This book was absolutely brilliant, it was incredibly bleak and difficult to read due to the subject matter but it flows very well. This book was very insightful and thought-provoking because it's one thing to know slavery was awful it's another to see how enslaved people were treated on a daily which makes this a required read in my opinion. I thought the sci-fi elements were very compelling I also loved that certain characters

Rufus

had great potential to do better and be the changes that their time needed but were unfortunately contaminated by their environment and the beliefs that were instilled in them from a young age which I found incredibly realistic. 

The only thing that deterred this from being a favorite is the structure, the author writes in a way where she mentions an event right before it happens and it makes it feel as if you're being spoiled at every turn (she sort of tells then shows if that makes sense). I also found some characters to be a little inconsistent which made some of their decisions and actions feel as if they were made solely for the main purpose of the story which was

the birth of Hagar and the continuation of Dana's bloodline

and that took me out of the story though this might just be due to this book being a product of its time but all that being said I really loved this book I know I had a lot of negative things to say but for the most part I'm just being nitpicky, the good definitely outways the bad. I didn't mention much of what I loved about it because these are just my fresh thoughts I'd really love to go back and write an essay to try and have a deeper more nuanced understanding of the subject matter.