Customer Reviews
Fledgling - By: Mrs. S. Burns, 10 Sep 2007 
I discovered Octavia's Fledgling by accident & was stunned that such a book exsisted. The story pulled me in from the beginning anf you felt alll the injustices that were heaped upon Renee from the get go. I have read this wonderful novel 4 times & I may read it again as I discover new nuances within the book that I missed the first time. I am regretful that this magnificent author has passed & left us without future enlightment. Her books are genius.
This is an interim review - By: Stephen Williamson, 27 Feb 2007 I started reading this yesterday & was just "there" by the end of the first page. I've read about sixty pages & it's a thrill a line almost. That woman was a powerful writer. Forget the fact that Renee is a vampire or what she does to live & survive, but get caught up in the unravelling mystery & the pace of the book. Every time Renee discovers or works something out, another dozen things are thrown into the plot. I could & probably will go on, but just go out & buy this & then everything else that you can lay your hands on. You'll love it. I've been mourning her untimely departure for months. Now I feel even more sad that she's gone.
Highly believable modern vampire story - By: purplepadma, 29 Oct 2006 Not sure where Amazon got the book description, but it appears to refer to a completely different item (presumably "Bloodchild", since it makes reference to a short story collection). "Fledgling" is a novel, Butler's first for some time. It opens with the narrator, who appears to be a child, lying seriously injured in a cave, unable to remember who she is & what has happened to her. She sets out to rediscover her past & finds that she is one of the Ina, an ancient vampire race. Things become more complicated when it begins to seem as if her life is risk from unknown attackers. In order to keep herself safe, Shori has to relearn who she is & what it means to be Ina.
As so often the case is Butler's work, Shori's story encompasses themes of race & gender. Is someone trying to kill Shori because she is Ina? Because she is part human? Or because she is black? The novel raises questions of where the boundaries of humanity lie & its dark paralllel America offers plenty of opportunity for reflection on contemporary debates on integration, immigration, & genetic engineering.
