There's not much I can add to the glowing pile of praise and accolades LILITH'S BROOD rightfully earns. Butler is simply the master of world-building. She's the mountains modern sci-fi is built on and she built her mountain out of concepts and concerns still relevant today: gender, race, and reproductive politics. 

While I recognize that Butler is an amazing writer and I'm still giving LILITH'S BROOD 5 stars, the read wasn't all daisy chains for me. While the Oakanli keep presenting themselves as logical, they use a lot of sketchy manipulations to corner the humans into cooperating. Their seductions are cringe-worthy since the Oakanli go by what the humans' body is "saying" and not what the human is verbally telling them. The humans' consent is not explicit and continuing. At one point, Lilith is impregnated without her knowledge. While the Oakanli are somewhat punished for these actions, it keeps happening over and over. It's...squick-worthy. The Oakanli are orchestrating a violent alien invasion, no matter how they dress it up. There's also a frick-ton of ableist language, genetic determinism, and a weird lack of humans on the LGBT spectrum that is not examined or contradicted.

BUT BUT BUT nonbinary aliens! Neutral pronouns! Tentacles! Earth rehabilitation after nuclear holocaust! Lots of environmentalism! Mars colonies! Badass women! Badass women of color! (Lots and lots of people of color, actually). All the jerks die! Semi-sentient plants/spaceships! Read it, read it, and read it again.