Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

110 reviews

building_a_bookdom's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Eating disorder, Genocide, Grief, Mental illness, Slavery, Blood, Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, War, and Abandonment

Moderate: Pregnancy, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Child death, Murder, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Body horror, Colonisation, and Death of parent

pages_and_cacti's review against another edition

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

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

2.5

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

Yetu, the Historian for the Wajinru, descendants of pregnant African slave women that were thrown into the ocean by slavers, wants to live a life of freedom from the history she holds for her kind.  She must learn that her history is what makes the Wajinru who they are. 

My thoughts: I actually enjoyed the story as a whole and the meaning of the importance of one’s history. I love the line, “We cannot understand a people that would willingly choose to cut itself off from its history, no matter what pain it entails”.  Our history is who we are and should never be lost. The problem I had with the book, other reviews touted this as an LGBTQ+ book and I am not  as convinced. While Yetu and Oora did develop a relationship, Oora was human and Yetu was a “mermaid”. The Wajinru were described as fish, had both sex organs, and also called an “animal” in the writing. This relationship would seem to be more like beastiality than a lesbian relationship. I understand that this is likely not what the writer meant to portray, but it came across that way to me. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Cultural appropriation, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Self harm, Abandonment, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Child abuse, and War

maeverose's review against another edition

5.0

I don’t have the words to properly review this but this book is beautiful and everyone should read it (though check content warnings first, there are some heavy themes in it).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Child abuse, Gore, Racism, Slavery, Animal death, Blood, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Vomit, and Suicidal thoughts

Death in childbirth, baby is born after mother died

ananthousflorist's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Grief, Slavery, Racism, and Genocide

Moderate: Pregnancy

ahbmacgregor's review against another edition

• 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

Moderate: Suicide attempt, War, Suicide, Pregnancy, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Slavery

dancingprince's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment

Moderate: Colonisation, Suicide attempt, and Self harm

Minor: Slavery and Pregnancy

kurumipanda's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Animal death, and Slavery

Moderate: Pregnancy, Ableism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Colonisation, and Self harm

brianneh's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Death, Slavery, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

discarded_dust_jacket's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

Wow. Ok, let me collect my thoughts.

This story is an incredibly imaginative and deeply moving study of generational trauma, the struggle between the importance of remembering and the need to survive, and the power of community—of a people, as one, sharing the weight of history together, grieving and celebrating together.

And beyond that, I love how this book, like its characters, can’t exist on its own. Solomon openly embraces the direct inspiration that birthed the story’s central mythology: a song of the same name by clipping., who, in turn, acknowledges its origins in the work of Detroit-based musical duo Drexciya. 

The afterword puts it beautifully:

“We prefer to imagine each of these objects as artifacts—as primary sources—each showing a different angle on a world whose nature can never be observed in totality. … Experiencing these works requires labor—something like that of an archaeologist who’s discovered multiple texts about the Drexciyan civilization [the underwater society descended from the children of drowned, pregnant enslaved women that forms this story] and is tasked with assembling a picture of that civilization.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, War, Self harm, Violence, Gore, Death, Slavery, Blood, and Grief

bearbookshelf's review against another edition

challenging hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

The depth of this book is undeniable, and Sllomon continuously leaves you wanting more- not exactly a bad place to be left, but in this case I think that little bit more would have pushed it to 5 stars for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Suicide attempt, Trafficking, Genocide, and Grief