Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler

152 reviews

asparagusisreading's review against another edition

FMC is supposed to be 50 something in her species years but is often described as young, innocent, and adolescent with “no hair, no breasts,” “tiny,” etc. Also, they have no memory or full understanding of things going on around them, similar to a child. The constant reminders that the FMC is a child but an adult, their sexual relationships with adults without  full consent, and their childlike but sexual power over others is not for me. I was uncomfortable and disgusted with the story, pausing and skipping ahead whenever she was described as young or engaging in sex. If the intention was to dive deep into messy power dynamics in relationships through a science fiction/fantasy lens, I can see it but the execution did not engage me. Instead of the story feeling thought provoking, it felt gross. I could not get my past discomfort so I am DNFing at 39%.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Racism, and Sexual content

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

the_true_monroe's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? No

3.5

I found this to be interesting and an engaging, intriguing story. I am glad I made my way through it.

But I do need to say that having the protagonist being called a “child” the entire time and looking like she was 10 years old is unsettling, even knowing she is an over half century old vampire. Vampire adults completely acknowledged their attraction to her and only being able to not act yet since she is still a child!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Sexual content, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Genocide and Misogyny

Minor: Ableism, Biphobia, and Slavery

megan_xn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship

kiersten620's review against another edition

The weirdly pedophile nature of the main "romance" was too much for me. I tried to power through but then another male character is introduced that "wanted her at first sight". She looks 11 years old but is in her 50s but that's still somehow underage for vampires? I should have started with Parable of the Sower instead of this as my first Octavia Butler novel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Blood

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

crimehaver's review against another edition

Lolita was easier to read than this. The internal justification for pedophillic acts was extremely triggering for me. From the other reviews, it's good that I did, because it's apparently a major theme of the work. Strongly advise proceeding with caution and knowing content warnings ahead of time. I love everything else I've read of Butler's and am dissapointed that this book, which came as a recommendation, was an exception.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, and Sexual content

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

franklloydweft's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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

4.0

I gave this a worse review on fable, but after reading Anne Rice it gets a higher rating from me now!

Copied from fable:
The only reason this isn’t getting a higher rating from me is for things that I think Butler totally intended, but I just couldn’t get past. The idea of Shori having the appearance of a 10 year old child without her memory, despite her not being human, and still behaving sexually with adult human beings really icked me out. I felt better and better about it as I read, but I cannot get past the sheer discomfort it gave me in the beginning. I also thought that particular element took away from my enjoyment more than enhancing it. I understand what Butler was doing with that particular detail; it’s deliberately uncomfortable to our human sensibilities and further *others* the Ina from us in a subtle way. However, I think for me personally it detracted from this overall very interesting take on vampire lore. The idea of symbionts having an almost exclusively sexual relationship towards feeding was a little off-putting for me too. I think I would have liked it better if that relationship was more ambiguous. No matter, I still really enjoyed this book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Racism, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Gun violence

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