Definitely noticed the antipathy towards homeless/poor people in the first novel. My students and I talked about how Lauren can be a little hypocritical- referring to people who live in the streets as “human maggots” while she lives a comfortable and enviable life inside a gated community

That’s a great way of thinking about Lauren’s hyper empathy! Now that you say this it’s function as a character trait feels clearer to me

I read the second one because I wanted to see what happened, or because I particularly cared about Lauren Nothing really happened to change my opinion of her in the sequel

“Nothing to suggest this is a conscious ploy that gets any sort of payoff” is how I’d describe a lot of my feelings about the book — particularly Lauren’s relationship with Bankole. My students and I have been uncertain of how Butler wants us to perceive this relationship. Is it meant to be uncomfortable? Is it not? Big question marks