Reviews

Blood Child, and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler

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kayhush's review against another edition

4.0

Short story writing at its finest. Dropped into the story with no world-building, and need to pick up the tiny tidbits to follow along and get your bearings. Within minutes, you're immersed. And then minutes later, the story is done and you wish you had 100 pages more.

Audiobook was excellent.

d3monology's review against another edition

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fast-paced

3.0

I would not say this is a perfect anthology. Butler wouldn’t either, and that’s kinda what made me really enjoy reading it. She begins by telling us that she is not a short story writer — it shows. But because of that, for me, Bloodchild is emblematic of what any great author must do — write, write, and write! She says to PERSIST in one of her essays, that this is the key to her success as a black author in a white dominated genre. And she’s right! As an aspiring novelist, I found reading Bloodchild to be the exact comfort that I needed — that my stories don’t have to be good, even great, that I just need to keep writing them. I wish the powers that be published more “iffy” art that was holistic and genuine like Bloodchild OR at least for the art community to cherish more subpar art (not bad, not art for simple entertainment). that is the beauty of the artist — we try and fail and sometimes we succeed. We are trying to communicate such complicated subjects, to distill them down to their smallest parts, and to entertain while doing it.

gnatie's review against another edition

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3.75

I love Bulter’s mind. She’s just got so much going on up there. Her stories sometimes make me uncomfortable and they always have a touch of weird or taboo and I just love that. These short stories and essays are very easily digestible and I love the afterwords she includes after each one. I love getting a look into what an author was thinking as they’re crafting a story. I don’t think I’d read these again, once was enough for them to stick but I enjoyed the ride.

annamarie2019's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

4.0

the_eucologist's review against another edition

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4.0

Loved this short compendium. Not all of the shorts resonated, but Butler is clearly a careful writer who knows well how to hone a narrative. One of my favorite aspects of the collection is the way each short story is followed by an Afterword where Butler offers her inspirations, motivations, and thoughts on the writing process for a particular tale. On the one hand it allows readers a sneak peak into her writing process (which I find fascinating), but it also provides a unique means of interpreting her work that is rather cleverly a final way in which the author manipulates how each is absorbed. The afterword, then, is something of a Final Word and while I enjoyed the additional context, I'm sure it may prove frustrating for some. Particular favorites of mine here include "Amnesty", "Near of Kin", and "Speech Sounds".