What I Liked
Octavia Butler's writing always captivates me. I'm not a big fan of extreme science fiction, but Butler manages to weave worlds that compel me to turn pages until I've devoured the entirety of her stories. I read Imago in a single sitting.

I appreciated how this final installment to the Xenogenesis trilogy revealed realistic xenophobia in humans among each other. The humans with tumors and visible deformations are treated as outcasts from one another, even though they all have the same identities as people with value.

This is the only book of the trilogy written in third person, and I am thankful that it is. Because Jodahs is an ooloi, I would have had more trouble relating to a character whose pronouns are constantly "it." For such an alien creature, first person point of view is helpful in exploring its mind a little more.

What I Didn't Like
Things just get too weird. Again, I'm not big on aliens and sci-fi, so perhaps some people enjoy the escapism. But three sexes? Alien bondings of five? Sending humans off to Mars? Sensory tentacles? Desire so strong that the body will self-destruct without finding mates?

Reading about sexual coercion is extremely uncomfortable to me. Although Butler is never explicit in her eroticism, so many lines of permission and consent are blurred.

I was disappointed in the editing of this book, at least my copy. I found four spelling errors.

Finally, and this is based on my own conviction, but the dismissal of God in Imago bothered me and isn't something I personally enjoy reading.