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The Deep by Rivers Solomon
Yetu holds the memories for her people—water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners—who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one—the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu.
Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities—and discovers a world her people left behind long ago.
Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past—and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity—and own who they really are.
Why you should read it: I absolutely loved this. Strange and gorgeous, I'm honestly not sure where to begin in trying to describe it. The way mermaids perceive their world, the complicated memory dynamics and social structure, the main character's difficulty in coping with multiple generations of trauma while trying to sort out her own place in her world... There's a lot going on in this novella, and all the pieces fit together beautifully. Please don't let my less-than-eloquent description dissuade you. This is one of the best books I've read all year, and you should absolutely fit it onto your list.
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The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage–and lost his mother and all memory of her when he was a child–but he is also gifted with a mysterious power. Hiram almost drowns when he crashes a carriage into a river, but is saved from the depths by a force he doesn’t understand, a blue light that lifts him up and lands him a mile away. This strange brush with death forces a new urgency on Hiram’s private rebellion. Spurred on by his improvised plantation family, Thena, his chosen mother, a woman of few words and many secrets, and Sophia, a young woman fighting her own war even as she and Hiram fall in love, he becomes determined to escape the only home he’s ever known.
Why you should read it: The magic in this book isn't any kind of a fix-it for history, but is woven so deftly in that it feels like truth. Masterfully crafted, beautifully written, gorgeous character voice. There's a lot of pain in this book, and every bit of it is written with power and honesty. It took me a long time to process after reading, and I think I'll need to go back someday even though I rarely reread books. Truly excellent.
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The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho
A bandit walks into a coffeehouse, and it all goes downhill from there …
Guet Imm, a young votary of the Order of the Pure Moon, joins up with an eclectic group of thieves (whether they like it or not) in order to protect a sacred object, and finds herself in a far more complicated situation than she could have ever imagined.
Why you should read it: This is a very short novella--a quick read even for my slow self--and packed with an incredible amount of heart and world. The characters were lovely, the queer rep deft despite a setting in which our modern language and conventions don't exist. I would have loved a longer take on the story, to give the group dynamics more room to breathe, but even the limited amount that made it onto the page felt very real.
The Deep by Rivers Solomon
Yetu holds the memories for her people—water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners—who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one—the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu.
Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface, escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities—and discovers a world her people left behind long ago.
Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past—and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity—and own who they really are.
Why you should read it: I absolutely loved this. Strange and gorgeous, I'm honestly not sure where to begin in trying to describe it. The way mermaids perceive their world, the complicated memory dynamics and social structure, the main character's difficulty in coping with multiple generations of trauma while trying to sort out her own place in her world... There's a lot going on in this novella, and all the pieces fit together beautifully. Please don't let my less-than-eloquent description dissuade you. This is one of the best books I've read all year, and you should absolutely fit it onto your list.
- — - — - — - — -
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage–and lost his mother and all memory of her when he was a child–but he is also gifted with a mysterious power. Hiram almost drowns when he crashes a carriage into a river, but is saved from the depths by a force he doesn’t understand, a blue light that lifts him up and lands him a mile away. This strange brush with death forces a new urgency on Hiram’s private rebellion. Spurred on by his improvised plantation family, Thena, his chosen mother, a woman of few words and many secrets, and Sophia, a young woman fighting her own war even as she and Hiram fall in love, he becomes determined to escape the only home he’s ever known.
Why you should read it: The magic in this book isn't any kind of a fix-it for history, but is woven so deftly in that it feels like truth. Masterfully crafted, beautifully written, gorgeous character voice. There's a lot of pain in this book, and every bit of it is written with power and honesty. It took me a long time to process after reading, and I think I'll need to go back someday even though I rarely reread books. Truly excellent.
- — - — - — - — -
The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho
A bandit walks into a coffeehouse, and it all goes downhill from there …
Guet Imm, a young votary of the Order of the Pure Moon, joins up with an eclectic group of thieves (whether they like it or not) in order to protect a sacred object, and finds herself in a far more complicated situation than she could have ever imagined.
Why you should read it: This is a very short novella--a quick read even for my slow self--and packed with an incredible amount of heart and world. The characters were lovely, the queer rep deft despite a setting in which our modern language and conventions don't exist. I would have loved a longer take on the story, to give the group dynamics more room to breathe, but even the limited amount that made it onto the page felt very real.
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