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A review by mitzee
The Deep by Rivers Solomon
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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
3.75
Reading the afterward was helpful for me to better understand why this story is as short as it is and why it feels a bit like a fragment. It still does not feel like a full book but I get it now.
The story itself: I had a hard time following some of it because it was hard to piece together the lore/mythos. Not everything is fully explained and I guess the fact that it’s not meant to be a full book on its own but a retelling and reinterpretation of a heard story might be why.
The story is about humans who have become something like mermaids. The idea came from the fact that pregnant women who were being trafficked by the slave trade, were thrown into the sea. It’s possible that they gave birth in the oceans and it’s possible that after generations those babies began to physically adapt.
There are aspects of this species that exist but were not fully explained, they had a hive mind in some ways - shared memories, and referring to oneself as “we” not “I”. They had historians who kept the history, but I don’t understand how that could be differentiated given everyone has the same memories. They seem to be collectively hurt or injured if one of them leaves the school (I’ll call it a school, like fish). They apparently have not lost their ability to breathe above water, it’s just harder for them to do it. Their fins don’t turn into legs above land. They don’t have male vs female bodies, but they have gender and it’s self determined (men, women, both, neither)
There doesn’t seem to be a lot of content about what life is like for them below the surface. The parts of the book I mostly remember is when Yetu, the primary character, decides to go to the surface, on land, and meets a fisherwoman named Ouri. They seem to have a connection, unsure if it’s romantic but I will assume it’s a sapphic relationship.
At then end of the book the wyjenru (spelling is based on what I heard) end up attacking the land dwellers (or Two Legs as they are called in the book) but Ouri survives and Yetu finally finds her. She turns Ouri into something new: a human that can breathe water but never grows fins.
The story itself: I had a hard time following some of it because it was hard to piece together the lore/mythos. Not everything is fully explained and I guess the fact that it’s not meant to be a full book on its own but a retelling and reinterpretation of a heard story might be why.
There are aspects of this species that exist but were not fully explained, they had a hive mind in some ways - shared memories, and referring to oneself as “we” not “I”. They had historians who kept the history, but I don’t understand how that could be differentiated given everyone has the same memories. They seem to be collectively hurt or injured if one of them leaves the school (I’ll call it a school, like fish). They apparently have not lost their ability to breathe above water, it’s just harder for them to do it. Their fins don’t turn into legs above land. They don’t have male vs female bodies, but they have gender and it’s self determined (men, women, both, neither)
There doesn’t seem to be a lot of content about what life is like for them below the surface. The parts of the book I mostly remember is when Yetu, the primary character, decides to go to the surface, on land, and meets a fisherwoman named Ouri. They seem to have a connection, unsure if it’s romantic but I will assume it’s a sapphic relationship.
At then end of the book the wyjenru (spelling is based on what I heard) end up attacking the land dwellers (or Two Legs as they are called in the book) but Ouri survives and Yetu finally finds her. She turns Ouri into something new: a human that can breathe water but never grows fins.