I’ve had a bit of experience reading Octavia Butler before, so I thought I knew what I was getting myself into when I decided to take a stab at reading her vampire novel, “Fledgling.” I’m sure you can imagine my utter shock when I found that it might just be the worst novel I’ve ever read.
Last August, at the beginning of the school year, I reviewed some books that I easily considered garbage. Now, in comparison, they look like masterpieces.
For context, “Fledgling” is about a 53-year-old vampire, Shori, who has the appearance and mind of a 10-year-old girl. She wakes up one day with no memories and must fight to figure out who she is, how to survive as a vampire and how to integrate herself into vampire culture.
It seems Butler thought her readers might also have trouble remembering because she mentions Shori’s amnesia at least once every three pages. In fact, most of the information the reader receives is repeated, leaving them turning the pages in agony, hoping it to stop.
The book is nothing but poorly explained exposition; what little plot there is hinges solely on explications that are given to Shori.
Speaking of Shori, the main character is barely even a character at all. She is given nothing to do, has nothing of value to say, and thinks very plainly.
It is frustrating to read from her perspective. Everything happens to her, not because of her – she instigates nothing and experiences no consequences for any of her actions.
I was shocked when, after finishing the book, I checked Goodreads and found other readers were describing her as a “strong female lead” because she is nothing more than a little immortal girl with a very dull personality. I’m not even sure how realistic it is to call her a “Mary Sue,” as much as I hate that term because she isn’t even good at anything.
This is not even mentioning the absolute horrific treatment she is given throughout the novel – for some reason, Butler seems to have really liked giving shockingly explicit details regarding instances of abuse toward her main characters, who are often children. In many ways, it seems as though she is glorifying abusive, sadistic behavior, if not actively normalizing it.
It is much worse in “Fledgling,” though, probably because of the extremely young protagonist and the way such behaviors are accepted in vampire society within the novel.
The characters are all flat – there is no change within any of them, and none of them inspire any real emotion. They all speak the same way, and even Shori has the same stilted adult speech.
Upon first discovering the novel, I was excited to see how Butler would take a science fiction route toward vampirism, since that is her specialty. I was disappointed, though, to see that the science fiction elements received no explanation, and the vampire culture was convoluted and disturbing.
Anyone who knows me knows that I do not mind a good horror book, but this book is not a horror – if anything, it is more of a sci-fi drama, but the ease in which vile acts were written made it seem worse than any scary novel I’ve ever read.
Besides that, though, the actual science fiction felt like I was reading a 12-year-old’s attempt at the genre, considering the way that the concepts were presented to the reader without explanation or even thought, one after the other with no preparation or conclusion.
In all honesty, I have nothing good to say about “Fledgling.” I think it is disgusting to read, and I would not recommend it to anyone.
Considering Butler’s standing as a celebrated author, I am surprised at the lack of quality I found here as well as how highly regarded the book is within the vampire genre. I know it is not her best work, and I would even venture to say that it is probably her worst.
Comments