Review of Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler, cut for length and spoilers

Despite the awful things that happen in it, this is an optimistic book. Or actually, it's the bad things that happen in it that make it optimistic. A book can't be optimistic if it doesn't have the horrible things that happen in life. That's fantasy (not in the speculative genre sense, though many fantasy novels also fit this definition.) Lauren Olamina shapes her life and guides others in shaping theirs no matter what happens to them.
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