Like any Butler book, this was a captivating narrative delivered with excellent prose and thought-provoking sci-fi elements. It also included a number of standard Butler themes such as: human subjugation, alien-life encountered via an anthropological lens, and a central relationship between a woman and a much older guy. While not as polished as her later work, it is still nail-bitingly enthralling.

Most interesting, is that while Lilith is certainly an unreliable narrator, the reader is left wondering if this is because she takes information (and potential lies) at face value, if her perception/memories/very ability to perceive things as a human have been profoundly changed thereby altering her present judgement, or if she has resolved to accept what her ooloi has stated as a means of morally coping with her role in their visions for re-humanizing the earth.

Most difficult to digest though, is the ultimate lack of consent present throughout the novel. The chemical manipulation involved in this process, makes the end result especially unsettling. The ooloi calmly tell people they have physical autonomy, but still violate those very human's bodies when it suites them, while assuaging that the human may be "saying no," but their body is "saying yes." Neither men nor women are exempt from this, and seeing how different individuals unravel as a result is innately horrifying.