Fledgling by Octavia E. ButlerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is now the fourth Octavia E. Butler book I’ve read, after her two highly prescient Parable novels and the harsh time bending classic Kindred, and this, one of her last novels (the last to be published in her lifetime, I believe) is one of the most memorably unique novels I’ve ever seen. Depicting a vampiric species in mutualistic and yet saddening symbiosis with humanity, Butler reminds us all how highly she raised the bar for both sci fi and fantasy. Naturally there’s a lot of allegory about race and sexuality to go around, with Shori and her people truly representing the proverbial subaltern, but especially Shori as a Black woman - or, more accurately, a Black woman with all the appearance of a girl, and yet she’s very clearly older than she looks and old enough to make adult decisions for herself. It does cross a disturbing line at times, especially when Shori has sex with her symbionts, but when I found an article alluding to this as Butler’s way of metaphorizing how society is so quick to strip Black children of their innocence, it makes sense. Disturbing by design, that’s how a lot of Butler’s books are, and this masterpiece is no exception.
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