Hardcover, 166 pages

English language

Published Nov. 5, 2019 by Simon & Schuster Audio and Blackstone Audio.

ISBN:
978-1-5082-8030-9
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4 stars (2 reviews)

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 …

3 editions

Review of 'The Deep' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This story covers a number of different themes in such a rich way that it seems impossible it could be as short as it is. I personally really resonated with how the main character, imbued with the memory of their people, runs away from this duty because it is killing her. Much like Atlas bolted when Hercules gave him the chance, Yetu can't take it anymore. When coupled with the environmental and human (mermaid?) rights themes of this book, I couldn't help but think of how many people have burned out of activism while fighting to make the world a better place.



Yetu's struggle with balancing her own well-being and that of her people is really the conflict here, with the fate of the world dependent on one person. The story didn't pull any emotional punches and hit me a lot harder than any typical farmboy with a sword narrative …

Beautiful image, clunky writing

3 stars

I read this book a few months ago with the #SFFBookClub. The setting and imagery are still haunting me, but I found the writing itself sort of clumsy, to the point that while actually reading it diminished the impact, much of which came later as I digested the ideas of the book.

Subjects

  • fantasy