The Deep by Rivers Solomon

I decided to take a short break from classics this month with a few contemporary novels, starting with The Deep, by Rivers Solomon. I first heard about this novella through Goodreads, and was very intrigued by the summary. Any book about mermaids is going to catch my attention because, as uncool as it is, Disney's The Little Mermaid has given me a lifelong fascination with these creatures. What can I say? I was a 90s kid. The last time I read a book about mermaids, however, it didn't go so well. I was hoping for a more successful experience this time around.

The plot follows a young mermaid, or wajinru, as this novella calls them, named Yetu. She has been selected to be the memory keeper for her community, meaning that all the memories of her people's origin and experiences are stored inside her head. These are very painful memories. The wajinru were born from the bodies of pregnant African slaves thrown overboard from slave ships. By keeping the memories of these terrible times confined to one individual's head, the rest of the group is free from the heavy weight of this knowledge.

Once a year, Yetu leads a ceremony called the Remembering, in which she releases the memories back to the wajinru for three days. In this way, everyone retains a tenuous grasp on their history, and Yetu gets a short time to be free from the constant pressure of carrying the difficult memories around all the time. As the story begins, Yetu is on the eve of hosting another Remembering, but things aren't going well. She's been struggling mightily with the knowledge of the wajinru's past, and often gets lost in the nightmarish memories stored in her head. She is having trouble differentiating between the past and the present, and feels like the memories are going to kill her. In a moment of desperation, she starts the ceremony, releases the memories to her people, and then bolts.

Yetu injures herself in her wild escape and washes up in a tide pool somewhere far from her people. She winds up making friends with a few curious humans who befriend her and bring her food while she recovers. One of these humans, Oori, becomes especially close with her and challenges her ideas about the importance of embracing her history. Yetu is plagued with guilt and indecision over her actions. She knows that the wajinru back home are not equipped to have complete access to the memories of their history, and will most likely die without her there to regulate their exposure to it. At the same time, she believes that she will probably not survive from much longer if she takes the memories back. She must decide whether to go back to her people and doom herself, or to abandon her community to the pain of their past.

The Deep had a really interesting concept, but I think its execution never quite lived up to its ideas. That's not to say that I disliked the book; it was perfectly fine. It just never managed to reach me on the emotional level that it was clearly going for. I didn't really connect with Yetu, and while her story was interesting, it was thin, even for a novella. Most of the plot takes place with her recovering in the tide pool where she alternates flirting with Oori with agonizing about whether or not to go back to her people, and this did get tiresome quickly.

Not much attention is paid to world-building here, which makes complete sense; this is a novella, after all, and Rivers Solomon is clearly more interested in their themes than in their setting. This isn't necessarily a flaw, but it doesn't align with my preferences for reading science fiction or fantasy novels. I enjoy learning about the details of the fictional worlds I encounter, and something feels like it's missing when this element is absent. So, the hazy, half-explained process behind the birth of the mermaids and how their society worked wasn't fully satisfying to me. There was, however, an extremely awkward scene discussing how the mermaids mate with each other that gave me more information than I needed to know. So, I can't say there weren't any details given, just not the ones I wanted.

The themes were where Solomon focused most of their attention, and accordingly, they were strong. This story asks some interesting questions about the idea of generational trauma. How much should one embrace a painful past? What do you gain from remembering it? What do you lose if you choose to leave it behind? Yetu is caught between remembering everything about the wajinru's past or remembering nothing. Readers won't face such a black and white version of this problem, but many will face the question of how much attention to pay to a difficult ancestral history. This is a question I can't relate to on a personal level, but there is definitely value for me in thinking about this difficulty, and the effect it might have on others around me. 

Ultimately, I was a bit disappointed in The Deep, but I did still like it. I felt like it could have been stronger than it was, but it was mildly enjoyable nonetheless. It was definitely a unique little read, with an interesting concept, great representation, and deep themes. I think I am still searching for my perfect mermaid book, but this is a good choice for anyone interested in the idea of generational trauma and enjoys character-driven science fiction.  


Challenge Tally
Total Books Read in 2020: 19