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A review by mariel_fechik
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
5.0
CW: sexual and physical abuse, racism
I don't know how to start this review. My heart is in a million pieces. This book is brutal and beautiful and brutal and beautiful and brutal and beautiful.
This book contains a fairly common premise among science-fiction novels: a generational starship hundreds of years away from a dying Earth and failing. That is the only thing common about this book. Following in the tradition of Octavia Butler, Rivers Solomon has written a chilling and gut-wrenching work of Afrofuturism. The Matilda is a thousand years away from Earth's demise, but it has returned to the violence and brutality of slavery and sharecropping in the American South. Matilda's social structure is a literal vertical social strata: the wealthy, white elite on the upper decks, ruled by a tyrannical sovereignty, the middle-class in the mid decks, and Black slaves populating the lower decks. They are abused and brutalized by guards, forced to work long shifts in the ship's fabricated fields, raped and beaten, and those who work near the false sun regularly die from radiation poisoning. The horrifying brilliance of Solomon's premise is that here, on a doomed spaceship, the only escape is death. Today, I read a fascinating interview with [a:Marlon James|56064|Marlon James|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1546528568p2/56064.jpg], where he discussed his favorite show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He says: "...because she is slaying demons and vampires, the gut truths in that show have to ring more true." This highlights what I find most compelling about science-fiction and fantasy as a vehicle for social commentary. Isolate the thing, put it in unfamiliar territory, and it's that much more terrifying. In Solomon's novel, slavery becomes a thing of the future, a bleak and awful possibility should we forget our own past.
The book is also features incredible character diversity. Main character Aster is neuro-atypical and queer. Solomon's narration expertly reflects the rigidity of Aster's thought processes, without becoming robotic or ringing false. The lower-deckers have unique practices regarding gender, as well: some decks use exclusively they/them pronouns, others exclusively she/her. Androgyny is common. Hetero-cis-normative language is pushed upon the lower-deckers by the upper, and the subtle commentary here on colonialism's impact on African tribes who didn't adhere to typical gender structures is powerful.
This book is painful and it is necessary. I can't even properly formulate all my thoughts here. Just read it.
I don't know how to start this review. My heart is in a million pieces. This book is brutal and beautiful and brutal and beautiful and brutal and beautiful.
This book contains a fairly common premise among science-fiction novels: a generational starship hundreds of years away from a dying Earth and failing. That is the only thing common about this book. Following in the tradition of Octavia Butler, Rivers Solomon has written a chilling and gut-wrenching work of Afrofuturism. The Matilda is a thousand years away from Earth's demise, but it has returned to the violence and brutality of slavery and sharecropping in the American South. Matilda's social structure is a literal vertical social strata: the wealthy, white elite on the upper decks, ruled by a tyrannical sovereignty, the middle-class in the mid decks, and Black slaves populating the lower decks. They are abused and brutalized by guards, forced to work long shifts in the ship's fabricated fields, raped and beaten, and those who work near the false sun regularly die from radiation poisoning. The horrifying brilliance of Solomon's premise is that here, on a doomed spaceship, the only escape is death. Today, I read a fascinating interview with [a:Marlon James|56064|Marlon James|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1546528568p2/56064.jpg], where he discussed his favorite show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He says: "...because she is slaying demons and vampires, the gut truths in that show have to ring more true." This highlights what I find most compelling about science-fiction and fantasy as a vehicle for social commentary. Isolate the thing, put it in unfamiliar territory, and it's that much more terrifying. In Solomon's novel, slavery becomes a thing of the future, a bleak and awful possibility should we forget our own past.
The book is also features incredible character diversity. Main character Aster is neuro-atypical and queer. Solomon's narration expertly reflects the rigidity of Aster's thought processes, without becoming robotic or ringing false. The lower-deckers have unique practices regarding gender, as well: some decks use exclusively they/them pronouns, others exclusively she/her. Androgyny is common. Hetero-cis-normative language is pushed upon the lower-deckers by the upper, and the subtle commentary here on colonialism's impact on African tribes who didn't adhere to typical gender structures is powerful.
This book is painful and it is necessary. I can't even properly formulate all my thoughts here. Just read it.