Kindred

My last -- and the BEST -- pick for 2021 PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt #2: An Afrofuturist book

It's one of the books that made me say, "WHY DIDN'T I READ THIS IMMEDIATELY???!!!"
Octavia Butler was the first name that appeared when I looked for anything Afrofuturistic, but I ignored her because I wanted to give chance to less popular authors/books. Now I understand the hype. The previous books I tried were lagging my reading pace and I couldn't get past the names I can't pronounce. I wanted to get over with this prompt and so I gave in to the ravings of its fans.
I daresay it's worth reading for, and I agree that it should be part of a required reading list in schools.
( )

time travel, fantasy, historical fiction, african-american, ( )

Creative and captivating storytelling, Kindred offers a unique way of looking at slavery in the Antebellum south through the eyes of a modern African American woman in the late 1970s. ( )

This book has been on my mental TBR list for quite a while, and I'm kicking myself for not getting to it sooner! Butler is a great writer. In this novel, she takes an unbelievable premise and turns it into an absolutely believable and complex look at slavery.

Dana, a Black woman living in the 1970s, is recently married to Kevin, a white man. They move into a new home, and strange things begin happening. Namely, Dana is repeatedly sucked into the past, 1815 Maryland, to the slave plantation of Tom Weylin and his son, Rufus. She appears to be sent back in time to save Rufus every time his life is in danger. And she is only sent back to the present when her life is in danger. Dana comes to realize that Rufus is an ancestor of hers and a free black woman (child when she first meets her), Alice, will be mother to her ancestral line. With every trip back to 1815, Dana experiences first hand what it was like to be a slave and some of the complexities and powerlessness of slave life.

I thought this book was very successful. Though the premise is fantastical, the brutal realities that are explored take the book right back down to earth.

It's hard to believe this was first published over 40 years ago.

Original publication date: 1979
Author’s nationality: American
Original language: English
Length: 264 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Format/where I acquired the book: kindle library book
Why I read this: on my TBR list for a long time ( )

NA