighting

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Homophobia, Infertility, and Pregnancy

rainbowrachel's review

challenging dark mysterious 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

3.25

I feel conflicted. On the one hand, there's a lot to like here. Butler was a great writer, and as is expected from her work, this was laced with intesting social commentary and world building. On the other had, this is probably my least favourite of Butler's works that I've read so far and, yes, the "it's not really paedophilia because she's actually a vampire" thing is hard to get over. On another day, I might have ended up rating this consdierably higher or considerably lower, but a somewhat middling rating does seem right.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Cannibalism, and Fire/Fire injury

tibbarasden's review against another edition

dark inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

At the surface, this is a vampire novel, but there is a lot more to it than that. The main character is in the body of a 10 -11 year old girl, and by the vampire standards, she is a child. The vampires and the relationship they have with their humans are a symbiotic one, and a big part of that is sexual in nature. The relationship the MC has with her humans is hard to take and definitely could be triggering. I did question why the author would go this route, but as I got deeper into the story, it made more sense to me. It didn't make it any less disturbing, but I saw beneath the surface. This book is really about power (at least that is how I interpret it) and the power those who others would try to make powerless have. Colored people, women, and children have and often still are treated less than human. That doesn't make them powerless. I loved the genetic engineering component of this book and how the MC being female and black made her powerful. The fact that she was a child by the vampire's standard and had amnesia didn't take away from that power.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, and Blood