"At least three years ago, my father's God stopped being my God. His church stopped being my church. Ant yet, today, because I'm a coward, I let myself be initiated into that church... My God has another name."- Page 7
"There was a naked little boy whose skin was mass of big red sores; a man with a huge scab over the stump where his right hand used to be; a little girl, naked, maybe seven years old with blood running down her bare thighs. A with a swollen, bloody, beaten face...Dad may have read something of what I was feeling in my expression. I try not to let my face show anything, but he's good at reading me."- Page 13
In the year 2024, we meet the Olamina family. Lauren Olamina was born to a drug addict mother and Reverend Olamina. They then separated and Olamina married Corazon (Cory) Olamina. Together they had four children, Keith, Marcus, Gregory, and Bennett.
"It was a bigger, grayer animal than the one I had seen. There was a beauty to it. It looked like pictures I had seen of wolves. It was wedged against a hanging boulder just a few steps up the steep canyon wall from us. It moved." - Page 44
Joanne
"I saw its bloody wounds as it twisted. I bit my tongue as the pain I knew it must feel became my pain. … I thought I would throw up. My belly hurt more and more until I felt skewered through the middle." - Page 44
Aura
Because she is in a relatively Baptist home, Lauren goes to church and sometimes preaches sermons there. However that doesn't hide her true belief. She believes in what she later names Earthseed, the idea that God is change. She keeps this a secret from her family, so instead she notes it down in her journal, in other words she tells us, the reader.
"Cory, Marcus, Bennett, and Gregory were in the kitchen, clustered around Keith. Keith was sprawled, panting, on the floor, wearing only his underpants. He was scraped and bruised, bleeding, and filthy. Cory knelt beside him, examining him, questioning him, crying."
"Where's the key you stole? Did they take it from you?"
"What happened to you? Who did this? Why did you go outside? Where are your clothes? What-?"
"I couldn't help it. I couldn't, Daddy. There were five guys."
Lauren has a condition known as hyper-empathy syndrome. This condition makes her feel the pain and pleasure of others. This is because her mother took a drug called Parateco before Lauren's birth. As a result, this is Lauren's condition and the side affects of the drug are permanent. Here, Lauren can barely handle the corpses of a family who had been robbed and murdered. In the apocalyptic years of the 2020's, this scenery is common as people would do anything they could to survive, even brutally murdering others.
"Keith has gone outside again. He went yesterday afternoon. Cory didn't admit until tonight that he took not only her key this time, but her gun... Dad refused to go out and look for him... I never liked my brother much. I hate him now for what he's doing to the family- for what he's doing to my father." - Page 98
It is the year 2025. A lot of events have happened. A fire in the neighborhood really spooked Lauren and her family. People are mysteriously disappearing and reappearing brutality killed and robbed of their current possessions. Here Lauren and her father invite her friends to practice shooting. While they practice, they come across an injured dog and Lauren can't bare the pain she is feeling because of her condition. As a result she decides to kill the dog in order to stop its pain as well as hers. However this event will remain in her mind for a while.
"With my right hand, I drew the Smith & Wesson, aimed and shot the beautiful dog through its head. I felt the impact of the bullet as a hard, solid blow... I saw it die. I felt it die... I went a little numb." - Page 45
Keith, Lauren's younger brother, leaves the house out of frustration because of his father's denial of going hunting and shooting with Lauren. He brings with him the house key, the only thing that keeps thieves and scavengers from getting into the house. Cory then finds him the next day bleeding and bruised. He was robbed of the key and beaten. Reverend Olamina is furious and storms off. There is now fear of invasion, their house being set on fire, and scavengers breaking in.
"Dad turned and strode out of the house, almost a run." - Page 91
Keith resents his father because of his punishment after that stunt with the keys. Keith doesn't seem to learn his lesson and starts to leave the house as he so chooses. One day he comes back with gifts like money and candy for Bennett and Gregory. Lauren and Cory are skeptical with Keith's findings. Lauren thinks that he may be making deals with dangerous people. As a result, the family worries that it will be the last time they see him.
"Keith came home tonight while Dad was visiting over at the Talcott house. I suspect that Keith hung around and watched the house and waited until Dad left. He had come to see Cory. He brought her a lot of money done up in a fat roll... Keith gave Bennett and Gregory big, expensive bars of milk chocolate with peanuts. He just smiled and Marcus and me - obvious 'f**k you' smile." - Page 98-99
Bolo vytvorených viac ako 30 miliónov storyboardov