Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Deep

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

54 reviews

gandalf_a's review against another edition

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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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culpeppper's review against another edition

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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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rainbopagn's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-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

4.0

This is a heavy hitter, with the MC being an allegory for generational trauma. The author intentionally makes you uncomfortable as you are not sure if you want the MC to return home or not. I think this is a must read for anyone who as the privilege of NOT knowing intergenerational or racial trauma.

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artemis7's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.75

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cassidy_99's review against another edition

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inspiring mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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sydapel's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful 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? No

4.0

Read as my singular contribution to the Trans Rights Readathon 2024 (I strive to do better next year!). I strongly suggest reading about how this project came about before diving into this, but I do have a deep appreciation for the power of Solomon's prose and the way the novella tackles through fantasy elements the burdens of generational trauma, ancestry and remembrance. Super compelling, I will absolutely be seeking out more by River Solomon.

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pacifickat's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad fast-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

4.25

This was a wonderfully original fantasy novella with excellent world building, a unique culture, and themes of collective memory and belonging in tension with the main character's desire for self-determination and autonomy. It is also set against the horror of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the cruel deaths of so many abducted Africans at sea. The Wajinru, children of African pregnant mothers thrown overboard by cruel captors and transformed into merpeople, have a history marked by tremendous grief. What I liked best about the storytelling was the lyrical style employed when describing the Wajinru in the first half of the story, and again toward the end. As a chorus, their voice is stunningly rendered.

However, there was a section toward the middle where

Yetu, the main character and ‘memory keeper’ for her people, is separated from the rest of her culture. This was less interesting to me in terms of style, but necessary for the plot of the story. Yetu longs for self-determination, individual freedom, and to be an ‘I’ in a culture of ‘we’. It is her voice that annoyed me a bit, the inclusion of details about her romantic inclinations and sexual preferences as well as her personal curiosity regarding biological distinctions between humans and merpeople. I found the unique history and anthropology of the Wajinru far more captivating than the nitty gritty of their biology. Yet Yetu’s individuality is part of the point of the story, that she doesn’t want to be swallowed up and erased in a collective oneness with her people. And what is more individual than that which a person chooses to love, and how they choose to express their affection?

Ultimately this is a story about finding balance, between a traumatic past and a hopeful future, between individual and communal identity, between colonizing forces and indigenous cultures, and between the land and sea itself. It is also about remembering.

"Remember. […] That was all remembering was, prodding them lest they try to move on from things that should not be moved on from. Forgetting is not the same as healing.” - Yetu

"One can only go so long without asking, ‘Who am I? Where do I come from? What does all this mean? What is being? What came before me, and what might come after?’ Without answers there is only a hole, a whole where a history should be that takes the shape of an endless longing. We are cavities.” - Amamba

Yetu bears all of her people’s generational trauma, that is her role as ‘memory keeper’ in a society where long-term memory has largely been erased to give her people the freedom to thrive in the present unhindered by a painful past. She is their matriarch, but she is ill-suited for the role.

Out of an instinct for self-preservation, being unable to hold all of her peoples’ pain alone, she ultimately is the one to bring the wisdom of balance to the Wajinru.

"She couldn’t determine which was worse, the pain of the ancestors or the pain of the living. Both fed off her.”

"She learned how to make an inch for herself.”

"She touched each one of them, figuring out how each Wajinru was outside of the oneness the remembrance brought. That mattered. Who each of them was mattered as much as who all of them were together.”

"They could bear it all together.”

It is also a story about the function of memory in culture-making and identity.

One poignant detail is that Yetu and her romantic human interest, Oori, turn out to have come from the same distant ancestors. When Oori’s homeland is swallowed up by the sea, their history washed away, both characters lost something deep and sacred. However, they gained something as well, in the relationship they chose to forge in the present together.

In the afterward, The Deep is described as “a game of cumulative telephone.” The concept began as a song and was adapted over time by different musical groups until this novelization was produced.

“Each new telling of The Deep has been productive rather than destructive, and each new iteration has been carried out with admiration for the previous, […] happily taking on adaptations of each new interpreter into the future.”

This is a wonderful description of culture-making, the turning of ‘I’ into ‘we’, of carrying our stories, traumas, and longings together, erasing loneliness in the context of a communal tribe. It is forming collective memory, adapting a shared history into a cohesive perspective, a meaningful and unifying mythology.

"The living put their own mark on the dead.”

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khakipantsofsex's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes

3.5

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viivacious's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful sad fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes

3.0

The narration is good. I don't think I would have gone through with it in print, since I have trouble reading dark stuff. It was good, and the ending was nice. Still, the generational trauma can be a little too hard to deal with if you're not in the right head space.

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miss_elease's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

most compelling intro to a book I've read in a long time
fucking brilliant afterword that is all the more appreciated after reading Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures
the juxtapositions and complications of one's relationship to time(s) is very well handled

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