Book Review: “Kindred” by Octavia Butler

“Kindred” by Octavia Butler (1979)

Genre: Fiction, Historical, Science Fiction

Page Length: 287 pages (paperback edition)

Synopsis:

The first science fiction written by a black woman, Kindred has become a cornerstone of black American literature. This combination of slave memoir, fantasy, and historical fiction is a novel of rich literary complexity. Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning white boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes the challenge she’s been given…(description from Goodreads)

Review:

This was a novel I had picked up years ago but never got to finish since it was a library copy. I was excited to delve into this novel and finally read it for my local book club.

This was the first novel I read by Butler and I plan on reading her back list. I appreciated how this novel blends Sci-fi and historical elements. Just the premise alone was enough to get me hooked into the story since I had never previously read many novels with a Black woman that time travels. Especially during the Antebellum era.

For me this novel read a lot deeper and I like how it sets itself apart from other time travel novels. Butler is a fantastic writer and I loved how she created the characters, attention to detail, crafting the plot, and exploring race through a Sci-Fi lens. Butler paints a very real portrait of history and this book shows many horrors of the past. Dana’s journey is many things: harrowing, terrifying, visceral, and difficult to read at times. Though Dana and her husband are aware of history, experiencing everything first hand leaves them scarred mentally and physically. It’s something that they will never forget.

I think there is so much to unpack in this novel that I would probably need to re-read to grasp it all. But I appreciate how this book explores the topics of slavery, hate. love, race relations, even though it it isn’t always easy to digest. It was a novel that it was hard to put down and I found myself on the edge of the seat looking for how Dana would survive her trips back in time and the impacts on the future-if history would be changed.

Final Verdict: