This book occupies a weird space where I will likely recommend it to people for how prescient it is, but it lacks a lot of the features that, for me, make a great read. That said, I suspect this book will stick in my memory for quite a long time, and I do intend to read the sequel. I wish I’d read it as part of a reading group or in a class. 

Butler writes the most plausible apocalyptic situation I’ve encountered in fiction, and I think she writes character arcs that make sense within this context. It makes a lot of sense that a situation like Olamina’s would give rise to the next religion. And it makes sense that a religion where Change is God would arise out of a turbulent, apocalyptic world. After an age of belief that God is something greater than oneself and something to be blindly trusted, after their world fell apart, some U.S. citizens would likely turn to an indifferent and more realistic God that gives individuals agency instead.

Olamina as a character is incredibly well thought out. Nothing feels out of place or thrown in when it comes to her characterization and life story. She is privileged enough to be well educated, which helps her catalyze her religious goals, and then she experiences enough loss to sympathize with and effectively lead the followers of her religion.

As others have said, her relationship with Bankole is weird and gross given that he is way older than Olamina, but Butler has overtly written Olamina to have daddy / religion issues. Her having a relationship with a way older man makes a lot of sense, and it's a plot point that prioritizes truth to character.

 

The characters in this book and their various reactions to the terrible state of their world is inclusive of many ways one might respond to this situation. The reader gets to see all sorts of realistic reactions to a climate apocalypse and widespread economic collapse.

I'm a leftist. I read this book through an anti-capitalist lens, with the theory that this type of situation is the logical end of capitalism. I see this book recommended by a lot of leftists online, and it's a great recommendation. Given that context or reading this, I was surprised at this book's malleability and it's potential to back up different worldview (a marker of a complex work of literature). For instance, a doomsday prepper might pick this book up and see a fleshed example of the scenario they have been preparing for, and then approach the story with some sort of glee.