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Perhaps someone else here can suggest another of her books to try.
Dawn is pretty much full-on horror about the loss of autonomy, which is why she hits those themes constantly and from every angle. Losing control over your body, your rights, your mind, your children, your world, and more.My personal favorite by Butler is Wild Seed, which I characterize as “X-Men done as literature.” She hits some of the same themes, but the addition of superhero-like abilities makes it more palatable.
Ryan wrote: "a really good African American and Feminist author"Trike wrote: "Dawn is pretty much full-on horror about the loss of autonomy, which is why she hits those themes constantly and from every angle. Losing control over your body, your rights, your mind, your children, your world, and more."
What Trike said.
In addition to being a feminist writer, please remember Ms Butler is also African American. This series also parallels the horrors of slavery and the actions done to Africans/African Americans via the evil of slavery - and especially things done to women.
Slavery is "Losing control over your body, your rights, your mind, your children, your world, and more." Since this series parallels slavery, it's not meant to be comfortable or fun.
I've heard that Octavia E. Butler is supposed to be a really good African American and Feminist author, so I picked this book up when it was on sale, thinking I would give her works a try. Unfortunately, I just really can't enjoy this book. I'm about a fifth of of the way through the book and I just can't STAND the main character. She's straight up intolerable. Am I just not getting it? Is it just a bad example of Octavia's work? Maybe it's just not my thing? I don't know. I don't usually have very high standards for the books I read (or listen to) but this one just rubs me the wrong way, I guess.