Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler
This is the tale of a seemingly young, amnesic girl who discovers that she is actually a genetically altered, 53-year-old vampire after becoming aware of her shockingly nonhuman cravings and talents. She is compelled to learn as much as she can about her stolen former life while also learning who wanted—and still wants—to harm her and the people she loves and how she can protect herself.
Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler
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Shori, our main character, awakens to discover herself in a dark cave with serious wounds. For a few days, she switches between being awake and asleep. When she becomes too hungry, she must locate something to eat. She follows her instinct to a deer, which she kills and consumes uncooked. Assuming she isn’t “normal” at this point in the novel, I knew why she was eating the animal because I knew this book was about vampires going in. She required it for sturdiness and recovery. She was eating the entire animal and dragging it back to the cave like a large cat, which startled me. In every vampire story I’ve read, the vampires exclusively consume blood.
After a few days, Shori is finally feeling well enough to look for information about where she is and what happened to her. This takes her to a burned-down ruin that she can’t remember and then to the highway, where a stranger named Wright, 23, picks her up. After a discussion that Shori is not thrilled about, she bites Wright, which prompts Wright to reconsider the situation and come to the conclusion that he has sexual feelings for this 10-year-old girl. This is the point in the novel where the genre of the book becomes clear. I was startled and then spooked at this point in the novel. Shori is completely unaware of her identity and previous events. Wright calls her Renee, which means “reborn,” because she doesn’t know her own name. Wright brings her back to his cabin near Seattle, where they make out.
My first Octavia book is this one. She develops this symbiotic universe of vampire families and their human offspring. The plot has great tension, action, and pace. We undoubtedly would have had a ton more adventures with Shori and her family if Ms Butler had lived.
