Reviews

The Deep by Zetta Elliott

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seymone's review against another edition

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4.0

As the settings was in my childhood neighborhood, the story was more magical to me.

lesbrary's review against another edition

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3.0

I don't know where I heard about this book, but I was obviously confused about--I thought it was queer, but it's not, and it's also the second book in the series. Still, I really enjoyed the writing and premise, I just thought it way too short. Big chunks of time get skipped over, which made a lot of things feel really abrupt. The first 150 pages felt like they perfectly set up an interesting plot, but then it was over in the next 40 pages! I feel like this would have been better fleshed out some. It could easily be twice the length.

But I did really enjoy the voice and the characters. I hope there's a sequel after this to expand on it.

crystal_reading's review against another edition

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5.0

Final copy via author

This is part of a series of books that follow three friends. It's a fantastic work of speculative fiction.

f18's review

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

The character development and worldbuilding were much better in The Deep than the first book, Ship of Souls, but right as the book was hitting its climax at the 88% mark, the author chose to switch from present to past tense (the first book was present tense as well) and have the characters talk as if they were summarizing (exciting!!) events through memory. The summary style stopped after a few scenes, but the past tense stayed to the end and unfortunately the tension was already broken. I'm not sure what Zetta Elliott was trying to achieve with this strange writing choice.

I'd also like to mention that in order to leave home before dinner (she already had permission to leave right after eating) Nyla uses a friend's suicide attempt as an excuse to sway her parents. This is never addressed and didn't seem necessary or in-character, and in fact, this is the only plot relevance her friend has in this book. I could see it having happened

after her addiction sets in to show how her judgement was deteriorating

but this is before

she comes into contact with the energy in The Deep.

These issues (and some other more minor things) weren't balanced out by what I thought this book improved upon, so I can't rate it higher than the first. I will still try The Return as I'm hoping it will reveal how Nuru is connected to The Deep and tie the first two books together.

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EDIT: Book 3 didn't even involve D, so definitely nothing about Nuru, but I did end up liking it more than the prev two.

Content Warnings

artransvet's review against another edition

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5.0

Wow, just wow! I don't even know how to begin to describe this book without giving it all away. I didn't realize that "Ship of Souls" was the first book and that this one follows but you can read this book and understand 95% of what is going on without reading "Ship of Souls." I don't think I've ever read a book where a young black girl has any sort of mystical powers or super powers. This is the only book I've ever come across like this. This is a powerful book and it's a chance to show kids that often don't find themselves represented in books that they can be somebody amazing.

danikaellis's review

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3.0

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