Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

69 reviews

gandalf_a's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Genocide, Slavery, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Violence, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, War, and Mental illness

Minor: Eating disorder, Self harm, Racism, Blood, Animal death, Child death, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury

gabepants's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Death, Slavery, and Child death

culpeppper's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious sad

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I already wrote out a review and it didn't save, so I'm gonna do a bullet point style thing here:

• The metaphors were immense, sometimes clever and sometimes a little too on the nose, but largely the use of weaving those metaphors into the story was done well and enhanced the reading experience. As an example, the descriptions in the underwater mimic the setting, relying on feelings and ideas to form the world before Yetu goes to the surface where descriptions change to more solid things rather than concepts. 
• The story has multiple perspectives. Though I do feel it worked thematically to have these other perspectives, and the stories they told enhanced our perspective, but it was always jarring and confusing in a way that took me a bit out of the story sometimes. 
• It's a work of creative wonder, filled with countless concepts, and it's inspired me to read more of Solomon's work so I can have a longer experience that I think will suit their style of writing better. 

Overall, there were some things it lacked that could have built out the world a bit more, and the pacing felt weird and off at times, I think that's partially the form and maybe some stylistic elements I don't fully understand. But I liked the experience of this world, of this look into our world, and the use of history and remembering as critical to it. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Abandonment, Genocide, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Grief, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Xenophobia, Colonisation, Animal death, and Confinement

Minor: War, Child death, and Fire/Fire injury

xxenjoy's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I absolutely loved this book. I initially picked it up without reading any summary because the premise was intriguing, and I'm so glad I did. This is not an easy read, due to the subject matter, but I would recommend it to anyone open to something darker. And to anyone finding it too difficult

the second half is not quite as heavy as the first.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Slavery

Minor: Gore and Suicidal thoughts

I would warn anyone especially sensitive to things like overstimulation. As someone who experiences it fairly often, parts of the book were difficult to get through, mostly in the first half.

queenkath32's review against another edition

emotional reflective

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Racism, and Death

numerous_bees's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Death, Ableism, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal death, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Colonisation, Blood, Child death, Slavery, Genocide, Pregnancy, and Animal death

Minor: Racism, Sexual content, and Fire/Fire injury

anaheeta's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I seem to be very very fortunate lately as I keep reading books that make me want to start from the beginning right as I finish them. 

This was so so so beautiful and heartbreaking in a good way. And also the creation of the story and the multiple steps it took for this book to come to be (read the editor’s words) was fascinating. It was based on a horribly tragic historical genocide, one of pregnant/in labor African women thrown off of slave ships. 
Without giving away any more of the story, it’s sci-fi fantasy about life, love, and generational trauma. The book delves into the traumas of an underwater civilization and how the traumas are handled. How individuality and community interact. How change and progress works. 

It was just a beautiful beautiful work of fiction and I have become a fan of Rivers Solomon, can’t wait to read more of their work!


Trigger warnings: slavery, racism, blood, death, misogyny, grief, generational trauma,

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Genocide, Colonisation, Pregnancy, Death, Violence, Racism, and Slavery

Minor: Animal death and Blood

biobeetle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Body horror, Blood, and Colonisation

Moderate: Medical content, War, Suicide attempt, Death, Violence, Pregnancy, and Racism

Minor: Child death

agnela's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The star was slow because of how confused I was, but the story was important, and the premise was amazing.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Racism, Death, and Suicidal thoughts

tessamd's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The message and plot of this book are beautiful. However, as important as the message was, I felt beat over the head with it. There was little room for imagination and interpretation. Since the book was so short, there was also no time to get to know the characters well

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Child death, Death, Racism, Slavery, and Suicidal thoughts