The Parable of the Sower is Octavia E. Butler's dystopian vision of a fractured America which feels disturbingly close to reality - even more so now that when it was first published in 1993. This is not an easy book to read. It's harrowing, relentless and, at time, utterly hopeless. But it is beautifully written and deeply thought-provoking.

The novel's protagonist is Lauren Olamina, a teenager who was born with a condition known as "hyperempathy". The world Lauren has been born into is a world where society has collapsed into complete chaos, extreme violence and desperation. As she is forced to navigate the brutal landscape filled with burned-out cars, neighbourhoods filled with roving gangs and failed government institutions, she begins to shape her own belief system which she calls "Earthseed" - a philosophy centered around the idea that "God is change". 

This book is very emotionally heavy and isn't a dystopia that offers even a slim thread of escapism. It drags you into the harsh reality faced by Lauren and the other characters and refuses to let you look away. Parts of the book are incredibly sad, and left me feel hollow and despairing - which I think is the point.

This novel reminded me so much of Margaret Atwood's classic, The Handmaid's Tale - both novels, written by women, both depicting the collapse of American society, and both told through the eyes of female protagonists who must find ways to survive in a new world that devalues human life beyond all recognition. The Handmaid's Tale offer a chillingly rigid social structure and hierarchy where men control every aspect of women's lives, and The Parable of the Sower presents something much messier and chaotic.

This is a bleak but powerful book and Butler is really a masterful storyteller. This is not a novel that will offer comfort but it will demand your attention.