I read this book in its entirety on the bus from New York back to Baltimore. It's a strange thing reading a dystopian novel on public transportation. After every chapter I paused and looked around: at the cars traveling in both directions, obeying commonly accepted rules of the road; and at the forty five strangers sitting around me, all adopting a social contract in which we sit quietly for three hours, keep our own personal space, and leave others to their seats, their money, their food, their coats, their belongings. I thought about the home-compounds I've seen in South Africa, surrounded by high walls and razor wire, guarded by dogs, and how those do not make the walled community at the start of this novel such a stretch, even if the world outside those walls is not as bleak as the one depicted here.

I tend to wade into dystopian novels carefully. My tendency to apply whatever I'm reading or listening to or watching to real life makes it a bad idea for me to read bleak books. The Road turned me into a hermit for weeks. Thankfully, Butler managed to weave a thread of hope into Parable of the Sower. It helped that the narrator, Lauren, is a teenager. She is pragmatic but not completely jaded. She has grown up in the world as it is, and doesn't harbor memories of the world as it was. There are many incidents in the book that were difficult to read, but I was too wound up in Lauren's story and had to keep going to find out what happened to her.

There are actually a number of similarities between The Road and Parable of the Sower; so many that I can't help but wonder if McCarthy's book is in some way a response to this one. McCarthy's novel got far more attention, but I think Butler actually paints the more accurate picture of humanity, for good and for bad.

Unsettling and powerful, like The Road with a Black female protagonist and more BIPOC characters overall. In some ways I dislike using The Road as a comparison given that white people’s art is not the standard, and Octavia Butler creates a whole world of her own in Parable of the Sower. First published in 1993, this dystopian novel flashes forward to 2025, when the United States has descended into chaos and what remains includes a country pervaded by disease, war, and chronic water shortages. Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the rare safe neighborhoods on the outskirts of Los Angeles, where her father, a preacher, and other citizens try to protect one another and form some version of community amidst the darkness of the world. However, when their neighborhood is attacked and Lauren’s family is killed, she ventures out on her own with a few other refugees to try and survive. On their path Lauren imagines a revolutionary idea that may bring forth a new hope for all of humankind.

I liked this novel though it contains a lot of gore, so trigger warning for sexual assault, murder and violence, and brief descriptions of cannibalism. Butler’s prose is sparse and efficient and makes for a straightforward reading experience. I’m most impressed by how much Butler predicted with this novel and the subtle yet meaningful social commentary she weaved in. For example, she incorporates themes related to how the police do not actually help much and oftentimes perpetuate harm, the role of race and racism in people’s chances of survival, the perils of capitalism and worker exploitation, and the power of mutual aid and community trust. While reading Parable of the Sower I felt that Butler came across as well ahead of her time.

I give this novel four stars instead of five because I wanted to feel a bit more immersed in Lauren’s world and her emotions. Perhaps she had to develop some emotional calluses or some internal distance from her trauma to survive, yet I wanted to feel more of that connection with her or even more of that connection between the characters. One of my favorite parts of the novel includes how Lauren’s newfound and growing community come to trust one another amidst this awful world they exist in. At the same time, I wanted to travel a bit more in-depth with certain connections or character so I could really get all in my feelings with them.

Overall recommended to fans of the Gone series by Michael Grant, N.K. Jemisin, or science fiction and books centering BIPOC characters in general. Wish we could have read this one in school though I don’t think my school at least was ready for the content of this novel – its commentary on whiteness and capitalism probably may have challenged people a bit too much.

Talk about a gut-wrenching, emotional read! The rawness and graphic details of this dystopian novel might put some readers off, but if those details don't bother you, I'd highly recommend reading Butler's Parable of the Sower.

In fact, I read this with my homeschooled sophomore twins and we had some very interesting discussions. There are so many morally gray decisions the characters make and parts of the world building that closely relate to things currently going on in the world today. I'd highly recommend reading this with a friend or as part of a group. I think you will get much more out of the book that way.

After reading the ending, I am very curious where the last book in this duology will go. What a masterpiece! I can see why this is a modern classic.

It's as if Octavia Butler knew exactly what was coming...

I actually didn't read this book, I listened to the audiobook right after the fires in the Palisades, Pasadena/Altadena and so on. The narration was superb, and I highly recommend it to anyone who has meant to read this but doesn't mind listening to a great audiobook. ~

I was recommended this book, and did not care for it as well.
Perhaps the only element of the book I liked was the pyromaniacs, simply for the novelty.

>>24829130
You probably just didn't understand it.

I’m dumbstruck over this most excellent, brilliant, and we can now say, prescient book! It is devastatingly sublime in its assessment and critique of social hierarchies/power structures, particularly with race, sex, and gender. I love how clearheaded, focused, and unsentimental is the 15 yo protagonist. I’m still processing the book’s impact, and I will definitely be reading The Parable of the Talents next.

>>24829136
Honestly I can never fully discount this idea, though as I read more books I find this explanation less convincing.

I can't believe I waited until 2020 (during a pandemic no less) to read this dystopian classic set only 5-7 years in the future. This is a fascinating, page-turning book about a young Black woman surviving in a US descended into chaos and anarchy, with drugs, disease, water shortage, environmental degradation, and severe economic depression making it at once a totally new world and eerily familiar.

I love Butler's world-building, characters (a future prophet / god as a protagonist!), and intellectual curiosity. She somehow writes a thrilling, gripping, I-can't-wait-to-find-out-what-happens-next type of book that is so thoughtful and incentive with its themes of community, religion, and more.

I am immediately starting the next book!

Initially I picked this up because I wanted to read a book that was a critique on religion, specifically Christianity. And this was so much more than just that. This book was really incredible, albeit extremely heavy. And there are so many parallels to the current political and economical climate, it feels like Octavia E. Butler had some kind of foresight about what the future would hold. Lauren is such a strong character and though she may see her hyperempathy syndrome as a hindrance, I think it made her even more human, in a world and landscape where people were more animal than human. Really really amazing read, I can’t believe I haven’t read it before now.

>>24829100
I liked the first book a lot, but there was too much rape in the second one for me, desu.

>>24829150
You probably just didn't understand it.

>>24829150
Damn, sounds like I stopped reading too early.

b8 thread filled with bad b8
>>24829138
I also read this after hearing people glaze it nonstop. I enjoyed the first bit where it describes her life in this little community on the edge of the apocalypse. It all felt very real and Butler did a good job of illustrating the uneasiness and fear that took hold of Lauren as she realized how fragile her life there really was. It just turned into a basic YA post-apocalyptic story after that point tho. I still read it but it wasn't very interesting.

>>24829163
You probably just didn't understand it, faggot.

This book is incredible, evocative, well written and horrifyingly timely even reading it in 2025. The thing that scares me the most about this, is the cluster fucked, violent and resource scare world Butler describes still feels like something highly possible. I admired Lauren’s dedication to her writing, preparing for the inevitable and hunger for knowledge. Through her journal entries and Earthseed verses we get a clear understanding not just of the progressing horrors of a rapidly declining America, but an emotional road map of how to preserve for it, prepare with action, and how to embrace the unchanging.

This concept for a book is so unshakably poignant that I hate to even level criticisms as I feel that this book is simply a “must read” for anyone. My one note was that all of the multitude of characters at the beginning (aside from Lauren and her immediate family), and when the Earthseed crew bloomed with people made them a little hard to differentiate and keep track of. My other criticism is that I felt the romance between Lauren and Bankhole felt a little too much out of convenience as did the arrival of his very large farm (but hey in a near apocalyptic society where I’m sure romantic pickings are slim, I can get behind a romance of convenience and I do think that the way Bulter introduced his character to the story did not have the same deus ex machina quality as the story’s resolution).

This book also left me with lots of questions in a good way. How much of Lauren’s “success” is just good luck? Right place right time? How does one actively “change” God (that answer never quite materialized for me in the reading of this book)?

This is a book I would be most interested in reading again in another 10 or 20 years to see how much things changed. In the meantime, I’ll be preparing my emergency kits and learning how to shoot a gun.

I… loved this book. I’ve always had main character of a book syndrome where deep down I believe I see the world clearly and could change if given the…. Chance? Mission? Acceptance letter? I love that our hero grows over the course of the book, loses, shapes, sculpts herself and her ideas. I used to hate hypocrisy growing up. I love that she believes in an objective truth, that she finds language that works and uses language that works for her. It was gutting. So brutal and takes place now. Trump just employed the national guard in DC. I read this book in Switzerland. Now I’m back in America and there’s so much work to do. To build values and truth and shape god.

>>24829163
meant to reply to this guy, not the b8
>>24829130

Unputdownable~

CWs: ableism, ableist language/slurs, death, dead bodies, sanism, sanist language, mention of drug use, rape, murder, derogatory language re: drug users, poverty, maiming, illness, malnutrition, physical violence & abuse, sexual content, environmental disaster/catastrophe, space colonialism, suicide, racism, religious bigotry, mugging/robbery, arson & fire death, incest, CSA, polygamy, animal death, blood, disease epidemic, funeral, death of a child, suicidal ideation, vomiting, death of a sibling, classism, slavery, gore, dismemberment, grief, adult-teenager romantic relationship (18yo & 57yo), sex work, sex trafficking (including children), cannibalism, debt slavery/indentured servitude, gun violence, injury/injury descriptions

“In some places, the rich are escaping by flying out in helicopters. The bridges that are still intact-and most of them are
—are guarded either by the police or by gangs. Both groups are there to rob des-perate, fleeing people of their weapons, money, food, and water-at the least. The penalty for being too poor to be worth robbing is a beating, a rape, and/or death.
The National Guard has been activated to restore order, and I suppose it might. But I suspect that in the short term, it will only add to the chaos. What else could another group of well-armed people do in such an insane situation? The thoughtful ones might take their guns and other equipment and vanish to help their fami-lies. Others might find themselves at war with their own people. They'll be confused and scared and dangerous. Of course, some will discover that they enjoy their new power-the power to make others submit, the power to take what they want-property, sex, life ...” page 420