I actually kind of hate myself for not enjoying this book more than I did. I think I just went into it expecting something very different from what it ultimately was. This is very lyrical fiction, which is not surprising considering that it originated as a song (a brilliant song, by the way). However, I was hoping for more plot, more action, and more history. While reading this wasn’t the most enjoyable experience for me, I can’t deny it’s beauty and I appreciate it wholeheartedly for what it is and the story it tells.

Thanks to Netgalley and Saga Press for the advanced copy.

First, I'd like to thank Simon and Schuster for an advanced eARC of The Deep by Rivers Solomon.

I first became acquainted with An Unkindness of Ghosts, which I loved. As with An Unkindness of Ghosts, Solomon's prose is tight and complex. So much happens in this short work.

Yetu carries the memories of her ancestors. She is a descendent of pregnant slave women who were thrown overboard by the slave traders. There is a scene when in which a memory is recounted of a pregnant slave woman being thrown overboard and how a sea dweller was there for the birth of the baby. Although a brief description of the dead mother and and this living being spring forth from her body is so incredibly powerful and impactful. I immediately thought about the resilience of humans and humanities will to survive regardless of the circumstances.

The characters that Solomon introduces in this novella are complex. They have so many layers to them. The Wajinru as a whole is absolutely fascinating. I thought it interesting that they didn't want to remember the pain, the trauma, the mistreatment of their ancestors, except once a year; and how they forced one 'person' to do the remembering. We've all heard the saying, "Ignorance is bliss" and that goes for the Wajinru. Because they opted to be ignorant of their past and how they came to be they lived an idyllic under water life. BUT Yetu's life or the life of any historian for that matter was less than idyllic.

I had never heard of The Clipping or their song The Deep until I saw that Solomon had a new book coming out based off of the song, and let me tell you they are both powerful. This is a book I can not recommend enough.

5+ Stars

Let me say upfront that there are a lot of people I have a lot of admiration for in this project and one, Navah Wolfe, is NOT listed on the front cover. (I hope you read this Saga Press and Simon and Schuster, because reasons.) I really loved Rivers Solomon's An Unkindness of Ghosts and The Deep was already on my radar because of the aspect dealing with women being tossed from slaver ships because they were pregnant. (Pregnant women being such a bother.*) Anyway, this whole novella is worth your time. Though a fantasy, it has so much to say about embracing difference, about modern Afrofolklore, and about Rivers Solomon as a growing force in Afrofuturism. And let's not forget Clipping, who inspired the novella.

What do we ask of our historians? Do we ask them to remember the best, the worst, the everything? Do we ever consider the impact on historians who parse the very worst of history? Do we ever wonder if they sleep at night? If the darkest moments of history steal their peace, their very breath? Yetu is both fragile and strong, a character embodying everything that is human and not. She also embodies the history of the Wajiru people. She's a compelling character.

This novella already had me at its premise, and it has moments of immense emotional power. Where are we all from? No, really. Didn't we crawl out of the sea? What about those who went into it? And woe to the entity that is the Historian who has to remember. This novella is on my list of Hugo nominees for Best Novella, and also has my future Locus Award vote.

The audiobook, narrated by Daveed Diggs, is terrific. Thanks for letting me "read" it again, Libro.fm.

*Full disclosure: my paternal family, some of which is from Sub-Saharan Africa, is from the Canary Islands, which were involved in the slave trade. The underlying premise of this book engenders a rather visceral reaction.

I received a digital review copy of this novella from Saga Press, and also the audiobook from Libro.fm.

I first heard of this story when I was listening to an episode of This American Life. They featured a song by the group clipping. Voiced by Daveed Diggs (of Hamilton fame) it was a short Hugo Nominated song about a race of mer-people descended of the African enslaved women murdered during the Middle Passage.

This short book is an extension of that story. One where Yetu, is responsible for the memories of her people. It is an absorbing, atmospheric book about the terrible weight of memory and shared trauma. Yetu has to learn how to handle the responsibility of being her people receptacle for pain, and the answer lies in accepting the help of her community.

This is a wonderful little volume. Afrofuturism is an astounding genre that, in this instance, blends science fiction, fantasy and Black culture. Please listen to the song first if you’re going to read this book, it is kind of a prequel to the story and it is fantastic. I’m including it below. I can’t recommend this story enough. It is remarkable.

Song for this book: The Deep by clipping.

Wow.

Haunting. Magical. Deeply emotional.

Yetu remembers. She holds the memories for all of the Wajinru. Remembering is too traumatic for everyone to always carry the history of their people.....the fact they descend from pregnant African slave women tossed over board from slave ships. Born under the waves, they forgot the world of humans. Once a year, they have The Rememberance. Yetu will tell everyone the story of their people. But, carrying all the memories, all the pain, all of their past is tearing Yetu apart from the inside out. She flees from her people and goes on a journey to discover herself. But she discovers the power of the past, the memories, the emotions.....deep, so deep.

This book carries quite an impact in its few pages. Powerful story. Perfectly written.

The story is based on the 2017 song The Deep by rap group, The Clipping. I listened to the song several times while reading this novella. The song and this story are powerful and haunting.

I'm not going to say anything more about the plot.....no spoilers. Read this without any prior knowledge....and feel the emotions. This isn't a story you just read.....it's a story you Feel.

Read it. Feel it.

This is the first book I've read by Rivers Solomon. I'm definitely going to read An Unkindness of Ghosts!

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this novella from Saga Press via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

I loved An Unkindness of Ghosts so of course I had to read this! The moment I saw that gorgeous cover I was hooked. I'll be getting the hardcover just so I can marvel at it whenever I pass by. I'd had it on my list for a while, but when I got an email from netgalley saying they had it I couldn't believe my luck! I could get to read this early??? YES PLEASE. I was so stoked when I got approved and read it pretty much immediately. The story is just as haunting and beautifully written as I expected it to be. Just wow. It's nothing like I've ever read before. I would definitely recommend picking this up.

Yetu is the historian of her people. Descended from the pregnant women thrown overboard of slave ships, their history is too traumatic to carry the memories with them always, so Yetu carries them. Once per year, during the remembering, she shares the memories, her people experience them, but then they go back to forgetting, living in ignorant bliss while Yetu has to live with the horrible memories forever. Unable to cope any longer, Yetu flees and discovers the surface world, learning more about the people with whom she shares a history. She learns that in order to survive, her people will need to reclaim their painful pasts and deal with the memories.

I tore through this book in just under two days. I had been looking forward to it for months and was stoked when I got approved for a galley. I am a sucker for mermaid books, particularly anything with interesting lore or something more than a mermaid falling in love with a human with little more depth.

Talk about depth. This book isn’t called The Deep for nothing. It address the African Diaspora from a completely new light, and I loved the creativity of Yetu, her people, and their history. I loved Yetu. She is deeply flawed and doesn’t understand her painful lot in life, and I love the discoveries she makes and the lessons she learns. For such a young being, her pain has taught her a lot.

It’s out today, so if you’re looking for some new titles to add to your TBR and enjoy a quick but deep read, definitely check this one out!

The algorithms are getting better and better at predicting which books I’m going to like. The upcoming novella The Deep by Rivers Solomon (with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes) popped up in my book recommendations in several places. With so many computer systems suggesting it to me and a teaser description that promised a multitude of elements to intrigue me, I jumped at the chance to preview it. The Deep manages to speak to so much in a way that is unique, succinct and direct. It conveys incredible depths of emotion and humanity through creatures that only exist because their ancestors’ humanity was rejected and devalued. So, they became something else. Something that remembers. Sort of.

Yetu is one of the wajinru—perhaps, the most important of the wajinru. She is the Historian. She holds the collective memories of all the wajinru who came before her stretching six hundred years back to the first of her kind. She remembers that her people were born of the pregnant, enslaved African women who were cast overboard during the crossing of the Atlantic. The rest of her kind are spared the pain of the specific knowledge. They only have vague emotional impressions of their history, allowing them to live and thrive in the present. And they have. Their society in the deepest parts of the ocean is strong and ready for the annual Remembering. Yetu is frayed, however. It isn’t just the knowledge of the memories she carries; it’s their ancestors’ very essence and the weight of it threatens to overtake her completely and erase who she is. So, when the time comes to temporarily transfer that essence to the gathered wajinru during the sacred ceremony, Yetu does something selfish and rash.

There are too many layers to the way The Deep is written and built to get into it effectively in a short review. It demands to be read (and reread and analyzed at length). It’s one of those books that makes me want to go back to my college lit classes where we would spend an entire week of lecture periods dissecting it. It touches on most of the themes I find myself drawn to over and over again—memory, the relationship between individuals and their society, how history is shared and how it impacts the actions of today, the relationships between parents and children…

Then there’s the ingenious concept of the wajinru themselves. Science fiction and fantasy merge as they gesture to the mythology of mermaids while also delving into a future that paradoxically looks and feels both alien and familiar. Their history between their origins and when we meet them through Yetu demonstrates both humanity’s strengths and weaknesses, what’s worth holding on to and what’s worth forgetting. But then brilliantly circles back to what the dangers of forgetting are.

Lastly, there’s the extra-textual story of how the novella came to be. It’s a book, inspired by a song, that was written for a radio program in what the afterword describes as a game of artistic Telephone.

Well, it’s a game I highly recommend everyone join in playing. I’ve done my part by writing a review of a book inspired by a song written for a radio show.

The Deep will be available for purchase starting November 5, 2019.

The Deep by Rivers Solomon (with an assist from the band "clipping.").

The Deep is one of the more highly anticipated novellas of the year in the SF/F world due to the story's unique origins: the novella is inspired and takes its name from an afrofuturist (afrofantasy?) song of the same name by clipping - the band that includes Daveed Diggs, and has branched into SF/F in its songs more than a few times. In fact the original song actually earned its own Hugo nomination, featuring a fantasy world in which the children of pregnant African slaves thrown overboard during the slave trade morph into beings who can live under the sea and eventually come into conflict with surface dwellers. And the author who is adapting that song into this novella, Rivers Solomon, was twice a Campbell nominee for Best New Writer, with the powerful but tragic novel: The Unkindness of Ghosts. So yeah, it's got one hell of a pedigree.

The novella features that same origin concept, but is its own inspired story with the themes you would expect, and perhaps a few you wouldn't - themes of a people being thrown away, a people being forced to adapt, of the value of memories and history to a people that may be dying off/be split apart, and of one's self. It's a fascinating work, and well worth your time, making good on the promise of its pedigree.

Plot Summary: Yetu is the historian of her sea-dwelling people, the Wajinru. That role is is of utmost importance to her people, because aside from the historian, her people do not remember the events of the past - except for the yearly Remembrance, when the historian shares the memories of her people's past - of how they evolved from the children of pregnant mothers thrown overboard during the slave trade to what they are now, and the events that have happened since - with her people. But for Yetu, the role is nearly unbearable, as the memories of her ancestors constantly overwhelm her own self, making it hard for Yetu to know the difference between the past and present. And so, during the Remembrance, when the memories are passed along to her people, Yetu runs away before they can give the memories back. But as Yetu runs far away and encounters the two legged people on the surface, she'll find that her self may not be what she thought it was, and the value of history, even a painful history, may proof to be more to her than she ever thought.

Thoughts: The Deep is, like Solomon's prior novel, extremely well written, allowing the story to showcase both the setting and the main character and her feelings, and to really hit hard on the themes of the story. I will say this - whereas the original song goes more overtly into the conflict between the surface dwellers (descendants of the slavers) and the Wajinru (descendants of the tossed overboard slaves), this novella focuses less on that conflict - which still has happened in the past - and more on the Wajinru themselves, and the meaning of their and others' histories to their self identities.

It's a fascinating story, told mainly (although there are some interludes focusing on the memories and history of the Wajinru people) from Yetu's perspective, and contrasting Yetu's perspective (history is agonizing, and the burden of the past ancestral history overwhelms her self to the point it feels like dying) with that of a surface dweller, the last of her people, who dreads the loss of her history one she is gone. And that contrast is made even further with Yetu's people, who try to have it both ways, remembering once a year through another while being able to let go of the past entirely for the rest of the time. It's a really interesting setup that makes some obvious analogies, but works really well. As does the romantic sideplot by the way, between two individuals of different people's trying to deal with such contrasts. I suspect if I had time, I could write a whole essay on what Solomon has done here, but I prefer not to do that - and really, you should read this yourselves to get the idea.

Our mothers were pregnant African women thrown overboard while
crossing the Atlantic Ocean on slave ships. We were born
breathing water as we did in the womb. We built our home on the
sea floor, unaware of the two-legged surface dwellers until
their world came to destroy ours. With cannons, they searched
for oil beneath our cities. Their greed and recklessness forced
our uprising. Tonight, we remember

lyrics of The Deep by clipping

From an EDM concept album by Drexciya to a rap song by clipping to a novella by Rivers Solomon. The premise: An underwater world populated by the children of slaves who were thrown overboard on the journey across the Atlantic. Each artist has taken Drexciya’s world and created their own stories inside it.

The Deep focuses on the character of Yetu who is the Historian of the wajinru, the mermaid descendants of the slaves. She holds the memories of all the others of the community and once a year they hold the Remembrance in which Yetu bonds with all of the wajinru. It is an emotional ceremony that bares Yetu’s soul to the rest of the group… it is painful and the burden of holding six hundred years worth of memories is something she doesn’t think she can handle any longer. Yet, she is one of a long line of Historians and the responsibility is heavy… What will she do? The individual strain vs the obligation to hold the collective mythos and traditions…

In under two hundred pages, Solomon crafts a mesmerizing piece of Afrofuturism about memory, power, and the collective group. I was blown away by the worldbuilding and the chilling intersection of history and fantasy. Solomon also has a way of describing movement of the characters through and around the water, a perfect depiction of the waves and currents as a metaphor for the various character’s emotions.

Yetu is young woman who is thrust into this role of Historian by the community and the prior person in that role. Even after an attempted suicide brought on the pressure of holding that weight, she continues to be forced to do the task. What revelations will she have over the course of the novella?

A supernatural journey through history and a young mermaid’s internal conflicts, The Deep is a book of haunting revelations and gripping worldbuilding.

The nitty-gritty: From a tragic footnote in African history, a wondrous creature is born. Rivers Solomon tackles the weighty themes of memory and history with a painful yet hopeful story.

The origins of this book are fascinating. The Deep started as a concept by electronic music duo Drexciya. Next, experimental hip-hop group clipping. was commissioned to write their version of Drexciya’s vision into a song called The Deep. When editor Navah Wolfe at Saga Press heard clipping’s song, she was convinced it would also make great fiction. She in turn asked Rivers Solomon to write a story based on the clipping. song, and thus The Deep was born. Like I said, fascinating! This is the first time I’ve read anything by Solomon, although their An Unkindness of Ghosts still lurks on my TBR and I will read it eventually.

Yetu is a wajinru, a mermaid-like creature who lives with thousands of her kind, far below the surface of the ocean. But Yetu is much more than a wajinru. She is the Historian, the one wajinru tasked with keeping all the memories of their past inside her. Once a year, during the Remembrance, all the wajinru gather so that Yetu can share her memories with them. Because these memories are so intense and tragic, all the wajinru except for Yetu aren’t able to stand the intensity of having to live with those memories. After the Remembrance is over, the vivid memories Yetu has shared only linger for a short time, then the rest of the wajinru go about their lives, blissfully unaware of those memories until the next Remembrance comes along.

Meanwhile, Yetu must shoulder their burden all the time, and it’s wearing her down. When the story begins, it’s time for that year’s Remembrance, but this time, instead of taking the memories back from her people at the end, Yetu decides to run away.

As the reader follows Yetu’s incredible journey, we learn about the history of the wajinru as well. This history was one of my favorite parts of the story, that the wajinru originated from the unborn babies of pregnant slaves, who were thrown overboard slave ships in order to conserve resources. It’s a horrific image (and all true, part of the diabolical history of African slavery) that sets the tone for this story. Solomon describes the babies being rescued by whales, who nursed them back to health with their own milk. The whales gathered more and more wajinru together until they formed a family, and their numbers continued to grow. She also remembers the Tidal War, a bloody battle between the wajinru and the “two legs” (humans) who nearly wiped them out. These are the histories that Yetu must hold within herself at all times, dense and painful memories that she can only escape from during the remembering.

We see the story unfold from Yetu’s point of view, as she makes the terrible decision to abandon her kin in order to save herself. The memories are killing her and she knows she must escape in order to continue living. I loved Yetu’s often ragged emotions, full of rage and pain at feeling so much all the time, frustrated that no one seems to understand what she’s sacrificing for the good of the colony, even her beloved Amaba (mother). And once she distances herself from her friends and family, Yetu must face the fact that by leaving, they will never be at peace again with no vessel to take back the memories. She feels guilty about this, but she’s also curious about the two legs she meets near the shore.

Solomon explores the meaning of memories and how they affect us. How important are they, even if they bring you grief? Would we be better off without painful memories? Once Yetu gets to the surface, she meets a woman who offers another perspective on memories. She also gets a glimpse into the world of her ancestors and realizes that memories are crucial in tying the past and present together.

Solomon’s beautiful and powerful prose evokes the chill of the deep ocean where the wajinru live. The ocean itself is a living presence in this story, vast and cruel, but also home to Yetu and her family and therefore a soothing and familiar place. The ending was unexpected and magical, heartwarming in the best way possible. I was left with a feeling of wonder and a desire to dip my toes in the ocean and experience the weight of history for myself. This is a short but powerful tale that I won’t soon forget.

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

This is an interesting allegory for the current Black experience in the United States, along with being a pretty decent fantasy read as well. I think it would be a great option for AP literature classes to read in conjunction with some of the more classic Black literature.

A fascinating and heart-wrenching new folk tale, which takes one of the most repugnant deeds in human history and weaves the pain into something beautiful.

I struggled with this one a bit. I wasn't sure what to expect after reading the synopsis. Anyone looking for a fantastical black mermaid tale should be warned that this is not that. I commend the book for mentioning a part of history that often gets overlooked. Yes we know about the Middle Passage and slavery but when discussing the horrors of the journey we don't think about the slaves tossed overboard during the journey. In this story after being tossed overboard the pregnant slaves babies end up surviving having been born with fins giving them a second chance at life. I did like the parts about them creating their own society and thriving under the sea. Yetu being the historian has the job of educating her people about their past. She guides us through the traumatic history of her people and at times it's very repetitive and overwhelming. The pacing is painfully slow at times especially for a novella. Overall this is a story about survival.

Climb aboard Rivers Solomon's bathysphere and enter his multi-layered world beneath the sea. This compelling novella contains enough ideas and concepts to fill a "door-stop" novel or richly textured epic saga. This amazing magical adventure although inspired by the haunting song of the rap group "clipping" is actually a homage to Drexciya - a duo of musician-artists that I was fortunate enough to experience while growing up in Detroit, MI. James Tinson and Gerold Donald provided the electronic music that captivated the Detroit (and even national) scene of the 90's.. Through their album liner notes they exposed the mythos and music that rivaled the nation's fascination with "Star Wars" and space adventure. They proposed the presence of an underwater world populated by the children of pregnant African woman thrown overboard from slave ships crossing the Atlantic - deemed too troublesome cargo. The babies had adapted to breathing underwater in their mother's womb and survived the drowning to form their own society and culture.
Solomon's story marvelously expands this mythos with his lyrical and poetic prose. These babies were born breathing water and built their own world on the sea floor, unaware of the two-legged surface dwellers.. Their world would one day be threatened by these surface dweller's greed for "black gold" lying beneath the sandy floor of the ocean bottom.. They collectively called themselves "wajinru" and individually were unaware of their origin. They depended on one lone member of their society, called the Historian, to yearly remind all of their painful and traumatic past cultural history.... which allowed them to then flourish .... and then almost telepathically "suck back" the memories and provide an unburdening effect. And yet, Yetu, the historian is forced to forever remember and retain this painful cultural history. This burden weighs heavy and erodes her self worth and health.. Yetu perceives this as an unfair burden (her continuous immersion in sadness, guilt and pain), rather than a great honor.and flees her home on a journey in an attempt to reach self actualization. All just before her next delivery of the Remembrance ... which, if undelivered, would threaten the the health and success of the wajinru community.
Solomon effortlessly weaves a magical and poignant tale that touches on the many problems and concepts that continue to be relevant even today .. .the ..necessity and benefits of companionship, love, cultural history, and community. Thanks to NetGalley and Saga Press for providing an Uncorrected Proof of this gem , in exchange for an honest review. A trip to YouTube is warranted .. to experience not only the "clipping" song but also the root contributions of Drexciya. ..... ( readersremains.com)

While I was a bit confused at first, I still enjoyed it. I wish I read the note at the end first to get a full understanding BEFORE the actual novel; I think it would have added to the understanding.

The Deep by Rivers Solomon is in conversation with a song by William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes and performed by Daveed Diggs, based on the underwater mythology of the 90s Detroit electro band Drexciya. (You can hear the song on Episode 623 of This American Life.)

Mercreatures descended from enslaved women murdered and thrown overboard when they were pregnant live in communities on the ocean floor, with the ability to connect telepathically. Yetu is the historian and bears the weight of the collective memory, and the story starts in the days up to the annual Remembering. There is some interaction with the "two-legs" but their interference in their ways of being are causing Yetu's community to rise up.

I was immediately drawn to this book by the beautiful cover and loved the originality of the book.
Years ago many America bound pregnant African slave women were tossed overboard during labor for being a nuisance to the slave traders. What resulted was the death of the women but the origins of another type of deep sea dwellers who have fins and can breathe underwater as well as above.
This story follows Yetu who is the historian for her people. The historian bears the great weight of holding all of her peoples painful memories so they may have their minds free until they have ceremonies called the rememberings where the historian shares those memories, then takes them back until the next ceremony. This is a too great of a weight for Yetu to bear and she takes drastic actions and that is where this story will take you, through loss of memories, regrets, love and great losses physically and mentally.
A beautifully written book. Be sure to read the origins of this story in the back of the book for more insights into the combination of thought processes that went into the making of this novella.

The Deep is a novella inspired by the song of the same title by clipping, we explore the concept of what would happen if the pregnant African women thrown from slave ships to their death had led to a species of mermaids; babies who continuing to breath water once the womb broke away. We enter on the character of Yetu, the historian of the Wajinru, the mermaid people who live an idyllic life in small communities across the seas. Their scattered communities are coming together to converge for the Remembrance, where Yetu will pour out the memories of their 600-year history to the Wajinru gathered... however they know none of it.

When I read Rivers Solomon's debut, An Unkindness of Ghosts, I immediately drew connections to many of the greats of SFF past, this work has even further strengthened that initial impression of their influences. If this has the seed of the clipping song that inspired it, it has just as much a seed of the work of Ursula K Le Guin in my eyes, I see the inspiration of The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas in the character of Yetu, the historian bearing that weight of trauma for a whole people living blissfully ignorant, but with new insights. In the physiology of the Wajinru, I can see echoes of The Left Hand of Darkness, yet taken further.

Structurally, this delivers us the experience of Yetu living immersed in all memory. We skim between Yetu's current experiences, personal past experiences, experiences of past historians, and remembrances of the history of the Wajinru - all as if we exist within the deluge of memory.

I also found that this has expressed something I've always felt but never been able to externalize, that tradition often involves erasure of individual identity.  Within such a short length, there is a  rich exploration on the weight of cultural and familial expectations to the individual. In particular, Yetu is hypersensory and intelligent, which is both what led to the role as historian, yet also creates a distance and difference, even those who are family seem at an arms length emotionally, due to the function of Yetu's position in their society.

If nothing else, I would implore you to stand in a bookshop and read the afterword by clipping recounting the evolution of the story that made its way to reach these pages, it is a moving treatise on the life of art.

a captivating read. mystifyingly descriptive i did feel like i was underwater experiencing everything. very unusual book about pregnant slaves thrown into.the deep. water breathing descendents created their own surreal world in the jeep highly recommend this book. thank you nead gallery for giving me the chance to review it. one of the best books i have read this year. this is a real world sticks with me. a truly unique and wonderful read. i think it will hold my middle school students interest. and they may learn a little fictionalized history to boot