This is a great vampire story. It's also one of the most horrific, profoundly disturbing things I've ever read. These two sentences should go together because vampires are *supposed* to be disturbing, but at some point, we as a society decided that they were sexy. Octavia Butler is having none of that. One of the things I love most about speculative fiction is the way that it acts as a mirror to show us how messed up things really are. In Fledgling, Butler follows some of the sexier elements of vampire lore through to their logical ends, leaving us with (view spoiler)[sexually active adult vampires that have the physical appearance of human children, a "benevolent" system of slavery in which humans become addicted to sex with their vampire masters and may literally die without it, and an ancient race of beings that claim to be superior to humans in all things but still struggle with base human prejudices. (hide spoiler)] Every aspect of the story is uncomfortable, but Butler is such an amazing writer that she lulls you into a false sense of complacency and you find yourself forgetting how disturbing all of this is. It's amazing that a book that shares so many plot points with Twilight could be this inspired and unsettling. Octavia Butler's unique take on a very old story is nothing short of brilliant, and that is why she was a goddess among mere mortals.