Parable of the Sower

Lauren Olamina is keeping a journal of her life amid the nightmare that she and all the people of futuristic California are living. Lauren is a teen and she lives with her family in a protected enclave community in a time where respect for human life is virtually gone. This California of the future is one of the most horrific worlds I've ever seen depicted in books. Mauraders kill for water, clothes, food. Eventually, even Lauren's community is attacked and destroyed and she is forced to go on the move with two friends. Lauren has gradually created a philosophy about God that she calls Earthseed, and she hopes to create a new Earthseed community in a safe place and, in time, in outer space.

The world Butler depicts in Parable of the Sower is a brutal unrelenting world of severe water shortages, beatings, stealing, slavery, prostitution, rape, killings, even cannibalism. Lauren is a teen who has grown up in that world and has had to adapt to it in order to survive. I had a very hard time reading this book, especially in the scenes of violence, but in the end, I liked it so much that I wanted to read on to its sequel.

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