What is your reaction to what you just read? One of the most important aspects of storytelling, as I’ve learned it so far, is that you cannot hand the readers everything at once. Confusion is what keeps the reader reading. Questions, intrigue. And while I don’t want to shade Mother Octavia—who the hell am I to shade Octavia Butler anyway?—I think that she may have gone too far onto the other end, at least for me. I went in confused, intrigued. I came out with a feeling of some unresolved confusion. So as far as I gather, the Tlic…exist…and implant humans with their eggs. They used to herd them like cattle but backed out before deciding on the joint family gig. I don’t feel like I have a concrete enough grasp on what the Tlic are, what an N’Tlic even is, what T’Khotgif Teh is. I feel like I grasping at something like I’ve grabbed a handful of sand and things are slipping through my fingers. It’s important to point out that style and taste is a thing worth