The Deep

by Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, et al.

Book Overview

Octavia E. Butler meets Marvel's Black Panther in The Deep, a story rich with Afrofuturism, folklore, and the power of memory, inspired by the Hugo Award-nominated song "The Deep" from Daveed Diggs's 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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1534439870
• ISBN13: 9781534439870
• Release Date: August 2020
• Publisher: S&s/Saga Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

More than just mermaids

A beautiful book unafraid to tackle the pain of darker topics. Lots of good world building and culture. I loved the use of cyclical writing

Loss and remembrance

A novella of loss. Loss of self, loss of one's people, loss of freedom. And of finding and acceptance. Finding one's self, accepting one's purpose. Finding love. Finding people. Finding truth. A novella of the ocean, womb and protector to those discarded. And a novella of remembrance. A strange tale of the ocean people, born of discarded and drowned slaves, coming to accept the pain of their past and deciding whether they can live with such knowledge without destroying themselves or the land-dwellers who cruelly treated their ancestors. These are not mermaids or sirens. These people are the ocean's memories of the sorrow and devestation man inflicts on man and how we can build new selves even from pain. How memory of that pain must not be discarded in order for us to be whole.

Not quite as expected

I liked the idea, especially the theme of survival, but it did not have the dreamlike quality I expected.

One of my all-time favourites!

This book is definitely not going to be for everyone. It's written in a somewhat dream-like way. But I still love the themes of generational trauma and breaking cycles of harm. I think it's beautifully written, and I'm so glad to have it in my collection.