Rivers Solomon's writing is so good, I love it. This book is like sea waves, lulling and mystic. But even though it's short, it's also vast and intimidating like the ocean. Which just shows how perfectly illustrative and immersive it is. A moody story of life and lives, of the origins of a people, of prolonged generational trauma, of first loves and present pasts and fairy tale ending. Reading the first chapters I was a little disoriented bc I was feeling things were kinda choppy and at times it's a bit repetitive but once past that feeling this was a pleasure to read bc Rivers writing makes me feel so many things at once. I was enveloped, adhered to this story and wished it had been 440+ pages long (especially when reading Basha's chapter). I'm not gonna lie though, at first as I was reading I kept wishing the book had taken more of a "The Deep", the song route bc the song is amazing, too. I obviously didn't hate what I read (though I did kinda scowl when I felt the The Giver vibes bc that book sucks lol but this was way better), and found Yetu and Oori cute, but after reading the (pretentious) Afterword by clipping. I understand why the book went the way it did and yeah Rivers enhanced it gave it the RS style I enjoy and love.