Sumiko Saulson

Fledgling by Octavia Butler

Review by Bryan Cebulski (@BryanOnion)

Aside from Toni Morrison, this is the only author on this list who I was already familiar with before taking them on as a horror author. I’ve read a lot of Octavia Butler’s work already—all except for the Patternmaster series and Imago. I thought I might cover one of these already-read novels, but decided to wait before covering her until I read her most relevant-to-horror novel, Fledgling.

Full disclosure, I adore Octavia Butler. Her fiction is fantastic for so many goddamn reasons. Fledgling, while certain different in terms of scope and tone, nevertheless stands on its own two feet among Butler’s bibliography.

Some context: Fledgling was written for fun. While suffering writer’s block working on the third Parable novel, Butler started reading a lot of vampire fiction. Thinking she could add her own touch to the…