Kindred

The Ground-Breaking Masterpiece

by Octavia E. Butler

English language

Published Aug. 6, 2023 by Headline Publishing Group.

ISBN:: 978-1-0354-0968-6

(191 reviews)

Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana’s life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.

33 editions

patchworkbunny reviewed Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

Review of 'Kindred' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I felt super anxious for Dana throughout, knowing the risks for her. At one point early on Kevin says that it doesn't seem that bad, and I must admit I felt the same at that time in the story. Of course Kevin is a white man which lends him a lot of privilege and Dana challenges him. It doesn't take long for the violence to escalate and for Dana to see the reality of her removal of rights.

It also shows how through fear, someone can become a compliant slave. Many wonder why slaves didn't band together to overthrow their captors, and Kindred tries to show why that might be. The master uses children as bargaining chips, the love of others to keep slaves in their place. And once Dana has experienced the pain and humiliation of a whipping, she is much more cautious about her actions.

She's also in the awkward position of needing to protect Rufus or be erased from existence. She has to basically endorse rape in order to exist. It's difficult to read in places.

It doesn't really tackle any of the paradoxes of time travel, and there are no implications of the modern day items she takes back with her. I felt her a very sensible woman to take some of the things she did. You just kind of have to accept what happens, happens.

Cheri reviewed Kindred, Gift Edition by Octavia E. Butler

Review of 'Kindred, Gift Edition' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

I'd go 4.5 but rounded up because it was better than 4. The story was so well done. The author was no where in the book - only Dana telling her own tale. I look forward to reading this again and telling everyone else that they should read it if they haven't.

Lucas reviewed Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (Black women writers series)

Review of 'Kindred' on Goodreads

5 stars

I would recommend Kindred. I didn't really feel engaged by the first third or so, but found myself unable to stop after a while.

Seems odd to say I enjoyed it, but I did really appreciate it. I appreciate how the relationships between characters, with the institutions of slavery, farming, with their time and place, are complicated.
Not that they're difficult to understand or full of twists and changes—though they can be—but that the author managed to build them up in a way that made sense, but also looked all wrong when I looked up from the book and thought about it. Reading it was a process of acknowledging some unspoken assumptions of mine that showed me how simple or weakly-considered my own understanding of slavery and social structures of the time may be.

Ikwezi reviewed Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (Black women writers series)

Review of 'Kindred' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Well that was harrowing.

matt reviewed Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (Black women writers series)

Review of 'Kindred' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Has the same incisive human understanding as Parable of the Sower, but with the added grimness of historical accuracy. Still a bit didactic.

Unruly Stacks reviewed Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (Black women writers series)

Review of 'Kindred' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Jesus, this book was a rough read. Not because it was poorly written; it wasn't. Not because I couldn't engage with it; I most certainly could. It was rough because the topic came so fiercely alive in Octavia Butler's words, and because it left me feeling obscurely guilty, not because I'd done anything like those awful things Rufus and the other whites did, but because I felt a sort of guilt by association. As if what these white slaveholders did was a responsibility I myself needed to discharge. And you know what? I'm okay with that.

The events in this book might be fictional, but they were hardly invented from whole cloth. Slavery happened, and it was assuredly both more brutal and more insidious than many of us today can reasonably imagine. The effects of that shameful period of our history are still felt today, and I'm as culpable in …

This book resonated with me, and I'll be buying a physical copy as soon as possible.

laprunminta reviewed Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (Black women writers series)

Review of 'Kindred' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

A black author in the 1970s finds herself sent to the time of slavery, with her fate tied to that of a young slave owner. The book was powerful because of the subject matter, but I didn't find it especially gripping in terms of storyline or character development.

Barbara Krasnoff reviewed Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (Black women writers series)

Review of 'Kindred' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This is about the fourth time I've read it. It's also about the third time I've bought it; the first time I read it in the library, and the other two times I ended up giving the book away, once to a young woman who worked in a local coffee shop and who was fascinated by my description of it. It's not only an exploration of the horror of slavery, but of its psychology and the effects that it had on both the slaves and the slaver owners. A masterpiece.

Jamie reviewed Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (Black women writers series)

Review of 'Kindred' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Couldn't put it down this weekend. Very good read - some painful stuff to endure, but good characters and plot pacing.

periwinkleReads reviewed Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (Black women writers series)

Review of 'Kindred' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

A really creative approach and thought-provoking read.

Joerg reviewed Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (Black women writers series)

Review of 'Kindred' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This is not a typical time travel story, rather it uses the protagonist and her husband transported into the world of antebellum South slaves and slave holders for an emphatic character study about seeing human beings as property, about being forced into being a slave, and how we today may or may not define what being human is. As such this is a quintessential science fiction story.

mx duck's books reviewed Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

None

5 stars

Did I just read the entire book in one sitting, whilst enjoying the sunshine in my garden as a matter of contrast?

Yes, yes I did.

Adrián Astur Álvarez reviewed Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (Black women writers series)

Review of 'Kindred' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

On the surface this was just your basic african american woman in 1976 inexplicably forced to time travel back and forth between her time and a southern plantation in 1819. As soon as you scratch at the surface, however, and start asking questions about race, gender, and identity, the novel opens up to many other dimensions (pun!) of meaning.

I love stories like this that are able to balance swift, engaging narrative style with profound philosophical considerations, which stand ready for your exploration... or not, depending on your mood.

I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a great story with a little something to savor afterwards.

joeyh reviewed Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (Black women writers series)

Review of 'Kindred' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Wrenching.

Bethany reviewed Kindred by Octavia E. Butler (Black women writers series)

Review of 'Kindred' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I love Octavia Butler. She is to-date the only author for whom I wept uncontrollably at her passing.

I'd been putting off Kindred for a while because I knew it would be a rough ride. Nearly every book by Butler is hard slog. Not because the author is lacking, but just the opposite. She is amazingly good at putting the reader at a different time and place and almost always that time and place is dangerous and extremely painful.

Every book I've read by her has found me often with my finger holding my place in the book while I stare into space examining my own beliefs and the implications of the story put before me.

Kindred uses a fantastic mechanism to tell a very real story. I like that Dana's time travel is never explained. I thought the character development was spot on. And it was simultaneously refreshing and …