A review by pushingdessy
Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler

Did not finish book.

1.0

I really wanted to read this book. It had an interesting premise (I haven't read many books about vampires or amnesia, so) and it was recced as feminist lit. Sadly, I just couldn't finish it. I know the pedophiliac aspect was supposed to make me squirm; well, it did, and it completely put me off the story. Was Shori being +50 years old meant to put me at ease? How could it, when her body is still that of a 10-11 year old girl, or when she is still considered underage in vampire years? Is the power dynamic inverted because her bite can control humans and make them her slaves (sorry, "symbiotes") and she's older in human years than her victims? Maybe, but I still really don't care to read about a guy fucking an underage girl, undressing her and saying it's a "pity" she doesn't have breasts (no kidding my dude!!), and the two of them acting like lovers. Everything that could be good about the rest of the book was nullified by the unnecessary, not problematized (as far as I made it, which is when they meet Shori's father) sex scenes between an adult man and a little girl.