Well, if anyone does come here, consider giving a listen to The Parable of the Sower. It's hands down one of my favorite audiobooks. It's written by Octavia Butler and narrorated by Lynne Thigpen. I don't always dig audiobooks, because too many Feel empty or like white noise to me. Or there is this nagging feeling that I would not want to listen to the narrorator reading anything, let alone x-book. But this one was wonderful, and I think it's in part because the source material is good and the narrorator was very talented and has a very unique voice. I grabbed it here, but originally listened ot it on Libby. If you're interested I'd say both books (The Parable of the Talents) are wonderful to read/listen to - absorb through osmosis. All of the above. So give them a go if you'd like.
On its own, its very dark. There is a ton of pretty harsh subject matter, most of which is implied or you only passingly see the aftermath of, but contributes to it feeling very heavy.
Then it also feels very topical, despite being released in 1993, it opens in july of 2024 and features a devolving american political situation with some startling specific similarities to our real life political situation. If you are prone to doomerism I can imagine it really fueling that impulse.
Great recommendations! Octavia E Butler is a fantastic author, and I've read the first but couldn't find the second before life got in rhe way, again...so I might check this out!