This is one of the strangest books I've ever read. I'm usually repelled from science fiction, but my American literature professor chose this book to study this semester. I was pleasantly surprised. Dawn gave me the heebie-jeebies, in a good (but also uncomfortable) way.

What I Liked
Humanity is portrayed vividly in this novel. Butler mirrors the biggest flaws of humanity, such as our tendency towards hierarchy and our xenophobia that can be found between humans through racism.

Lilith's reaction to the Oankali, as well as the alien descriptions of the ship and the Oankali themselves were extremely well written. I can't stop thinking about this book, and I don't think I will for a long time.

What I Didn't
The Oankali have problems with consent. They genetically change the bodies of humans and

Spoiler

ultimately end up seducing them and having weird alien/human sexual relations

. This has the potential to shine a light on the problems surrounding rape, and to an extent, Butler does this. However, sexual consent is something that is handled too lightly for my taste.

Spoiler

At one point, Nikanj seduces Joseph, and after the man says he will never consent to mating with the ooloi, Nikanj basically says, "Your words are saying no, but your body is saying yes." Nope, nope, nope, it's still not okay.

It's clear that the reader is meant to root for Nikanj and Lilith, at least to some degree, but the pleasure and relational bond forged between human and ooloi is extremely coerced and lacking real consent.