The Deep

by Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes

[Quirky Cat]

It isn't every day that you get to see a novel with this many coauthors. Rivers Solomon was the main writer for The Deep. But there were several other people involved in this project as well, including Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes. If that isn't enough to get you interested, keep reading.
The Deep is a new take on the tale and lore of mermaids, or the wajinru. In this powerful story, mermaids come from the pregnant African slave women who were thrown from slavery boats. The children they gave birth to were perfectly suited to the water, and thus to continue in this new life.
But memories are a tricky thing. Especially when an entire culture is born from pain and suffering. That's where Yetu comes into play. She's the historian of her people, meaning she holds all of the memory and pain of their ancestors.
It's a painful job – literally – but it is how things have always been done. But that doesn't mean Yetu can't find a way to make a change. To find a healthy way to hold on to the past, while living in the present.

“'It was like dreaming,' said Yetu, throat raw. She'd been weeping for days, lost in a remembering of one of the first wajinru.”

The Deep was a powerful and beautiful story. It was so full of emotion and conflicting needs. In many ways, that brought this entire underwater world to life, because life is full of these conflicts. This tale has simply pulled them to extremes.
I was honestly pretty blown away with The Deep. The amount of emotions that they were able to infuse into a relatively small novel...it's impressive. It was powerful and deep (no pun intended), and dark and beautiful. In short, it was perfect.
I love mermaid novels, so it was basically a given that I was going to try out any novel that had a unique take on their history and lore. And I can honestly tell you that the marketing was true for the Deep. This novel wasn't like anything else I've read. On the one hand, I love that. But on the other hand, I need to see more of this, and ideally see it soon.
Yetu was a fascinating character, and I would gladly read several more novels about her, given half a chance. And I know that I'm not the only one feeling that way. I'm sincerely hoping that this will be the first in a series, as opposed to a standalone novel. Fingers crossed!

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