Scan barcode
ikiteahill's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Chronic illness, Hate crime, Gore, Gun violence, Slavery, Trafficking, Death of parent, Blood, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Animal death, Classism, Death, Excrement, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Police brutality, Racism, Religious bigotry, Vomit, Medical content, Torture, Cannibalism, Child death, Murder, Violence, and Mental illness
Moderate: Misogyny, Abandonment, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcoholism, Drug use, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Miscarriage, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Abortion, and Incest
lindseygcarden's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Drug use, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Torture, Rape, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Eating disorder, Gore, Grief, Murder, Blood, Sexual violence, Car accident, Death, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Infertility, Sexual harassment, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Misogyny, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Trafficking, Violence, Classism, Drug abuse, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Child death, Chronic illness, Gun violence, Incest, and Pregnancy
dragon_s_hoard's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Death of parent, Gore, Kidnapping, Colonisation, Death, Slavery, Trafficking, Blood, Cannibalism, Police brutality, Torture, Child death, Chronic illness, Drug use, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Abandonment, Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, Rape, Violence, Body horror, Bullying, Classism, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual assault
dmrains's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Death, Violence, Gore, Racism, Mental illness, Sexism, Blood, Chronic illness, Child death, and Death of parent
Moderate: Ableism
Minor: Sexual content and Drug use
mattyb's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Violence, Drug use, Blood, Rape, Police brutality, Death, Body horror, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Gore
Moderate: Cannibalism, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Chronic illness, Addiction, Kidnapping, Slavery, Rape, Sexual content, and Abandonment
mac23's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Drug abuse, Abandonment, Animal death, Addiction, Cultural appropriation, Death of parent, Cannibalism, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Chronic illness, Sexual violence, Child death, Abortion, Animal cruelty, Slavery, Cancer, Death, and Classism
samdalefox's review against another edition
- 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? No
5.0
A type of book that reaches beyond the traditional imagination and limitations of dystopian scifi. It felt so real, so easy to read, so important. As soon as I started reading I was hooked, and I would have finished it in one sitting if I wasn't interrupted. The story is both depressingly accurate in its assessment and predicitions of human society's collapse, but also beuatifully imaginative and almost optimisitic. The whole concept of Earthseed is fascinating and I'm sure there are many philosophical, psychological, anthropological, intersectional feminist, and theological interpretations from others I could read up on. I've been trying to read less books that will fuel my climate anxiety, but this strangely helped me, I felt less alone. Octavia E. Butler understood these dangers within our society so many years ago, I felt solidarity. I felt inspired and compelled to action. I have already bought the second book of the duology. I particularly enjoyed that Butler inroduced the concept of
Quotes:
"All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you. The only lasting truth is change. God is change."
"Then, someday when people are able to pay more attention to what I say than how old I am, I'll use these verses to pry them loose from their rotting past, and maybe push them into saving themselves and building a future that makes sense. That's if everything will just hold together for a few more years."
"Sometimes naming a thing - giving a name or discovering a name - helps one to begin to understand it. Knowing the name of a thing and knowing what that thing is for gives me even more of a handle on it."
"Things are changing now, too. Our adults haven't been wiped out by a plague so they're still anchored in the past, waiting for the good old days to come back. But things have change a lot, and they'll change more. Things are always changing. This is just one of the big jumps instead of the little step-by-step changes that are easier to take. People have changed the climate of the world. Now they're waiting for the old days to come back."
"She was afraid, and that made her defensive."
"Civilisation is to groups what intelligence is to individuals. It is a means of combining the intelligence of many to achieve ongoing group adaptation. Civilisation, like intelligence, may serve well, serve adequately, or fail to serve its adaptive function. When civilisation fails to serve, it must disintegrate unless it is acted upon by unifying internal or external forces. EARTHSEED: THE BOOKS OF THE LIVING."
"Intelligence is ongoing, individual adaptability. Adaptations that an intelligent specied may make in a single generation, other species may make over many generations of selective breeding and selective dying. Yet intelligence is demanding. If it is misdirected by accident or by intent, it can foster its own orgies of breeding and dying. EARTHSEED: THE BOOKS OF THE LIVING."
"Once people get the idea that it's all right to take what you want and destroy the rest, who know's when they'll stop."
"We aren't gang types. I don't want gang types with their need to dominate, rob and terrorize. And yet me wight have to dominate. We might have to rob to survive, and even terrorize to scare of or kill enemies. We'll have to be very careful how we allow our needs to shape us. But we must have arable land, a dependable water supply, and enough freedom from attack to let us establish ourselves and grow."
"Worship is no good without action. With action, it's only useful if it steadies you, focuses your efforts, eases your mind."
"Kindness eases change. EARTHSEED: THE BOOKS OF THE LIVING"
"Oh, God, there you go again. You've always got a disaster up your sleeve."
"I see what's out there. You see it too. You just deny it."
"I believe in something that I think my dying, denying, backward-looking people need. I don't have all of it yet. I don't even know how to oass on what I do have. I've got to learn how to do that. It scares me how many things I've got to learn. How will I learn them?"
"Belief initiates and guide action, or it does nothing. - earthseed: the books of the living."
"Embrace diversity, Unite - Or be divided, robbed, rules, killed, by those you see as prey. Embrace diversity or be destroyed."
"'Live!' Dad said. 'That's all anybody can do right now. Live. Hold out. Survive. I don't know if good times are coming back again. But I know it won't matter if we don't survive these times.'...And Dad is right...but he doesn't go far enough... It isn't enough for us to just survive, limping along, playing business as usual while things get worse and worse. If that's the shape we give to God, then someday we must become too weak - too poor, too hungry, too sick - to defend outselves. Then we'll be wiped out. There has to be more that we can do, a better destiny that we can shape. Another place. Another way. Something!"
Moderate: Abandonment, Ableism, Gun violence, Violence, Classism, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Murder, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Grief, Sexual violence, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Sexual content, Slavery, Addiction, Blood, Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Medical trauma, Child death, Cursing, and Domestic abuse
The content warnings seem extensive because many of these things are mentioned in passing as part of describing their commoness in the dystopian world the book is set in.sunschoenmai's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Ableism, Drug use, Rape, Cannibalism, Drug abuse, Addiction, Torture, Classism, Murder, Abandonment, Blood, Cursing, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, and Death of parent
kimmyv's review
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Slavery, and Sexual violence
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Death, Chronic illness, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, Murder, Medical trauma, Racism, Rape, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Trafficking, Sexism, Racial slurs, Pedophilia, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Domestic abuse, Cannibalism, Animal death, Police brutality, Grief, Drug abuse, Death of parent, and Child death
Minor: Animal death
stephanie_b's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Minor: Drug abuse, Gun violence, Addiction, Child death, Chronic illness, Classism, Death, Child abuse, Rape, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Alcoholism, Drug use, Blood, Trafficking, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Vomit, Animal death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Pedophilia, Excrement, Gore, Sexual assault, and Torture