Book Review Genre: Dystopian

Disclaimer: Reading is all about exploring new worlds, but this Book Review does not shy away from spoiling specific scenes as this is more of a look inside the good and bad of a book.

The Analysis:

This book had BookTok in a choke hold for a hot minute. My interest and why I chose to pick it up was solely in the solution it possibly offered. And there was where my disappointment lies. On the plus side, I listened to it in audiobook over several days and enjoyed the experience. The voice was a familiar one (a black actress if I’m right). But first, follow me on Goodreads.

Here’s The Blurb:

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.
 

Cover Critique:

The cover for the graphic novel is 10 times better. This cover is giving literary novel, I never would’ve picked up if it weren’t for some persistent musings.

Now The Story:

Book Info:
Pages: 299
Author: Octavia Butler

Available: Google Play

This book is not a dystopian novel. In this sense, it’s not about survival, and it’s not about bringing down or navigating a corrupt system. The middle to end of this book leans heavily on its religious themes. The dystopian setting is just a backdrop that offers very little for the reader to sink their teeth into. Despite the false setup that it lays down in the first Act. Disclaimer: Now, if you disagree with that you probably wont want to read on. This review will focus primarily on it’s religious themes. Summary of Religious Themes: Coming from a religious background, I can’t say I understood the heroine’s beliefs in the beginning. The story opens with her comparing her theories on God to more devout people in her neighborhood and their experiences. Like, okay, that’s just what one person thinks. It’s not gospel, but her self-importance was real, and I wondered why any of it was important. It was all a head-scratcher for me. But for me, her actions bore more fruit, and will talk about that as I continue.

This story is well-written, engaging, and will keep you turning the page. But I also found it a tad boring, but not for the reasons you think. If you follow politics with any sort of depth in the year 2022, I think you could pretty much guess at most of the themes and events in the book and hit it dead on blindfolded. However, considering the time period in which it was written this book is truly a marvel. But to catch me, I was looking for hope.

It wasn’t with the immature brother, who at 14 decided he was a grown man and wanted to strike out on his own. That boy made me cringe. However, it was also a reminder that whippings don’t always work with every child. Especially one that considered killing someone was just another Tuesday. He also met a tragic end.

It wasn’t with the father that was just doing the best he could to keep his family out of danger. He seemed to be thoughtful, hard-working, and genuine even in his missteps. It pained me when he gave his son a whipping because whether the kid deserved it or not he was destroying his relationship with his kid. And then he died and I realized he wasn’t going to offer up hope either.

After a series of unfortunate events, she’s on her own trying to survive with her two remaining friends. It’s during these moments that she begins to write in her journal that she calls EarthSea. She becomes a traveling troop sharing her knowledge and good will with others. EarthSea made her a leader and it made people want to listen to her. It’s not hope for me, but it is for them. This is where the cult starts.

For Most Christians: The Bible states that this is the last living word that God will give his people and thus any other books that follow are to be considered blasphemous. Thus, this is a cult on that definition alone. And the quotes in EarthSea more than fit that description. For example: People must be willing to shape God. Errr, excuse me, ma’am. However, for the sake of discussion, I came at EarthSea as if it were just one of those Self Help/Improvement Groups considering I think that was the leader’s intent.

Let’s briefly discuss, the label of cult (from a secular standpoint). Maybe it’s just my understanding, but I’ve always felt like the leader had to display a certain level of malice in the creation of such cults. Meaning there in it for the money, power, adoration, sex, or even worse violence and depravity. And by the history of some cults all of the above with a dose of narcissism. Everybody in EarthSea was just so naive including the dear leader. I’m not sure, I want to classify it as a cult. Just because no genuine harm can be assessed at least at this juncture.

Although, if someone said there is malice in the way she manipulated a guy who liked/loved her for a place to start her church, I’d listen to those arguments.

I can say a reasonable Christian with good common sense could easily bat away some of the beliefs in EarthSea fairly easily. For one thing, the Bible never suggests to know what God is thinking. They tell you about his actions, you hear often of what he expects of the people that worship him from his own words, but we don’t know his inner thoughts. EarthSea proclamations act like she got the man on speed dial. Meanwhile, she finds the people who walked with Jesus hard to believe (the disciples who wrote parts of the Bible). But we supposed to believe her and she ain’t even shook his son’s hand. She’s placed herself between God and everyone, and no one’s supposed to be there but Jesus. Trust me, God believes this, because it just makes sense this way. Maybe it do, sis, but you gotta be hearing from Lucifer too because you weren’t born out of an immaculate conception. And this deep knowledge is really above what he would tell a regular old human. Not without help from the Holy Spirit, which you also have never claimed to believe in. And which you don’t possess by your actions of blackmailing the guy that likes you.

However, since we’re on the subject of the Bible. If it should have taught her anything, it is that humans can twist even the most basic message of love and understanding to fit their own selfish needs. So, while the current leader is not in a cult. The next person to take over for her after her death will see the full potential of the group and will slowly transition it into one. I think she should have realized that weapons are weapons, but also words are weapons under the right conditions. She had enough information on that point to come to that reasonable conclusion on her own before EarthSea. Thus, she wasn’t careful with, EarthSea’s reach and influence over others, and didn’t do enough to push back because she wanted to lead. She couldn’t see beyond her fingertips.

I did quite enjoy her narrative of how she developed EarthSea. But only because I loved the guy, who pushed back and said nope. Of course, she had a flowery comeback, but I would’ve continued to question from where her importance derives. She believed herself to have some sort of clairvoyance and because of it, she turned herself into some sort of religious superhero.

This book may have a happy ending, but as far as I’m concerned, she did lead them off a cliff, but at someone else’s mercy. I plan to read book 2 but only because I want to know if my thesis is correct in Octavia’s narrative.

Final thoughts: This book is proof that survival isn’t enough. You need thinkers, philosophers, and people capable of great reasoning skills. And no you don’t always get that through education as evidenced by politicians. It’s just as important what you put into your mouth as what you put into your mind. Art is usually the first thing to die in survival settings and truly God help us all when that happens. [And no, I don’t consider her as one of those thinkers, but the product of the absence of one. We don’t hear about her reading from the greats. We don’t hear her sharing her thoughts and bouncing ideas off of community leaders, mentors, and the trusted. For all intents and purposes, she’s usually the smartest person in the room absent anyone smarter. It’s like that movie idiocracy.]

Side note (also random): I do think she inadvertently answers a question that many atheists ask Christians. Do you think God is responsible for our morality? Atheists would say no. They spout off about the evolution of morality etc. Yet, in this story the girl is discussing the Bible and says: it sticks with you long after you’ve stopped believing in it. You can’t forget some scriptures. It reminded me of the time I ran across the scripture for women and children first. I couldn’t help, but think about all the emergency crisis plans built off that simple statement. It couldn’t have possibly come from thin air. But maybe some religious boat captain, who just thought a scripture he read as a child made sense in a crisis while trying to evacuate a crowded boat. Inadvertently starting a whole movement on a statement that could be traced back to the Bible that many would chalk up to common sense. I just made up that whole scenario lol, but some things just stick with you sounds rather plausible and a perfectly good answer to a consistently asked question. [Not to get too far off onto this subject: But I’d suppose the follow-up would be I’ve never read the Bible. So I didn’t get it from there. But after 1000s of years of human expansion plenty of positives have stuck with people Christian and Atheist alike to pass down to society to come.]

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Book Review At A Glance:

Recommendation:  4 out of 5

Book Cover Appeal:

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Story & Narration:

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Romance:

N/A

Character/(s) Personality:

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