Okay, I should stop recommending this series without trigger warnings. This is one of the most disturbing books I've ever read. Octavia Butler pushes your ability to handle controversial aspects over the edge. Then she throws in an ending so dark, you keep wondering if that weird brain in her head is sane.
Clay's Ark is even further from Mind Of My Mind than MOMM was from Wild Seed. In fact, there is no connection at all, which sucks because Butler's characters are so impactful, you keep searching for them in the next book.
This book would have been a letdown, but in 2021, when COVID is the most relevant topic of discussion, the extraterrestrial plague in the book draws an eerie similarity to it. Some of the quotes were so on point, it made me fall for Butler's prescience all over again.
"The disease doesn't go away. It just settles in and stays with you and you pass it on to strangers and to your children."