Book Review: Anxious People by Fredrik Backman

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Anxious People by Fredrik Backman  opens with the people at an apartment viewing being taken hostage after a bank robber fails at trying to rob a bank.  I was extremely excited to read Anxious People and got the ebook on sale. However, I never got around to reading the book   until one of my book clubs decided to discuss it for the month of June. I am saddened to say that I was extremely disappointed in the story as it wasn't what I was expecting. First and foremost, I found the book to be too long and thought it could have easily been shortened without it affecting the story. Additionally, I struggled with finishing it because it was painfully slow and boring. I found myself wondering if the author was ever going to get to the big reveal. It seriously felt like required reading for school, and if I wasn't reading Anxious People for book club, I wouldn't have finished the book. There was so much hype about this novel, and I'm not quite sure why. It just wasn't for m...
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Book Review: Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

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book review kindred octavia e butler

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler is the first science fiction novel written by a Black woman and is part memoir, part fantasy, and part historical fiction. The book opens with Dana, an African American woman in 1976 Los Angeles, California, who is transported back to 1815 Maryland and saves a drowning white boy.  However, she finds herself fearing for her life when the boys father, a slave owner, is pointing his shotgun at her.

This is a novel that was selected by the book club I belong to for our September Book Club Meeting.  I had heard of Kindred but had no idea what it was about.  I don't read a lot of science fiction because I typically don't enjoy it.  However, I was pleasantly surprised how intriguing the story was, and it sucked me in from the start.

Well-written.  Engaging.  Unputdownable.  These are just some of the words that I'd use to describe Octavia E. Butler's Kindred.  I find myself still thinking about the book long after finishing it.  The characters were brought to life so well that I felt I was right there with them.  The author does a phenomenal job at showing the reader what slavery was like and what might happen if a Black person from today's time was sucked into an America that still had slavery.  Although this is a work of fiction, it feels like it really happened mostly because of the situations being very real things that took place in American history.  Additional themes in this novel include racism, rape, and suicide.

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler has definitely stood the test of time.  It's hard to believe that it was published a little over 43 years ago.  I give it five out of five stars, and I'll definitely be reading the author's other works.


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