The F-word discussion

Hello! This month we will be reading An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon as our fiction book. There is a lot going on in this sci-fi book that might be summed up as Snowpiercer in Space... or, A Study on Slavery Amongst the Constellations...

Odd-mannered, obsessive, withdrawn, Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She's used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, as they accuse, she'd be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remained of her world, save for stories told around the cookfire.

Aster lives in the low-deck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, the Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship's leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster, who they consider to be less than human.

When the autopsy of Matilda's sovereign reveals a surprising link between his death and her mother's suicide some quarter-century before, Aster retraces her mother's footsteps. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer and sowing the seeds of civil war, Aster learns there may be a way off the ship if she's willing to fight for it.

Who will be joining in this month's read? Or who has already read it? (Guilty). Please come by and discuss!

I'm joining in! This sounds like a good read to kick off my motivation to read again.

This looks like one I want to read. If there is an e-book version I will read it soon. Entire public library system is closed due to "life in the time of Corona."

I don't need any more physical books at the moment!

CD wrote: "This looks like one I want to read. If there is an e-book version I will read it soon. Entire public library system is closed due to "life in the time of Corona."

I don't need any more physical b..."

Have you checked to see if your library is connected to Overdrive? If they are and they have that e-book you can access it or place a hold on it, even if the library is closed. Hope you can get it!

https://www.overdrive.com/

How is everyone coming along with this one? Any thoughts? I had a bit of a time wrapping my mind around the many identity politics at play in this story, but these characters are richly developed, and diverse. What are some impressions of Aster?

I read in a review or blog that on different levels of the ship, everyone goes by feminine gender descriptors. I only vaguely remember this from my read of it, but am wondering what other aspects of the different levels some of you may have picked up on?

Hope you're all enjoying it and staying safe, and looking forward to reading your thoughts and input.

Thank you so much for your insight Laurie. Making connections between books and real life is, imo, a heightened way to process situations. Being able to see cause and effect from characters can help us to understand a different viewpoint of situations in real life as well, and I always like this experience myself. I feel like I get more from the book and I'm able to process my own feelings about stressful situations better.

Going off of your comments and observations, I would agree with what you said about there being no easy answers and that the feeling of frustration is purposeful. Soloman seems like an author who writes with purpose. I also personally think that the ending could have been a little hopeful - I like to think that Aster will find a way to communicate with her friends on the ship, that the uprising will be successful, or that others will somehow find a way to follow. That's the optimist in me. The cynical side of me thinks that it was a frustrated eff it all ending, in which Soloman is saying that literally the only way Aster will be at peace is to be either dead or alone on a planet, which is why they took the risk of even trying to go at all.

I would be up for a sequel to get those answers, but I wonder if it will actually happen and if it does, will it take away from our experience by removing the open ending.

I haven't heard of Hannah Gadsby Douglas, but will look it up. Thank you for sharing!