The Deep was one of the most visually immersive books I’ve ever read.

 

We follow Yetu, the historian (memory-holder) for her people, the wajinru. They are the mermaid-esque underwater descendants of pregnant African enslaved women thrown overboard. She bears the burden of their past trauma so they can live in peaceful bliss. But the memories - both traumatic and fierce, painful and earnest - are destroying her body and mind. When Yetu flees to the surface world, she re-engages with her former responsibilities and has to figure out how to move forward for her people.

 

It’s a magical reshaping of terror and trauma and violence, with a chillingly passionate musicality (the story was inspired by a song and includes music of all forms) and connection to oral storytelling.

 

This novella grapples with the weight of bearing the burdens of your ancestors, and generational trauma that lives forever in the body … but also the pride and hope that comes alongside deeply caring for your community. The writing elicits feelings of compassion and companionship. 

 

I often visualize books as I read, but this novella prompted an expansive experience unlike any other. From the wajinru to the underwater civilization & culture to the remembrances … it was all so poetic and captivating. 

 

Solomon brilliantly explores the desire to forget mixed with remembrances of rage & past anguish and a community’s hope to preserve these stories in order to someday introduce them to their descendants.

 

There’s so much more that’s eloquently written into such a short piece: rebuilding your identity when it has been violently ripped away from you, trauma responses, the spectrum of gender & sexuality (explored through the lens of a society without previous held beliefs about these topics), responsibility through storytelling, the important of community, and so on.

 

The Deep was so much more than I could have ever anticipated. I feel like I’m grasping to find the words to explain it in a review - I’d much rather you read it and let your body experience Solomon’s words. 

 

CW: slavery, death (incl. child and parent), murder, grief, suicide, racism, blood, genocide, animal death, self harm, colonization, violence, pregnancy, gore, trafficking, emotional abuse, body horror, war, abandonment, dementia, panic attacks & anxiety

 

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