Fledgling

I loved this book so much. I'm already biased in favor of anything about vampires, so that's probably not a huge shocker. But this was a fantastic story that made the vampires sympathetic. It also pulled a neat trick of dealing with racism by way of a metaphor, but keeping a black character at the front and center of it.

The narrator of the story is a young vampire named Shori, who wakes up all alone and with no memory of who or what she is. Over the course of the book, more and more of her personal and cultural history are revealed, and I was hooked every step of the way. I found everything about this to be fascinating.

My only gripe is the language, which was straightforward to the point that it distracted me. It makes sense for an amnesiac child to speak in short, direct sentences. And the language did eventually fade into the background of the gripping tale. But I've been reading so much beautiful prose lately that it was a bit of a shock to come across something so plain.

My only other complaint is that this is Butler's last book. She died not too long after it was published. Which is a shame, because this was clearly set up as the first book in a series. I would love to follow Shori through more adventures as she grows up and figures out how to grapple with the legacy of her dead family while also making a name for herself. There's so much more story to be told, but it never will be. Alas, I'll have to find some other vampires to sate me. Or maybe just go digging into the rest of Butler's work.