Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Dawn

This book had me in thrall from beginning to end. I couldn't put it down. I still don't know if I'm more fascinated or horrified by Octavia Butler's depiction of alien assimilation, in all its sticky morally grey tentacle porn glory, but I do know that I sped through the book and have already reserved the next one at my local library, so that has to be a good sign!

Dawn follows Lilith, a woman held captive by an alien race called the Oankali after the destruction of the Earth and most of the human race in a nuclear war. The Oankali are looking to genetically trade with the last remaining vestiges of humanity, developing their species through interbreeding - and it's made clear that they'll be doing this with or without the consent of the humans involved, viewing Lilith fondly but more like a pet than an intelligent equal.

I won't say more to avoid spoilers, but Dawn throws up a huge number of big ethical questions and goes to some pretty creepy places in its quest to answer them. I do think the story could have done without quite so many sexual threads running through it - characters didn't seem to be able to form strong or lasting relationships without some sexual element to them, and consent was certainly a grey area at times - but overall I was completely captivated by this intriguing, sometimes shudder-inducing story, and I can't wait to read the next one in the trilogy.

Content Warnings

bucklace27's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious reflective tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

mandi_lea's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

loucadoslivros's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

pran's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark 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? Yes

5.0

Lilith Iyapo is awoken to find she has been taken from Earth by an alien race who want to form a new race of alien-human hybrids.

This book was excellently written and I really got a sense of the unsettling, weird feeling of contact with an alien race whose intentions we are not fully sure of.
Lilith's character was well thought-out and constructed with flaws that made her compelling and at times unpredictable.
Something I was particularly impressed by was how Butler implicitly spoke about race and colonialism. Especially in the parts where Lilith is placed in a leadership role- how much does her identity as a Black woman impact the others' trust and perceptions of her?
And of course also the main narrative and what it says about colonialism.
Even as a woman of colour, I found myself taken in by what the Oankali were saying, and it was only when we discussed it in my book club that I realised what a coloniser narrative this was and how I'd been bamboozled! I myself thought, well, if the humans have nuked themselves then maybe they do need someone else to take control. But how do we know that this is true? And is that really fair?
I had been reading it through the lens of how humans have treated animals, as the Oankali infantilise Lilith and other humans, see them as pets sometimes, and seem to be trying to basically selectively breed them, but this further demonstrates how toxic and manipulative the Oankali and coloniser rhetoric is.

I would honestly recommend this to anyone, even people who do not like sci-fi, because of how much it says about our world, and human nature.

Content Warnings