Fledgling

[TheBossInTheWall]

Just finished the audio book version of Fledgling by Octavia Butler.

Excellent book.

The story is about a young girl who wakes up not knowing who she is. Her body is in great pain, burned badly. Something wakes her up and her ravenous state she kills it and eats most of it. Then discovers it was a person.
From there she walks among the wreckage of a town. For a few days she sleeps in the trees avoiding direct sunlight which seems to burn and hunts animals for their flesh. Later she moves to a roadside and hitches a ride. From the story goes on, best not to say more except a few things. Its not a zombie book or a cannibal one. It does use the vampire mythology but not like Dracula or Poppy Z. Brite/Ann Rice, or Twilight. The writing style and story has more of a feel of old school sci-fi and fantastical/speculative fiction of the 60s to 80s. A very well thought out world, one in our own but also separate. But is not sci-fi. Some parts involve genetic engineering, but not in creating monsters or what have you.

I highly recommend it. Its the second Butler book I've read. Well the first was a collection of three novels all following the same story called Seed to Harvest(nothing to do with farming) which is one of the best things I've ever read. Anyway, looking forward to her other books. If they're half as good as these two they'll be worth a read.

8/10