Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

Sometimes it’s not a good idea to read dystopia, especially when the author gets it so right.  Octavia Butler gets is right in Parable of the Sower.  In her world neighborhoods are walled communities that have to fight for their own safety.  Policing is a paid venture.  Water is uncertain.  Drugs are causing people to steal and set uncontrollable fires.  What is even more scary is when the story is set: the 2020s.  Such a bizarre time to read it.  When her neighborhood is breached and her father doesn’t come home, Lauren Olamina must take what she has learned and survive a very long road to an uncertain future in the north.  She has learned to trust others and slowly builds her own community with faith and trepidation.

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