Book Club (FTP Edition): Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler (1993)

The "FTP list" stands for F*ck the Patriarchy. It exists because the voices on our Top 100 novels list are overwhelmingly white and male. The FTP list is my attempt to right this wrong. If you have a recommendation for this list, send it my way.

With pick #3 on this esteemed list, we turn to visionary writer Octavia E. Butler and her unsettling, prophetic novel, Parable of the Sower.

Published in 1993 but set in the 2020s, Parable of the Sower follows Lauren Olamina, a young Black woman growing up in a collapsing America ravaged by climate change, economic instability, corporate greed, and social fragmentation. (Sound familiar?) Lauren possesses “hyperempathy,” a condition that makes her physically feel the pain of others — a dangerous liability in a brutal world, but perhaps also the seed of something radically new.

As society fractures, Lauren begins to shape a belief system she calls Earthseed, rooted in one central truth: God is Change.

Butler doesn’t give us easy dystopia. She gives us something far more unsettling: a future that feels entirely plausible. And within that future, she plants a question. What does it take to build something humane in the ruins?

Like Morrison and Hurston before her on this list, Butler expands by redefining what literature can do. She blends science fiction, theology, social critique, and survival story into something that feels less like prediction and more like preparation.

We’ll talk about:
✨ Prophecy vs. coincidence — why this novel feels so eerily current
✨ The power (and danger) of empathy
✨ Earthseed as spiritual rebellion
✨ Survival, leadership, and what kind of future is worth building

Spend time with it. Notice what unsettles you. Notice what strengthens you. And come share your perspective.

RSVP Today!
Peace ❤️