Octavia E. Butler: Fledgling (2007, Grand Central Publishing)
English language
Published Sept. 17, 2007 by Grand Central Publishing.
Shori is a mystery. Found alone in the woods, she appears to be a little black girl with traumatic amnesia and near-fatal wounds. But Shori is a fifty-three-year-old vampire with a ravenous hunger for blood, the lost child of an ancient species of near-immortals who live in dark symbiosis with humanity. Genetically modified to be able to walk in daylight, Shori now becomes the target of a vast plot to destroy her and her kind. And in the final apocalyptic battle, her survival will depend on whether all humans are bigots-or all bigots are human.
Sadly this was my last Octavia Butler novel, but it did not disappoint. Her penetrating use of the supernatural to explore human power dynamics is riveting, uncomfortable, and diverse.
