Review: This was an intense read, possibly made more intense by the portrayal of the images associated with the it. Why I chose it: My husband received this as a gift this year and thought I would also enjoy it. Line that sticks with me: “I never realized how easily people could be trained to accept slavery.” (p 89) This cycle continues, and times including her husband. Without warning, she is then transported back to 1776.

In a nutshell: Somehow Dana - a young Black woman living with her white husband in 1976 - ends up being transported back to the mid-1800s when a young son of a slave master fears death. I don’t think you need to be into graphic novels or science fiction to enjoy this work.

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.įrightening, 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.ĬN for entire review: Racism, Rape, Slaveryīest for: Really anyone. 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. 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. 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.īutler’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. 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. Butler’s bestselling literary science-fiction masterpiece, Kindred, now in graphic novel format.

Octavia butler graphic novel