Fledgling

Octavia Butler doesn't miss, and this was unsurprisingly a great read. But wow was it uncomfortable at times.

The main vampire is actually 53 years old, but looks like a 10-year-old girl. She has amnesia and doesn't remember anything from before, including that she is a vampire. Vampires regularly have sex with humans who are 20+ years old. Taken together, these points lead to some extremely uncomfortable moments early on.

That said, Butler excels at writing “alien” characters. The vampires here are different than any I've read before, and learning about their culture was one of the main draws of the book for me.

Overall, this was a very good book, but I fully understand why this is not what Butler is remembered for.