Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation

Hardcover, 240 pages

English language

Published March 25, 2017 by Harry N. Abrams (Abrams Comicarts).

ISBN:: 978-1-4197-0947-0
OCLC Number:: 967496972

(1 review)

The book is the first-person account of a young African-American woman writer, Dana, who finds herself being shunted in time between her Los Angeles, California home in 1976 and a pre-Civil War Maryland plantation. (This is the comic adaptation of the original novel written by Olivia E. Bulter)

3 editions

Sami Sundell reviewed Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Octavia E. Butler

Review of 'Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Wonderful story of facing past

Kindred is a story of a black woman, Dana, who on her birthday jumps back in time, to early 1800s. She saves the life of a young boy, Rufus, who is a son of a plantation owner and, surprisingly, her ancestor. She keeps jumping between the modern day and the 1800s, seeing the reality of slavery. It's a story about loss of control: it drills down how completely the slaves' lives were dictated by their owners. It's about being afraid, and also about getting used to bad situation.

I'm not completely sold on the drawing style of the comic, but from what I know, it seems to capture the essence of the Octavia E. Butler novel. I still get the feeling that as powerful as the comic is, it's still a barebones version of the original.