Dawn, Octavia Butler (1987)
This was a reread (first reading in 2018, when according to the receipt i bought it for $3.50 at Rodney's (now defunct) Bookstore). This tale of apocalypse and alien takover is also a slave narrative, and it's darker than i remembered. In most respects, it seems like an ideal candidate for a spot on my literature syllabus next spring. But the weird interspecies sex gives me pause. Do i want to moderate whole-class discussions of that stuff? If not for my long TRB list, i would go directly to the sequel.