Fledgling

Short Review: - A very different vampire novel. The novel opens with a very young vampire that has been seriously injured and has no memory. These vampires are not changed humans but an entirely different species. The best part of the novel is the discovery of the new culture and rules of the this vampire world. In many ways it feels like a set up to a series, but Butler passed away a year after the novel was published.

The full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/fledgling/

Octavia Butler doesn't miss, and this was unsurprisingly a great read. But wow was it uncomfortable at times.

The main vampire is actually 53 years old, but looks like a 10-year-old girl. She has amnesia and doesn't remember anything from before, including that she is a vampire. Vampires regularly have sex with humans who are 20+ years old. Taken together, these points lead to some extremely uncomfortable moments early on.

That said, Butler excels at writing “alien” characters. The vampires here are different than any I've read before, and learning about their culture was one of the main draws of the book for me.

Overall, this was a very good book, but I fully understand why this is not what Butler is remembered for.

I'm glad that I finally picked up this last “official” Butler novel (“official” meaning excluding Survivor). I kept putting it off because I'm not into vampires. Butler though delivers an interesting and unique take on the subgenre. Typical Butlerian themes: maternalism, race, survival.