Dana, a 20th-century black woman, is suddenly and inexplicably sucked into the past, to a Maryland plantation in the early 1800s, in order to save the life of a young white child who would eventually live to be one of her forebears. Over and over, she returns to the future for barely enough time to reorient herself before she is transported into the past to rescue him yet again. Between each of her visits, several years have passed in the past, and the child grown older. Her visits become not only lengthier, but, especially for a black woman in the 19-century South, more and more dangerous.

As Kindred opens with a bang, the reader can’t help but become immediately absorbed, getting a glimpse of how the book ends before even learning how it begins. Though the detailed depictions of this era of slavery are hard to swallow, they bring the period to life and add an in-your-face sense of realism. I couldn’t put it down.

The premise of this novel is simple, if not adequately explained: a modern-day black woman, Dana, is transported back to antebellum Maryland whenever her white ancestor, Rufus, is in danger of losing his life. Dana must save his life, despite her dislike of him, to ensure her own eventual birth. But then she is stuck as a slave in that time until she feels sufficiently threatened that she jumps back to her own time. The time travel process is never really explained, but that wasn’t my main problem with the book, which I disliked more than any of Butler’s other novels. The novel is intended to be a twist on the literary form of th slave narrative and to give some insight into why strong-willed people might give in to slavery, but I was not convinced. I couldn’t understand how Dana could fall into the rhythms of a slave’s life so easily or accept what was happening to her so readily, and why didn’t she, as a representative of a later time, have a greater effect on the people she met in the past? The story never gelled for me because I couldn’t quite suspend my disbelief, and the ending was particularly unsatisfying.