Scan barcode
A review by emilynied
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
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? Yes
4.5
I'm so pleasantly shocked at how much I enjoyed this book. It's sci-fi and dystopian, which is usually right up my alley, but I don't usually connect with characters who care deeply about religion, and I didn't think that was going to change with this book, given it's age. However, I was proven wrong.
This book starts in July 2024, which happens to be the month and year that I picked it up - the start date was just days away from the actual date I started reading (woww). Their world is descending into madness and anarchy from drugs, disease, war and chronic water shortages. Lauren's community tries to salvage the remains of a culture through religion, but her small world is destroyed in the span of one night. Lauren is forced on the run out in the world with only two companions in a scary world. They make their way north, joined by more refugees on their way for a better future.
The actual prompting of the travel in this book happens almost halfway through, giving the reader over 100 pages to get a feel for Lauren's delicate life in the compound. We meet her father and step mother and her brothers, who stories are troublesome and heartbreaking. The reader is then wrenched away from this reality along with Lauren and we too are put on a path of hope and fear for her as the pages turn. The characterization as the characters travel and encounter new people is done so well and I could feel Lauren's thoughts and feelings jumping up from the page. She's such a complex character, and experiences this gender-bending phenomena that is nuanced and fascinating to me.
I found myself latching on to Lauren's hope and her own religion that she begins to craft on their journey - I think I warmed up to it because it wasn't approached as a religion, more as a way of thinking that became more and more informed by Lauren's own interactions and experiences with the world. The reader gets a front row seat. And it's not immediately accepted by her companions either; the reader listens to Lauren get grilled by pessimists and questioners and the way of thinking isn't forced on us at all.
After reading the summary of the second book, which came out only a couple years after the first, MAN, this book is so extremely relevant - like, it's actually scary how similar that summary sounds to our world today. I would really liked to continue with the series despite being fearful of its results. Would highly recommend this book to anyone, should be required reading.
This book starts in July 2024, which happens to be the month and year that I picked it up - the start date was just days away from the actual date I started reading (woww). Their world is descending into madness and anarchy from drugs, disease, war and chronic water shortages. Lauren's community tries to salvage the remains of a culture through religion, but her small world is destroyed in the span of one night. Lauren is forced on the run out in the world with only two companions in a scary world. They make their way north, joined by more refugees on their way for a better future.
The actual prompting of the travel in this book happens almost halfway through, giving the reader over 100 pages to get a feel for Lauren's delicate life in the compound. We meet her father and step mother and her brothers, who stories are troublesome and heartbreaking. The reader is then wrenched away from this reality along with Lauren and we too are put on a path of hope and fear for her as the pages turn. The characterization as the characters travel and encounter new people is done so well and I could feel Lauren's thoughts and feelings jumping up from the page. She's such a complex character, and experiences this gender-bending phenomena that is nuanced and fascinating to me.
I found myself latching on to Lauren's hope and her own religion that she begins to craft on their journey - I think I warmed up to it because it wasn't approached as a religion, more as a way of thinking that became more and more informed by Lauren's own interactions and experiences with the world. The reader gets a front row seat. And it's not immediately accepted by her companions either; the reader listens to Lauren get grilled by pessimists and questioners and the way of thinking isn't forced on us at all.
After reading the summary of the second book, which came out only a couple years after the first, MAN, this book is so extremely relevant - like, it's actually scary how similar that summary sounds to our world today. I would really liked to continue with the series despite being fearful of its results. Would highly recommend this book to anyone, should be required reading.