The Deep by Rivers Solomon - OPTIONAL

The Deep by Rivers Solomon, 166 pages. Saga Press (Simon & Schuster), 2019. $20.

Language: PG (3 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG13

BUYING ADVISORY: ADULT - OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

At age fourteen, Yetu, now 34yo, was chosen to be Historian for the wajinru people, the underwater dwelling descendants of African slaves who were thrown overboard. She is the only one who has to bear the burden of remembering the atrocities of the past, allowing everyone else to simply enjoy the present, but the past is weighing Yetu down as it steals her future. If something doesn’t change soon, Yetu is sure the past will kill her.

I found this book to be more about providing food for thought than telling a story for enjoyment. As an exploration of the importance of history and of what makes a people, it’s a good book, but, as a story, it’s slow. I started losing interest at about chapter four, finding only a few more scenes between there and the end that caught my attention because they contributed to my pondering the ideas Solomon proposed. The mature content is for discussion of genitals and sex; the violence rating is for brutality, attempted suicide, and war.

Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen