Parable of the Sower

I'm sad that I did not really like this book. I did read it to the end, and I saw some good things but still did not like it. I wanted to like the story - I think I had heard too much good stuff. I went in expecting science fiction and excitement.

The setting - a dystopian not too distant future where there are few jobs and less water - is probably even easier to imagine today than at the time of the writing. The skills and efforts of the characters are well documented and seemed realistic. The drugs, dangers, and slippery slope of slavery coming from a need for security serve as a frightening (and imaginable) warning.

Octavia does a great job of making complete characters that are real enough to touch. The structure and focus of this novel did not work for me. I didn't like the pretense of the point of view character. I even more did not like the delivery, like a diary in spurts, of the story. The effect of a character I didn't really like, even while I was rooting for her and her family and friend, reading me her diary while preaching to me was overwhelming.