Kindred (Butler) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Butler's literary craftsmanship is superb.
Washington Post Book World


A celebrated mainstay of college courses in women's studies and black literature and culture; some colleges require it as mandatory freshman reading.
Linell Smith - Baltimore Sun


One of the most original, thought-provoking works examining race and identity.
Lynell George - Los Angeles Times


Butler's characters are so vivid and the racist milieu in which they struggle to survive so realistically depicted that one cannot finish Kindred without feeling changed. It is a shattering work of art with much to say about love, hate, slavery, and racial dilemmas, then and now.
Sam Frank - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner


No other work of fantasy or science fiction writings brings the intimate environment of the antebellum South to life better than Octavia E. Butler's Kindred.
Kevin Weston - San Francisco Chronicle


This powerful novel about a modern black woman transported back in time to a slave plantation in the antebellum South is the perfect introduction to Butler's work and perspectives for those not usually enamored of science fiction.... A harrowing, haunting story.
John Marshall - Seattle Post-Intelligencer


Kindred is as much a novel of psychological horror as it is a novel of science fiction. . .a work of art whose individual accomplishment defies categorization.
Barbara Strickland - Austin Chronicle


Like emotion that uplifts and enriches, like exquisite music or the taste of some special candy remembered from childhood, I never wanted Kindred to end. It overwhelmed me, dominated me, drew me on page after page. To express my total admiration and wonder for the originality of this surpassingly compelling novel, I am driven to a despised cliche: I could not put it down! It is a book that simply will not be denied; its power is hypnotic. Kindred is a story that hurts: I take that to be the surest indicator of genuine Art. It is an important novel, filled with powerful human insight and the shocking impact of the most commonplace experiences viewed in a new way, and it demands that once begun, the reader continue till it has done its work on the heart and mind and soul. Octavia Butler is a writer who will be with us for a long, long time, and Kindred is that rare, magical artifact...the novel one returns to, again and again, through the years, to learn, to be humbled, and to be renewed. Do not, I beg you, deny yourself this singular experience.
Harlan Ellison


Truly terrifying.... A book you'll find hard to put down.
Essence


Butler's books are exceptional.... She is a realist, writing the most detailed social criticism and creating some of the most fascinating female characters in the genre...real women caught in impossible situations.
Dorothy Allison - Village Voice


A startling and engrossing commentary on the complex actuality and continuing heritage of American slavery.
Sherley Anne Williams - Ms Magazine


Her books are disturbing, unsettling… In a field dominated by white male authors, Butler's African-American feminist perspective is unique, and uniquely suited to reshape the boundaries of the sci-fi genre.
Bill Glass - L. A. Style