Fledgling, Octavia Butler's new novel after a seven-year break, is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl whose alarmingly inhuman needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion: She is in fact a genetically modified, 53-year-old vampire.

Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, she must at the same time learn who wanted—and still wants—to destroy her and those she cares for, and how she can save herself.

Fledgling is a captivating novel that tests the limits of "otherness" and questions what it means to be truly human.