Book Review | Kindred: A Graphic Novel by Octavia E. Butler

Octavia E. Butler’s bestselling literary science-fiction masterpiece, Kindred, now in graphic novel format. 

 

More than 35 years after its release, Kindred continues to draw in new readers with its deep exploration of the violence and loss of humanity caused by slavery in the United States, and its complex and lasting impact on the present day. Adapted by celebrated academics and comics artists Damian Duffy and John Jennings, this graphic novel powerfully renders Butler’s mysterious and moving story, which spans racial and gender divides in the antebellum South through the 20th century. 

 

Butler’s most celebrated, critically acclaimed work tells the story of Dana, a young black woman who is suddenly and inexplicably transported from her home in 1970s California to the pre–Civil War South. As she time-travels between worlds, one in which she is a free woman and one where she is part of her own complicated familial history on a southern plantation, she becomes frighteningly entangled in the lives of Rufus, a conflicted white slaveholder and one of Dana’s own ancestors, and the many people who are enslaved by him.

 

Held up as an essential work in feminist, science-fiction, and fantasy genres, and a cornerstone of the Afrofuturism movement, there are over 500,000 copies of Kindred in print. The intersectionality of race, history, and the treatment of women addressed within the original work remain critical topics in contemporary dialogue, both in the classroom and in the public sphere.

 

Frightening, compelling, and richly imagined, Kindred offers an unflinching look at our complicated social history, transformed by the graphic novel format into a visually stunning work for a new generation of readers.

Review

*This book was provided through NetGalley. All opinions are my honest thoughts.*

If I were given just one word to describe this book, I'd go with powerful. I think, not only does this book tell a deeply emotional story in a powerful way, but the drawing style adds to that powerful delivery.

Reading this graphic novel has heightened my interest in pre-Civil War times in the South. I'll most definitely be picking up the novel which this was adapted from.

The whole story is utterly intriguing. Having the time travel element adds so much dimension to this already enthralling story.

Simply put. I didn't want to put this book down.

Rating

9/10