Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

54 reviews

touchegiantsquid's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

Amazing premise but the execution didn't engage me. The nonlinearity of the storytelling didn't feel like it was deployed to help heighten the tension or deepen my emotional connections. It felt like a lot of world building that didn't have a smooth place to fit into the story.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Genocide, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, and Suicide attempt

szuum's review

challenging emotional sad slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Suicide attempt, Genocide, Slavery, Grief, Racism, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Pregnancy

emzhay's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Genocide and Animal death

agustdefault's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

beautifully written with an amazing conception story. the premise of this story is so unique and well thought out. dealing with generational trauma along with the importance of not only history and community, but our own individuality shining throught that. i also love the neurodivergent rep and will be buying rivers’ other works!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Genocide, Hate crime, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Racism, Slavery, and Suicidal thoughts

samara's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Genocide, Grief, Racism, Self harm, Slavery, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: War and Vomit

tesstellstales's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Racism, Trafficking, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Slavery, Animal death, and Sexual content

Minor: Pregnancy

alsoapples's review

challenging emotional inspiring 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death of parent, Grief, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Slavery

sapphic_in_the_stacks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.5

If babies were born underwater, would they retain their ability to breathe, and adapt to their new environment? In this world, when pregnant African women who were stolen from their homes to be sold into slavery were thrown overboard of the slaving ships, those babies were born and became the wajinru people, water breathing mermaids who live in the depths of the ocean.  In order to cope with the deep trauma associated with how their people came to be, the wajinru elected to have only one person carry all the memories of their ancestors, only to be shared once a year with the rest of the species. This book follows the story of Yetu, the current Historian of the wajinru people, and her attempt to retain her own identity while being the keeper of all ancestral knowledge for her people. 

If the premise of this book was interesting, the delivery was powerful and extremely emotional. Solomon tells a breathtaking story, gracefully tackling many delicate issues including individual vs shared identities, justice for past wrongs, collective trauma, duty, and love. While the premise seems like it could lend to a dark story, ultimately this story about finding your own identity, learning to advocate for yourself, and changing unsustainable and harmful systems, no matter how entrenched, are topics that many people can relate to. Additionally, this story forces readers to grapple with the terrible atrocities that many people today would like to forget occurred, and how in many ways there has still been no justice. A beautiful book about learning how to cope with terrible truths. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery and Animal death

kylieqrada's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative 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

5.0

I listened to this via the audiobook version, which is narrated by Daveed Diggs. I highly, highly recommend that reading experience. I had previously read An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon, so I knew that I was in for some deep (no pun intended) stuff with anything by them. However, I think that what Rivers accomplished here is so beyond anything else I've read, especially when considered with the context of the Drexia ouevre and the clipping song. The exploration of generational trauma and the impact of history on the collective and the individual was heart-rending, deeply impactful, and richly portrayed through each character. Also the diversity in this short novella is some of the best I've ever seen. I see you, demi rep! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Xenophobia

sarah984's review

challenging emotional reflective slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

This was a short book, but I found the writing style fairly dense and challenging. Somehow it seemed to have a lot of extraneous detail and repetition, especially in the middle. However, I really liked the messages about the pain and power of shared history and generational trauma, and the ending was good enough to make me want to rate it higher than I had initially.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Child death, Racism, Sexual content, and Genocide