Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

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Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler



                Everyone felt safer in the gated community. Here it was a real community. People came together to help each other. Night watches protected the streets. Families would go shooting together to stay sharp and seasoned. But outside of the community there was peril. The homeless outside of the walls were dangerous. No one would live the community unarmed. Lauren Olamina knew that they would only be safe for so long. That the walls that separated her family, from the hundreds of others outside of their walls, could come down. She never wants to be a slave to a corporation or lose her family but she knows she needs to prepare herself to survive. And she has Earthseed. The God of her father is not her God. Her God is Earthseed. Her God is change. With everything around her constantly changing. That’s all she can hold onto.
                This might be one of the most realistic dystopian fictions I’ve ever read. And I can’t tell you how incredibly disturbing that is! This book begins in 2024, only 7 years removed from where I am right now. The United States of America is in a free for all even with federal and state governments in place. There is a new form of slavery taking place around the country, where people are so poor that they are basically working for food and board with no chance of leaving. These gated communities are the only ones that have any glimpse of sanity or regularity but everywhere there is fear. The world building in this novel is incredible. It’s made very clear, very fast how dire the situation is by how Lauren’s family has to live. Lauren was an extremely well developed character. Only fifteen when this novel starts, she is extremely level headed, competent and knowledgeable. Her journey and the journey of those who choose to follow her is extremely fascinating and one in which I was wholly lost in.

                Parable of the Sower has the ability to take you by surprise, scare you, disappoint you and make you question the decisions you would make if put in a similar position. Butler’s well thought out and well-crafted dystopian novel has easily become one of my favorites in the genre. Written decades ago and yet still very compelling and very enjoyable. I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars. 

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