For today’s pick for 2018 reading challenge suggestions this one hits the trifecta for me as it falls into the following categories for the 2018 challenge: Time Warp, A Minority Perspective, and The Re-read.

Kindred by Octavia Butler was released 35 years ago and earlier this year a graphic novel adaptation came out.

This book teeters between two worlds full of contrast, both internal and external.   The main character Dana, an Aftrican-American woman representing the movement of progress and feminism, is pulled from her day-to-day life in 1976 California to antebellum Maryland.  The narrative begins with Dana, who is pulled from the present to save the life of a white boy, Rufus who is drowning.   Throughout the novel she is tethered to the fears of Rufus and only in her own fear of death does she return to the present time.  It is revealed through her journey to the past that Rufus is her ancestor and there is an internal struggle of acceptance of this part of familial history as Rufus in his time is a slave owner.   Both Dana and her husband Kevin end up experiencing this dark time of American history,  but through different perspective as Kevin, is a white man and his experiences are from the perspective of a slave owner and Dana his wife, becomes his property.   Kevin ends up stuck in the past longer than Dana and after returning to the present it is evident how the past has changed him.  Dana is also changed, as we learn from the first page, she has lost her arm in between the worlds of past and present.    This is a quick read, but comes with some trigger warnings, including rape, violence, use of the n-word.

Check out my review of Kindred on goodreads to see if this is the type of novel you will enjoy.

If you liked this book, you may also like The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead