"Fledgling" by Octavia Butler

Octavia Butler has been recommended to me again and again, so I finally picked up her last book. With "Fledgling," she does not disappoint. Although Butler has reportedly said that even she didn't take "Fledgling" seriously, it follows a lot of the same themes of her more-famous sci fi works.She reminds me of Mary Doria Russell, exploring issues of race, free will, humanity and morality. Fresh, interesting re-working of the usual vampire myth. Though it has something of a "whodunit" plot, the murder-mystery elements take a back burner to the main character's development and her exploration of her identity and where she fits in with her species. Highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in fantasy, anthropology and social critique.

I really want to read "Parable of the Sower," now.

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I was so disappointed in this book. Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy series solidly good -- a straight up vamp teen romance series that was actually fairly well-written (particularly for the genre). Fun, fast read. Not so much with "Bloodlines." The plot was horribly obvious; the narrator oblivious while occasionally falling inconsistently into omniscient, which completely clashed with Sydney's character and literal personality. This novel was about 100 pages too long and told readers what was going on more often than showing them.

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