Fledgling deconstructed everything we tend to accept in vampire literature. It’s uncomfortable - but why don’t these stories always make us uncomfortable? This is what a vampire novel ought to be: dark, distressing, and squeamish. Butler offers a haunting challenge to this lore. 

 

We follow Shori, a 53-year-old vampire (or Ina, as they refer to themselves) who appears to be a 10ish-year-old Black girl. She woke up in a cave with brutal injuries and complete amnesia. Shori has to relearn her identity and customs, all while struggling to stay safe and figure out who is hunting her down. 

 

Butler offers a huge array of thoughts on racism, intimacy, power, consent, mental health, and more. Many scenes within Fledgling involve Shori (a vampire who is 53 but looks 10 and has amnesia) in sexual situations with human adults. This is obviously deeply distressing to read. But Butler challenges readers and asks why they typically aren’t uncomfortable with other age gap vampiric romances (often involving minors - teenage girls!) and their 100+ year old counterparts?

 

Compared to the other Butler novels I’ve read, the narration is a bit drier and duller. It’s very “and then this happened, and then I thought about this, and then here’s some background info”. It’s not particularly emotive outside of a few specific moments. It’s a lot of detail and exposition leveled at you in great bursts. Nonetheless, I raced through Fledgling and was left wondering what would have happened in the next book (Butler was writing a sequel but never got the chance to finish and publish it). 

 

It is a thought-provoking read and the concepts are fascinating. I was enthralled by the culture of the Ina, the relationship between vampire and symbiont, the power balance (and imbalance) between human and Ina, the racism and prejudice seeped into these communities, and so on. Shori’s dark skin gives her power & advantage (she can stay awake during the day) - but her Blackness also puts her in constant grave danger due to the prejudice of her fellow vampires.

 

This one will stick with me for a very long time.

 

CW: pedophilia, adult/minor relationship, racism, death, murder,  racial slurs, sexual content, hate crime, gun violence, fire, animal death, animal violence, body horror, genocide, cannibalism, mass shootings, slavery, classism, ableism, gaslighting, dementia, gore, xenophobia, misogyny