Bethany (Beautifully Bookish Bethany)'s Reviews > Wild Seed

Octavia Butler just does not miss for me! As a speculative historical novel, Wild Seed is such an interesting take on personhood, slavery, eugenics, gender, and the morality of different kinds of sexual relationships. She's always interested in power, oppression, gender, and sexuality- this time in a sci-fi version of the 1700's (mostly) following two immortal beings who both love and hate each other. I'm very interested to see where this series goes, but this was nuanced and thought-provoking. Butler isn't afraid to make readers uncomfortable, and there are plenty of uncomfortable, violent, and horrifying things here, but the point isn't to make those things okay. It's drawing parallels to real-world things in a way that allows for enough distance to unpack them.