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3.5 

Fledgling

By Octavia E. Butler
Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

Fledgling, Octavia Butler’s last novel, is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly un-human needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: she is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted—and still wants—to destroy her and those she cares for, and how she can save herself. Fledgling is a captivating novel that tests the limits of "otherness" and questions what it means to be truly human.

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1738 Reviews

3.5
Thinking Face“Octavia Butler makes you think, but I didn't think she'd make me think in a fanfiction-y way...whew, this was a weird ass read. Broadly speaking I think this novel is a thought experiment on how different identities interplay, as well as stark commentary on how Black girls are adultified from an early age, with a sprinkle of ideation around how Black and Brown bodies have been the subject of scientific experiments yet reap no significant rewards from these efforts (and majorly receive their costs). Ok, we have to go there: the main character, Shori, has the body of a ten or eleven-year old girl, yet her brain is "adult" by human standards, yet she is a child still by vampire (Ina, in this book) standards. Obviously the humans in the book see her as a child...yet her vampiric saliva and smell make her sexually appealing, so...yep, lots of gross pedo scenes. Her speaking voice is written to sound very grown-up, though, so it's a whole confusing thing. I feel like her mind vs. body, especially with the way humans and Ina treat her, are supposed to make us think critically about the assumptions we make about Black bodies, especially those of Black girls and women. Yet, if you can somehow get over that (and it's totally ok if you can't...I have no idea how I made it through this book tbh)...there actually is a lot of interesting world-building and societal commentary to be had. The way Ina society works effectively celebrates polyamory despite having deeply entrenched ideas of sex and gender, so that feels like Butler was having fun with these aspects of gender and sexual identity. Shori is effectively the first Black vampire due to genetic engineering, and the old school vampires are big mad about it in much the way old white establishments get mad when presented with the brilliance and innovation that Black people bring. The second half of the story zeroes in on this dynamic in a really effective way that basically puts racism on trial and shatters it in the face of logic. This second half of the book really made me think critically about a lot of things and made the slow first half of the book kinda worthwhile (though I could've dealt with little to no sexualization of Shori, but again, I think the discomfort was the point). Aside from the pedo stuff, the other weak point for me was Butler falling into her own patterns: symbiotic supernatural interspecies relationships, stoic and kinda arrogant girl/young woman protagonist, huge age gaps in sexual/romantic relationships. We all have our favorite stuff, I suppose, but it felt like she was borrowing from her earlier work to shape the characters especially in this novel. This easily is my least favorite Butler novel, but it would make an invigorating book club discussion, to say the least.”
Reviewed in:Penny Dreadful

About Octavia E. Butler

A writer who darkly imagined the future we have destined for ourselves in book after book, and also one who has shown us the way toward improving on that dismal fate, OCTAVIA E. BUTLER (1947–2006) is recognized as among the bravest and smartest of contemporary fiction writers. A 1995 MacArthur Award winner, Butler transcended the science fiction category even as she was awarded that community’s top prizes, the Nebula and Hugo Awards. She reached readers of all ages, all races, and all religious and sexual persuasions. For years the only African-American woman writing science fiction, Butler has encouraged many others to follow in her path.

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