Summary: A very different vampire story than the recent Twilight/True Blood variety.
Do you get tired of me saying, “This is an author that I have been wanting to read for a while”? Because I am a bit tired of writing it. But it is true. Butler was a unique writer. She was an African American female science fiction/fantasy author. She wrote African American characters into Science Fiction and Fantasy. She was also the first (only?) science fiction author to receive a MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant.
Fledgling was Octavia Butler’s last book. Butler died at the age of 58 in 2006 (of a stroke), a year after this book was published.
Fledgling is a vampire book. Not like Twilight or True Blood, but still very much vampire.
In this world of vampires, you do not become a vampire. You are born a vampire. Vampires, (they call themselves Ina), are a different species from humans.
The Ina need humans for blood and form a symbiotic relationship. The humans willingly form a community around a particular Ina and in exchange the Ina venom helps humans heal and live longer. A human ‘symbiant’, can live to 200 or so years old. While the Ina often live to 500-600 years old.