Black feminist scholars in particular have produced formidable monographs, coined and developed intersectional theory and explored how chattel slavery terraformed conceptions of Black maternity and the role of Black matriarchs. Thus, in place of a typical review or Arts Talks, The Daily is taking a structured deep dive into Solomon’s work and exploring topics of interest in the pursuit of discussion.īlack motherhood is the subject of much scholarly and popular fascination. However, the richness of Solomon’s novel requires further study. The Michigan Daily Book Review readers unanimously recommend the book. Like the wajinru’s shared songs, “The Deep” resonates long after closing the cover. The Afrofuturistic novel delights in gorgeous, consuming prose and more than one uterine metaphor is made. Seasoned fantasy readers and gender studies minors alike will find infinite fodder for discussion in Solomon’s writing and world-building. As the story continues, however, Yetu begins to question whether saving herself was worth dooming her people and if there could be another way to preserve both the wajinru’s history and her own future.

In an effort to save herself before it’s too late, Yetu flees her people during their annual Remembrance ceremony, a ritual in which the Historian allows their people to take on their shared history just long enough to regain a sense of belonging before giving it back. Burdened to remember the painful history of her people alone, Yetu as an individual is slowly fading away and she falls deeper and deeper into the communal “rememberings” she stewards. “The Deep” follows Yetu, the wanjiru’s Historian and keeper of their collective memory 600 years after the wajinru were first born. It would be reductive to say Solomon wrote just another mermaid story rather, their novel melds history and fantasy elements to produce the story of the wajinru, a race of underwater people descended from enslaved pregnant African women who were thrown overboard slave ships during labor. Shared trauma and the ocean come to life in Rivers Solomon’s speculative fiction “The Deep.” While short, the novel approaches intergenerational trauma and identity with startling facility.

Now, the Fantasy Book Club discusses Rivers Solomon’s “The Deep.”

Most recently, the Romance Book Club read “Seven Days in June” by Tia Williams. In honor of February being Black History Month, the Michigan Daily Book Review created genre-specific book clubs to read books by Black authors released in the past five years.

The Deep by Rivers Solomon