Now, that’s an interesting question, which is Butler’s scariest book? I find Kindred less scary than heartbreaking—and it is heartbreaking to me; devastating. Dawn scares me—the point when Lilith realizes she can no longer touch her lover without pain and that’s just the way it’s going to be. Clay’s Ark scares me in a…

And I’ve still not read Parable—I’ve held on to the two books as something to look forward to when I needed a new Butler fix—but, wow, now is clearly the time. Of course she was prescient—she was so acute.

But, anyway, I read Wild Seed first, then hopped over to the Xenogenesis trilogy, then Kindred. Then I came back…

Yeah, my first thought as well—why not have Octavia Butler’s own writing be the introduction to Octavia Butler’s writing? I mean graphic novel—great—but I processed Kindred just fine on my own. I actually started with *Wild Seed*—that, too, was fine. I gave my teen daughter “Blood Child” to read and she was blown away…

What I love about Butler’s works is that they all present a very unique entry point. She’s one of the few writers with a solid bibliography—some works better than others, but all good (partly because there are sadly so few published works). When people ask me where they should start, I always say, well it depends on…

I literally just read this novel for the first time a couple of months ago (Sept or Oct?). As an early 30-something woman with several identity markers that align me with Dana, I finished it and felt such a jumble of emotions that resolved as, “...I need to reread this once I’m more settled.” It resonated with me…