Date Of Review: September 30, 2023
Review Left On GoodReads: Yes
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5830010509
The Deep
Author: Rivers Solomon
Narrator: Daveed Diggs
Started: September 29, 2023
Finished: September 30, 2023
Genre: sci-fi, fantasy
Length: 4 hours 1 mins 43 secs
Part Of A Series: no
Type Of Book: audiobook
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42201962-the-deep
Review:
It is going to be hard to put my thoughts into words on this book. I loved this book. I got so into it, I had no idea that time even passed. The narration was very good as well.
The African slaves thrown overboard getting revenge by becoming 'mermaids' is what drew me in. I was hoping for vengeance. When I think of mermaids it is NOT cute, pretty, Disney-fied mermaids. They are pretty much as described in this book. I was glad I was wrong about the vengeance. This story was good, considering it based off a song.
This book is not just a fantastical mermaid story you may think it is. It is a story of the person forced into keeping the history of their people finally understanding that the history must be shared. It can't be left to one person. How will we learn? Why can they not be her own person like everyone else? The sacrifice of one so the others live in peace isn't always the best course of action. I also see this as the pressure from generation traditions, trauma, and expectations (I had so much of that due to the religion I was raised in as well as my German heritage). I would also love to know how Yuri influenced everyone once she could breathe underwater.
If folks where not so uptight in the American school system, I would say this would be a good book for Seniors (last year students) to read if it isn't already (I thankfully haven't had to deal with that trauma/drama in 20 years). It is thought provoking while teaching a couple lessons along the way - if your mind is open that is.
Goodreads Description:
The water-breathing descendants of African slave women tossed overboard have built their own underwater society—and must reclaim the memories of their past to shape their future in this brilliantly imaginative novella inspired by the Hugo Award nominated song “The Deep” from Daveed Diggs’ rap group Clipping.
Yetu holds the memories for her people—water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners—who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one—the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu.
Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities—and discovers a world her people left behind long ago.
Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past—and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity—and own who they really are.
Inspired by a song produced by the rap group Clipping for the This American Life episode “We Are In The Future,” The Deep is vividly original and uniquely affecting.