The Deep in Pick-a-Shelf

Dec 10, 2024 emily rated it it was amazing

Shelves: queers-and-queer-relationships, monsters-and-monstrosities, non-white-protagonist, audiobook, grief-trauma-and-other-feelings, horror, family-drama, the-ocean-is-terrifying, 2024, read-in-one-sitting

This is a beautiful and painful story about stories and identity and history and trauma and memory. The audio, narrated by Daveed Diggs, is wonderfully done. Typically I don't hold much stock in the idea that a foreword or afterword is required reading (a work should speak for itself without explanation, etc) and this novella absolutely does speak for itself, but in this case the afterword provides really interesting context, explaining the Black underwater utopian world, created and built upon ...more

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May 03, 2023 Catsalive rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2023

An interesting premise but exceedingly disappointing & plodding execution. Having read the afterword, this is, perhaps, not so surprising, but even so. What remains with me is that Yetu had one job to do, decided she didn't want to do it, went off to do her own thing, & nearly wiped out her whole community in doing so. Yep, way to remember your history! ...more

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Feb 19, 2020 Cora rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, fantasy, slavery, novella, mythical-creatures, suffering, isolation, mermaids, at-sea, based-on-music

The Deep is based on music by Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes. It is based on the concept that when slavers threw pregnant African women overboard from slave ships the ocean helped the unborn babies to survive by transforming them into underwater creatures (which resembled merfolk). Overtimes the descendants of these creatures have created their own civilization under the sea. A major theme of this novella is dealing with collective history, especially when that history is viol ...more

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Feb 10, 2021 Susan rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy, fiction

I found this very hard to follow. I wish I could rate it higher, because at its heart lies a rather profound question about the nature of what it means to be human. The world of the story is a fascinating creation, and the dilemma faced by the protagonist was agonizing, with no real good answer. But I'm not sure the things that happened, either in the present or in the past, all held together if looked at closely.

If you don't know it, I recommend searching out and listening to the song "The Dee ...more

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Jan 31, 2022 Nicole rated it it was ok

I love the concept behind this book: a mer-community developed from slaves cast overboard into the ocean, but sadly I did not love the book. It apparently is an expanded version of a song, and is someway that makes sense, as things are repeated over and over, as a chorus in a song.

I almost gave up on it, but it's mercifully short so I read the whole thing, and appreciated the overall message, but found it was best consumed in small doses before I went to bed. ...more

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