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The Deep
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2023: Other Books > (subdue) The Deep by Rivers Solomon - 3 stars

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Booknblues | 12060 comments "It's not the book, it's me."
I've long been intrigued by the idea of this book, mermaids descended from enslaved Africans who were thrown into the ocean. However this myth/fairytale/folktale did not quite jell for me in the way I hoped it would.

It did take on another interesting and extremely topical subject and that is the role of history and forgetting history altogether. This is something I find relevant on many levels.

So I say hurrah for Rivers Solomon for writing this book even though I didn't altogether love it.


Booknblues | 12060 comments History is being assaulted and rewritten to be palatable for certain palates.

Here is an example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BfE-...


Joanne (joabroda1) | 12569 comments I gave this 4 stars-3 for the book and 1 because it was such a breath of fresh air in the Fantasy genre


message 4: by NancyJ (last edited Aug 08, 2023 04:49PM) (new) - added it

NancyJ (nancyjjj) | 11068 comments I think that was true for me too Joanne. I thought it was very cool overall but parts of it were very intense. It was hard to be inside the head of someone who was in pain because of the barrage of memories. The water setting really appealed to me, and there was a weird little romance.

BnB I like what you said about history. I didn’t connect the book to any folk tales, but the origin story about the book starting with a song was appealing.


Booknblues | 12060 comments Joanne wrote: "I gave this 4 stars-3 for the book and 1 because it was such a breath of fresh air in the Fantasy genre"

And therein lies the problem, as I don't really do fantasy.

I was struck by the whole remembrance thing because of the the huge pushback against CRT with the additional fact that African Americans have such difficulty tracing their family's history, which if known contains much sadness and pain .

(view spoiler)


Jen K | 3143 comments I struggled a bit with this one as well. There are actually four authors, not just one which is possibly part of the problem. It didn't flow for me.


Booknblues | 12060 comments Jen K wrote: "I struggled a bit with this one as well. There are actually four authors, not just one which is possibly part of the problem. It didn't flow for me."

Yes, the flow was a bit of a problem. The next to the last chapter, was a total miss for me. It didn't fit with what was happening and didn't seem to be a part of history but instead perhaps the future.


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