Shori Matthews is a 53-year-old vampire encased in what is seemingly the body of a preteen child. She has awakened from a healing sleep...broken, burned, and with no memory of the harm that has befallen her. She also has a voracious hunger...caused by the fuel that her body has used in its efforts to heal itself. Wandering through what appears to be a village that has been burned to the ground, Shori is picked up by a stranger who simply sees a child wandering the roads alone. It doesn't take long for Shori to discover her desire for blood....and the stranger, Wright, becomes her symbiont. Returning to the village hoping to find some clue about who she is, Shori eventually encounters a man who claims to be her father. He informs her that she is indeed a vampire, part of a proud race of people called Ina. The Ina are all vampires...and are tall, blonde, and very pale; very unlike Shori herself. Shori is informed by her father that she is a feat of genetic engineering; a successful experiment performed by her family in which a male Ina sired a child with an African-American woman...hoping that the darker pigmentation will make their offspring less susceptible to the harmful rays of the sun. In addition, Shori is horrified to find out that the burned out village was actually the home of her mother, sisters, and extended female family (male and female Inas do not live together). Who would want to kill an entire village of women and children? Shori and Wright make plans to meet her father later and move to his village with him...he is thankful that Shori has survived the massacre. When Shori's father does not show up to meet them at the designated time, Shori and Wright set off to his village on their own...only to find that his village has met the same fate as that of her mother's, with only two lone survivors.
The question is...who is killing her family, and why? It soon becomes clear that the killers are indeed Ina themselves, and that the motive for doing so lies in the color of Shori's skin......
An amazing web of the supernatural and science fiction--coupled with a simple study of racism and prejudice even among a seemingly superior race of people, who to that point had been completely unaware of color. A wonderful book, that I could have seen with a sequel were it not for the author's untimely passing.
DYB
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A different take on vampire lore
The Fledgling is a novel by Octavia Butler that is centered around a vampire that, as a result of a head injury, has almost no memory of who or what she is. At the beginning, the reader joins Shori as she is recovering from an attack that gives her amnesia. Soon after recovering, thanks to the animals she is able to hunt down, she meets a man, Wayne, who helps her despite him realizing that she is a vampire. From here, the vampire’s backstory is slowly pieced together with the help of Wayne and her vampire ability to track people and places with her heightened sense of smell.This is not a typical vampire tale. Butler has created a world where vampires don’t kill to feed: they have multiple, willing partners (symbionts) to feed them, as well as, provide companionship. Shori and her band of humans form a family who are loyal and protective of each other. This relationship is the heart of the story.It is important to note that Shori is described as being physically a 10 year old girl. The reader soon finds out that she is actually 52, but because of her being a vampire, she ages slower than humans. Even though she is a middle aged adult in human terms, it is a little disturbing when her sexual encounters with Wayne, as well as, other human adults are detailed throughout. The reader may have a difficult time coming to terms with her mental age vs. physical age.Butler has crafted a story that details social injustice and racism, but she has cleverly wrapped it up in a vampire tale that doesn’t lack in politics and violence. It is a shame that this book is a one-off. Octavia Butler died shortly after Fledgling was published. I can’t imagine the many other stories that could have been told.
Top reviews from other countries
Davide Benedet
Catchy topic, but the story lacks something
Reviewed in Italy on March 30, 2022
Aaron
Fantastically imaginative take on the vampire experience
Reviewed in Japan on August 23, 2019