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mmccombs's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
A compelling story that is made even better by context. Listening to the afterword made me fall down a googling rabbit hole about all of the historical layers that built up towards this book. So many voices make up this fairly slim story, and I think that iteration and collaboration makes for such a strong narrative. I do wish I had read this with a physical copy rather than listening to it, I think there were some details I missed (and maybe even some structure of it, the way it was performed sounded like poetry but I couldn’t really tell). This book really made me think about why we tell stories and how they change through the telling of them. Just a very wonderful little book!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Slavery
maddiebusick's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Grief, Blood, and Death
Moderate: Pregnancy, Violence, Suicide attempt, Xenophobia, Slavery, Racism, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Child death, Medical content, Gun violence, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Miscarriage, and War
leanne_miron's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
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? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Trafficking, Slavery, and Pregnancy
kelly04's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Slavery
solenekeleroux's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Death, Grief, Racism, Colonisation, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Animal death, Blood, and Genocide
Moderate: Pregnancy, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, and Mental illness
nannahnannah's review against another edition
3.0
I think this was the book I was most looking forward to reading all year. It has one of the most amazing concepts I’d ever read, being about the merfolk descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard during the Middle Passage. Unfortunately, the execution didn’t quite match it.
Representation:
- every character is African
- the main character and her love interest are sapphic
- the main character is also autistic with sensory processing disorder (I’m not sure if that’s … “canon”, but as someone who’s also autistic with SPD, I’m pretty sure that’s what’s going on here)
- all the merfolk are gender fluid and intersex
- there are also two minor mlm characters shown through a flashback/the Remembering
This book came to be by a strange game of “telephone”, beginning with a song of the same name by the band, Drexciya. It was then covered by the band clipping., and then it finally became this novella by Rivers Solomon. As written in the afterward, Drexciya “created the original mythology:
“Could it be possible for humans to breathe underwater? A foetus in its mother’s womb is certainly alive in its aquatic environment. During the greatest holocaust the world has ever known, pregnant America-bound African slaves were thrown overboard by the thousands during labor for being sick and disruptive cargo. Is it possible that they could have given birth at sea to babies that never needed air? Are Drexciyans water-breathing, aquatically mutated descendants of those unfortunate victims of human greed? Have they been spared by God to teach us or terrorize us?”
Rivers Solomon expands on this mythos here, introducing the concept of a Historian (our protagonist, Yetu) who holds all the memories of past merfolk (“wajinru”) in her own body and mind, literally living her people’s trauma constantly in real time. Her other fellow wajinru are free of this burden, having short memories, save for once a year. Then, in a psychic linking event called the Remembering, the Historian shows them everything, so that they’re always somewhat connected to their past.
Holding all the wajinru’s memories and trauma, however, is killing Yetu. During one Remembering, she decides to save herself and leaves the rest of her people. She wasn’t strong enough to contain the memories, but her people surely will be. Which brings us back to Drexciya’s original line: “Have they been spared by God to teach us or terrorize us?”
I really, really wanted to love this book. There were so many significant and intense themes explored: generational trauma, community, the importance of remembering important (even if traumatic and awful) events, etc. The representation, also, is so well done and well written -- the sensory processing disorder in particular affected me deeply.
But I just couldn’t get past the writing, which just wasn’t my thing. The prose repeated itself so often that I couldn’t find it lovely (repeating several times in a single chapter that Yetu became the Historian at fourteen, that she abandoned the rest of the wajinru in the Remembering, etc. as if it was being said the first time). I don’t know if perhaps this was initially written and published in installments, which would make more sense, but it really took me out of the story and Yetu’s world.
There was also the PoV. I had to remind myself that Yetu was in her thirties -- the writing and PoV constantly made me think she was a teenager in a YA novel, which made the discussion of how the wajinru have sex especially jarring (I didn’t have a problem with the discussion itself, however).
The romance, though, was so uplifting, sincere, and lovely. I fell in love with Oori, as well as Oori and Yetu’s relationship. There were lots of things I liked about The Deep, but I just wish I was able to fall in love with it.
Representation:
- every character is African
- the main character and her love interest are sapphic
- the main character is also autistic with sensory processing disorder (I’m not sure if that’s … “canon”, but as someone who’s also autistic with SPD, I’m pretty sure that’s what’s going on here)
- all the merfolk are gender fluid and intersex
- there are also two minor mlm characters shown through a flashback/the Remembering
This book came to be by a strange game of “telephone”, beginning with a song of the same name by the band, Drexciya. It was then covered by the band clipping., and then it finally became this novella by Rivers Solomon. As written in the afterward, Drexciya “created the original mythology:
“Could it be possible for humans to breathe underwater? A foetus in its mother’s womb is certainly alive in its aquatic environment. During the greatest holocaust the world has ever known, pregnant America-bound African slaves were thrown overboard by the thousands during labor for being sick and disruptive cargo. Is it possible that they could have given birth at sea to babies that never needed air? Are Drexciyans water-breathing, aquatically mutated descendants of those unfortunate victims of human greed? Have they been spared by God to teach us or terrorize us?”
Rivers Solomon expands on this mythos here, introducing the concept of a Historian (our protagonist, Yetu) who holds all the memories of past merfolk (“wajinru”) in her own body and mind, literally living her people’s trauma constantly in real time. Her other fellow wajinru are free of this burden, having short memories, save for once a year. Then, in a psychic linking event called the Remembering, the Historian shows them everything, so that they’re always somewhat connected to their past.
Holding all the wajinru’s memories and trauma, however, is killing Yetu. During one Remembering, she decides to save herself and leaves the rest of her people. She wasn’t strong enough to contain the memories, but her people surely will be. Which brings us back to Drexciya’s original line: “Have they been spared by God to teach us or terrorize us?”
I really, really wanted to love this book. There were so many significant and intense themes explored: generational trauma, community, the importance of remembering important (even if traumatic and awful) events, etc. The representation, also, is so well done and well written -- the sensory processing disorder in particular affected me deeply.
But I just couldn’t get past the writing, which just wasn’t my thing. The prose repeated itself so often that I couldn’t find it lovely (repeating several times in a single chapter that Yetu became the Historian at fourteen, that she abandoned the rest of the wajinru in the Remembering, etc. as if it was being said the first time). I don’t know if perhaps this was initially written and published in installments, which would make more sense, but it really took me out of the story and Yetu’s world.
There was also the PoV. I had to remind myself that Yetu was in her thirties -- the writing and PoV constantly made me think she was a teenager in a YA novel, which made the discussion of how the wajinru have sex especially jarring (I didn’t have a problem with the discussion itself, however).
The romance, though, was so uplifting, sincere, and lovely. I fell in love with Oori, as well as Oori and Yetu’s relationship. There were lots of things I liked about The Deep, but I just wish I was able to fall in love with it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
also: trauma & generational traumaimrereads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
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
5.0
Wow! This novella is so powerful. So beautifully written, so emotionally charged, so intelligent. This will stay with me for a long time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death, Grief, and Slavery
antonique_reads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Death, Violence, Murder, and Slavery
melodyseestrees's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
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
4.75
The audiobook is a fantastic version of the story. I would argue it is the best way to experience the story. You will find yourself rooting for the main character throughout all the trials and periods of growth. The beauty and pain of remembering beginnings, endings, tragedies, and love are intertwined as surely as the water around their people. Remembering is painful and a lot to shoulder alone.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Death, Death of parent, Grief, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, and Mental illness
heather_freshparchment's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Mental illness, Death, Self harm, Slavery, Blood, and Suicide attempt