Fledgling

Title: Fledgling
Author: Octavia E. Butler
Published: Kindle edition is from 2014, book from 2005.
Genre: Vampires!
Pages: 321


That was fast! Um, I've read about Fledgling several times on this book forum thing online where I like to lurk and find new books to read. Mrs. Butler, and especially this one, came highly praised, and I gotta say, after a bit of an unsure beginning of whether I like this book or not, I found that I really, really do, and really, really do not want to put it down. Damn, that's a lot of commas right there.

The book starts when a young girl wakes up in a cave with severe injuries and no memory of who she is and where she's from. There are burnt-down ruins nearby but otherwise the area is pretty much deserted. She goes off in search of answers, meets a young man, and discovers that she is actually a vampire.

Greeeat, another vampire book. No! Well, yes, but with more unique vampires. With politics. With ancient history, with culture, with their own set ways and bonds with humans. A fresh look at vampires, and that's just the surface. When our heroine learns more and more of what she is, and we alongside her, there are many things that she -and we- are faced with: racism, prejudice, equality, identity and how it grows. So there are some damn deep currents here, but the fast-paced story keeps you from drowning in them.

The book ended in a good place, but I would not have minded reading more. Or a sequel.


   "Can you get information for me?" I asked.
   "Information?"
   "About memory and not being able to remember things."
   "Amnesia," he said, and just like that, the word was familiar to me.
   "Amnesia, yes. And abuot vampires," I said. "Most of what you told me... I don't think it has anything to do with me. But I do need blood. Maybe there are bits of truth mixed into the movies and folktales."
   "I'd like to know who you are," he said.
   "When I know, I'll tell you. But, Wright, don't tell anyone about me. Don't tell your friends or your family or anyone."