Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

51 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

marsh_mall0w's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Genocide, Death of parent, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, and Grief

Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, Gore, Self harm, Murder, Animal death, and Suicide

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Eating disorder

directorpurry's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Trafficking, Racism, Slavery, Murder, and Violence

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

rach_fornow's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad 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

Im not rating this bc it was a gorgeous and devastating read, but I base my ratings on my personal experience of reading the book and as a white woman I’m just gonna sit with my feelings abt the material related to enslaved women thrown overboard and not rate it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

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

giulianalb99's review

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

This book is pure suffering but I think everyone should read it. 
Unfortunately, in the times we are living in, there is a lot of racism and this book talks about it in a way that makes you suffer from start to finish. I’ve read this book in an afternoon and it is so well written but it wasn’t an easy read for all the topics it deals with.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Physical abuse, Slavery, Genocide, Colonisation, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Racism

angelkisses's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

this is amazing. rivers solomon is 3 for 3 in my books now. their work is absolutely phenomenal. try and go to this experience with as minimal explanation as possible. this novella is an explicitly sapphic, gender/sex diverse (interspecies? kinda?) monster romance a la the shape of you (mermaids<3). While I enjoyed those passages elaborating on Yetu and Ooris budding relationship, the bulk of this story discusses the legacy of slavery and the impact of intergenerational trauma on marginalised communities. There is also a large seed of hope sown throughout this story, much in the same way that hope is weaved throughout Solomon's other work. I am grateful for their perspective on such heavy topics, as they provide a distinct feeling of possibility.

Seriously, no more talking about this book because this review should only be read quickly before any of you reading finally make the push to prioritise this off your TBR!  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

Moderate: Slavery, War, Racism, and Misogyny

Minor: Genocide

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