Speaking of books I’ve been afraid to read...

I bought Fledgling--Octavia Butler’s vampire novel--right when it came out. Read the first chapter and put it away. (I had classes to prep for, etc.).

so after hearing of Butler’s death, one of the first things I had to do was read Fledgling. Because it went from being her latest novel to her last novel. And you know how authors hate it when they’ve just come out with a new book and you only want to talk about the one they wrote twenty years ago!

Now, first off, let me just say that I want to slug all the reviewers who think that Butler is the first to write an African American woman vampire. Hello! Jewelle Gomez: The Gilda Stories, 1991. Just because you ain’t read it doesn’t mean it ain’t been done.

But Butler’s Fledgling--I mean, obviously you can see the patterns of her other writings in this book. For me, anyway, the construct ooloi comes most forcibly to mind. But the Patternmaster novels too, and of course the re-ocurring themes of community and (most explicitly here) symbiotic relationships.

But I really didn’t want this novel to end. Partly because it has the potential for a whole series of books. And partly--again--because it’s the last one.