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| Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler |
Rating: 5 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Publisher: Open Road
My five-star reads are far and few between as I have strict criteria for them. But when I find them, they grab me and I know they'll remain a part of me always. So that happened with The Parable of the Sower This is one that kept me up late into the night, struck a chord with me and is one I'd read again.
In spots, this felt like a trek of misery but I had to appreciate the hope that was wound through and it pulled me along with Lauren and her group. Terrible things happen and honestly, some things corresponded too closely to current events and I don't just mean, The Year of Pandemic 2020. Climate, societal and economic breakdown were all on display and the tenuous nature of everything that everyone was swept up in and along by felt all too possible or worse, imminent. For the things that aren't occurring, I felt like was reading about the inertia that continued the slide into the abyss. The political situation was altogether disturbing but when I passed a certain well-known phrase used in today's American political discourse, I stopped, checked the publishing date and then mused, Butler a prophetess (but like not really... but then... yeah).
In book-likes, this reminded me of a couple of things, The Book of the Unnamed Midwife (and if Butler inspired Meg Elison I wouldn't be surprised), The Book of M by Peng Shepherd, Prime Meridian by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Wanderers by Chuck Wendig.
The copy I borrowed had the first couple chapters in the following book in it, so that's what I'm going to have to read next. Recommended. Highly.
Summary: In 2025, with the world descending into madness and anarchy, one woman begins a fateful journey toward a better future
Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren’s father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others.
When fire destroys their compound, Lauren’s family is killed and she is forced out into a world that is fraught with danger. With a handful of other refugees, Lauren must make her way north to safety, along the way conceiving a revolutionary idea that may mean salvation for all mankind.
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