Parable of the Sower

  At the end of the book, there was a very slight plot twist: all of Bankole’s family members were dead, and all infrastructure was burnt. I was expecting Bankole to grieve a lot, but I guess he didn’t talk to them or see them much, and also the main characters in this book are too tough to grieve. It seemed like most of the characters generally didn’t care and wanted to keep going North, but it seemed like some were somewhat appreciative of the legally owned land. The main event in the book seemed like the gunfight. I feel like it was the first real conflict that they have had, because a semi-main character died and it showed that people in the group were trustworthy. There was one thing that irritated me during the gunfight: the fact that Lauren thinks she’s the most capable shooter. Yes, she has had the most experience, but she gets incapacitated every time she hits someone, and I can’t imagine it’s that hard to shoot a gun, so she should just give it to someone that isn’t a sha...

  I think these past few chapters weren’t too exciting, the group was mostly just walking along, trying to get further North. The more I keep reading this book, the more I expect somebody in the group to backstab the rest of the members, because they just keep inviting random people they meet. It seems like everyone they meet magically happens to be trustworthy and not too greedy, because they have had no major conflicts within the group. However, while I do think that someone will eventually become a traitor, I don’t think that Emery and Tori will be the ones, but maybe the Moras will. I was also very surprised about Lauren and Bankole’s relationship. I picture Bankole as a very very old man (like 40s-50s), so when Lauren started talking about alone time with him, I was really surprised, because that must be borderline pedophilia. It made me feel weirder that Lauren was the one who was more okay with the relationship, while Bankole seemed to be somewhat uncomfortable when Lauren s...

  There are a lot of interesting events in chapters 17-19, most notably Lauren’s “religion” Earthseed gaining more traction, but there were other things that I was focused on. The main thing that I noticed during these chapters was how most of the time, the world just seems like a place with a lot of crime but still some sort of unspoken rule that if you’re not crazy, act normal, sometimes help people out, but mostly mind your own business. I was surprised at how some of the people seemed so vulnerable to attacks - for example, the old men who fell during the Earthquake or the Douglas couple. I feel like with a baby, rare food, and nice supplies, they should’ve had a hard time defending themselves. The old men hardly even got defensive when Lauren motioned to help them up. It’s starting to make this book seem somewhat cliche: I feel like in real life, everyone in the neighborhood would have died, and if Lauren tried to let anyone join their group, they probably would have been back...