Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “The Deep” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

The Deep

Rivers Solomon (Goodreads Author),

Daveed Diggs,

William Hutson,

Jonathan Snipes

3.80 · Rating details · 16,280 ratings · 3,575 reviews

The water-breathing descendants of African slave women tossed overboard have built their own underwater society—and must reclaim the memories of their past to shape their future in this brilliantly imaginative novella inspired by the Hugo Award nominated song “The Deep” from Daveed Diggs’ rap group Clipping.

Yetu holds the memories for her people—water-dwelling descendants ...more

Get A Copy

Hardcover, 166 pages

Published November 5th 2019 by Gallery / Saga Press

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about The Deep, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Map of Salt and Stars by Zeyn Joukhadar

Popsugar 2020 - A Book By a Trans or Non-Binary Author

180 books — 228 voters

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Can't Wait Sci-Fi/Fantasy of 2019

577 books — 1,815 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 3.80 ·

Rating details

· 16,280 ratings · 3,575 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of The Deep

Mar 23, 2020 Kat rated it really liked it

this book was so small but had so much to take in!! i gotta think about it for a second for a final rating, but i will tell u that feelings are positive & y’all need to give this a try!

flag 456 likes · Like · see review

Feb 04, 2020 Cindy rated it really liked it

Shelves: tr-scifi

I'll read any book that Rivers Solomon puts out because their ideas are always unique, creative, and poignant. While An Unkindness of Ghosts follows a more traditional narrative, The Deep reads more as an atmospheric and conceptual piece, which makes it harder for me to rate since I prefer the former. Considering Solomon's intentions with writing this novella, and how much I appreciate the allegory for intergenerational trauma in a mermaid fairytale, I'll round it up to 4 stars. I wish the story ...more

flag 306 likes · Like · see review

Oct 02, 2019 Erin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: october-2019, i-won-it-in-a-giveaway, lgbtqia

Giveaway win!

5 Stars isn't enough!

Water dwelling creatures who are the descendants of African slave women.

How could I not read this book.

The Deep is filled with flowery poetic language that I normally hate. Flowery language often comes off sounding pretentious and it usually leaves me rolling my eyes. But that flowery type of language fits The Deep just perfectly.

The Deep is a modern day take on African folklore. The same folklore that was brought to America on slave ships and passed down to ...more

flag 197 likes · Like · see review

Oct 29, 2019 megs_bookrack rated it really liked it

Shelves: arcs-read

**3.5-stars rounded up**

What the heck did I just read?

This novella is so unique. There's an overriding feeling that comes from reading it that I cannot describe.

When I first finished The Deep, I was blown away, but also didn't really fully understand it. Newsflash, I still don't.

As far as content, I didn't retain much; just the feeling. It's too bad because it is such a different reading experience and I believe, from what I understand, the creation of this novella was quite unique as well.

Whils ...more

flag 192 likes · Like · see review

Jul 05, 2020 Samantha rated it really liked it

This novella explores the themes of generational trauma, memory, belonging, and history using the folktale of the babies of African slaves thrown overboard turning into mermaids. This small book packs a big thematic punch.

flag 162 likes · Like · see review

Jul 22, 2020 Bookishrealm rated it it was amazing

Shelves: black-books, books-i-own, adult-fantasy, books-read-in-2020

Make sure that you listen to the song The Deep by clipping. as well as the group Drexciya.

How does a book under 200 pages stump me in terms of writing a review. I'm sitting here, at this moment, in my chair attempting to figure out how to summarize/express my feelings about this book. I think that it's probably going to take more than just a written review, but I'm going to try.

I liked to preface my thoughts by saying that if you only read this book as a fantastical "mermaid" tale and don't di Make sure that you listen to the song The Deep by clipping. as well as the group Drexciya.

How does a book under 200 pages stump me in terms of writing a review. I'm sitting here, at this moment, in my chair attempting to figure out how to summarize/express my feelings about this book. I think that it's probably going to take more than just a written review, but I'm going to try.

I liked to preface my thoughts by saying that if you only read this book as a fantastical "mermaid" tale and don't dig deep into the core of its purpose, this book will make no sense to you. It will feel nonsensical. It will feel as though you're sifting your way through pages of nonsensical ramblings set against the back drop of a mermaid tale. It's so much more. So if you didn't get it the first time around. I implore you to read it once more. Dig deep and try to see the connections.

The Deep explores so many themes that personally made me feel like this book was written for me. I'm sure everyone is familiar with the premise: pregnant women who were captured and made into slaves were thrown overboard during the transatlantic journey to the Americas and the Caribbean. These women then gave birth to children who turned into mermaids known as the Wajinru in this book. While the mermaid aspect of this book may be fantastical, the historical reference point of the massacring of slaves prior to reaching their final destination is true. This book specifically focuses on Yetu who is classified as the Historian. She carries the history of the "two-legs" and the Wajinru who came before her. The process is taxing and overbearing and Yetu wants nothing more than to quit. My first thought in reading this was related to the constant generational trauma that is inflicted on Black people. Our history is tricky. It's one that we aren't supposed to forget, yet it's one that is so traumatic that quite often we beg to forget, to be something other than this long history of pain and violence. I understood the need, the desire for Yetu to forget. Solomon takes this concept and RUNS with it. From that point forward we are exposed to a discussion related to the rebuilding of identity (Black people have had to build their culture from scratch because it was torn from us through the Transatlantic Slave Trade), gender identity (there are non-binary and lesbian characters), mental health (Yetu struggles with the trauma of the history which is closely related to the mental health of the Black community), the juxtaposition of how all Black people don't handle trauma the same, the importance of Oral traditions, collectivism vs. individuality (there were sections that reminded me of Rastafarianism and why the term of "I and I" is so important), and even ecological destruction.

After reading this book I literally sat down and just thought. How can such a small book address everything that I feel as one person? How can I feel so seen and so heard in a FANTASY book? I lost my great-grandmother almost two years ago now. She was the matriarch of my family. My great grandmother also couldn't read or write. Everything I know about my family, everything that I know about who I am and where I come from is through oral tradition. Like so many Black families, our history is documented or contained within history books. We've had to collectively carry our history and pass it down from generation to generation. Each one of us carrying the burden and passing it off to our offspring. But there is joy and beauty in the burden. I'm often reminded of J. Coles lyrics "there's beauty in the struggle." A lot of what we carry is pain, but a lot of what we carry is beauty and joy. We just have to remember to carry it together. I, like Yetu, know that we can't forget our history and where we come from because it's what ingrained in who we are right now, in this moment. You take away our history whether good, bad, or both and then who do we become? Who are we?

I could literally cry writing this review. This hands down is the best book I have read in a very long time and I won't stop screaming about how important it is to me and so many others. I hope that this review even makes sense. The emotional impact that it's had on me, the spiritual impact it's had on me is one that is very difficult to translate into words.

...more

flag 166 likes · Like · see review

Jun 09, 2020 Melanie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: book-expo-2019, fantasy, sci-fi, quarantine-reads, own-voices, adult, arc, read-in-2020, buddy-reads

flag 149 likes · Like · see review

Nov 14, 2019 Iben Frederiksen rated it liked it

Shelves: adult-fiction, more-than-one-pov, fantasy, lgbtqia

I have mixed feeling about The Deep by Rivers Solomon.

First, I LOVED the premise of a merpeople originating from pregnant african slaves being thrown overboard - it's what really drew me into reading to book.

The story however - not much happens and the pacing is very slow. Now this is not necessarily a problem to me, but coupled with a very vague worldbuilding and a very blank slated main character, whose perspective the story is told from, I ended up spending 6 days reading this 176 page novel. ...more

flag 140 likes · Like · see review

Jan 17, 2020 Miranda Reads rated it it was ok

Shelves: audiobook

Whelp.

I can't stop thinking about tierlists...so here's another video ranking all my January Books. Now that you know where this one stands, check out the video to see the rest!

The Written Review:

“What is belonging?” we ask.
She says, “Where loneliness ends.”

Yetu is the only one out of her mermaid tribe that knows their history.

Decades ago, pregnant African slave women were thrown into the ocean and their children are what formed Yetu's people.

The deep will be our sibling

...more

flag 136 likes · Like · see review

Jan 18, 2019 Charlie Jane Anders rated it it was amazing

Wow, this book is amazing. As a fan of Clipping and their Hugo-nominated song that this book is based on, I was already excited for this one---plus it's written by Rivers Solomon, author of An Unkindness of Ghosts. But wow, this book is intense. I won't give away any spoilers except to say that Yetu, the hero, is a unique character who is forced to make some tough choices to find herself, and ends up making a really beautiful and unexpected friendship as a result. I'm going to be thinking and dr ...more

flag 117 likes · Like · see review

Jul 14, 2019 destiny ♡⚔♡ [howling libraries] marked it as to-read

Shelves: audio, review-copies, owned-ebooks, owned-tbr, afrofuturism

update: dec 3, 2019
I'm really sad about it, but I'm setting this aside at the 40% mark. It's such an incredible premise, but I'm not enjoying the actual writing much at all and I'm hoping it's just the mood that I'm in. I'll give it another try later and hopefully it'll work better for me.

———

I love mer-people, I love clipping., and I love every single speck of the premise for this. I need this SO BAD

(Also, if you haven't already, check out the song that inspired Rivers Solomon to write this) ...more

flag 84 likes · Like · see review

Apr 18, 2020 may ➹ rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-2020, audiobook, adult, rep-bipoc-author, ebook, rep-lgbtqiap, important-messages, 4-star, ownvoices, rep-bipoc

- follows Yetu, who is a Historian and has to keep all of the history—intergenerational trauma and pain, essentially—of the wajinru, who are descendents of pregnant African slaves thrown overboard
- takes a bit to get into (I first listened to the audiobook then switched to ebook) but worth it to keep pushing through
- while it is about Yetu finding and discovering what her own identity is, separate from the trauma of her ancestors, it is also about the wajinru as a community. tackles what it mean ...more

flag 83 likes · Like · see review

Jan 01, 2020 Lisa rated it liked it

I loved the idea? Not so much the rest. Heartbreaking, for sure. But, somehow I was unable to finish these stories. I sent it back to the library after a few days.

flag 79 likes · Like · see review

Jan 06, 2020 Jenna rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy

Of the nearly 12.5 million enslaved Africans who were transported to the Americas in the 16th - 19th centuries, it has been estimated that 1.8 million died en route, their bodies, some still alive, tossed overboard into the ocean.

The musical duo Drexciya began a modern myth about mysterious and beautiful ocean creatures who were descended from those Africans who had been thrown overboard during the African holocaust. Forced to endure horrific treatment, starvation, and suffocating quarters, many Of the nearly 12.5 million enslaved Africans who were transported to the Americas in the 16th - 19th centuries, it has been estimated that 1.8 million died en route, their bodies, some still alive, tossed overboard into the ocean.

The musical duo Drexciya began a modern myth about mysterious and beautiful ocean creatures who were descended from those Africans who had been thrown overboard during the African holocaust. Forced to endure horrific treatment, starvation, and suffocating quarters, many became ill. The slave traders would then cruelly toss them overboard rather than "waste" any food resources on them, allowing these stolen people to drown in the vast ocean if they were still alive.

Drexciya's story wonders what if some of the unborn babies of pregnant women had survived after their mothers were thrown to their deaths. What if these infants who had yet to take a breath of air into their still-forming lungs had been birthed in the ocean and survived?

In The Deep Rivers Solomon expands on this story. Because the memories of their murdered ancestors are so painful to contemplate, only one member of the Wajinru holds all the memories for the others. This is always a highly sensitive individual and Yetu is more sensitive than most. This is her story and the story of the Wajinru.

At times I was in love with this book. Rivers Solomon writes the most exquisite prose. Their words are music; like water, their words flow all around and immerse you in them. Their words are raw and haunting and beautiful.

The story asks the questions: Who are we without our memories? Who are without a past? Who are we without our ancestors and their stories? Yetu longs to leave behind the memories of her ancestors in order to leave behind their pain. Then she meets Oori, a "two-legger" land dweller who is the last of her people and who is despondent that she knows so little of their past. The reader is left to ponder if it is worthwhile to hold on to painful memories and if there is a way to balance the act of remembering so that one can have a past without being consumed by it.

Unfortunately, just as I would get most into the book, it would jump to other characters or to some time in the future, leaving me wondering each time where I was. I almost felt like I was flailing about, lost in water. Perhaps this was Solomon's intent. If so, they did it very well. It was frustrating for me the reader though and prevents me from giving the book 5 stars.

The Deep is a haunting and beautiful story, tragic and hopeful at once. ...more

flag 77 likes · Like · see review

Dec 09, 2020 Althea | themoonwholistens ☾ rated it really liked it

Shelves: genre-urban-fantasy, rep-lgbtq, author-bipoc, read-audiobook, highly-recommended, rep-bipoc, author-lgbtqia, age-adult

↣ Highly recommend if you are looking for a relatively short urban fantasy about mermaids with underlying themes of trauma, belonging, climate change, gender identity, ++ it's packed... while seamlessly weaving it into an endearing plot. Especially one that you get through quickly with a slightly darker tone. ↢

⇢ content warnings// (view spoiler)

I didn't like my review so I deleted it and I f ...more

flag 72 likes · Like · see review

May 21, 2020 ✨ jamieson ✨ rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, audiobook, 2020-reads, adult, feminist, owned-books, novella

“Forgetting was not the same as healing.”

really impactful story about collective memory and trauma and trying to unravel the responsibility of the individual to the collective. I really like speculative fiction and this has such a good premise (the children of pregnant women thrown overboard during the transatlantic slave trade became mermaids) I loved the authors note about how this book came around and the collaboration across multiple creative platforms, really interesting.

Yetu was a sym ...more

flag 66 likes · Like · see review

Jun 01, 2020 Nataliya rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-reads, hugo-nebula

“What is belonging?” we ask.
She says, “Where loneliness ends.”

It’s a captivating book, atmospheric and sensual and at times a bit overwhelming. I did not like it for quite a few pages, but then somehow, a third in or so, realized that it had me entranced despite the nagging mixed feelings and reservations and the fact that it took me three days (!) to finish this slim novella.

The premise is beautiful and sad — but yet strongly life-affirming. Wajinru are the descendants of the pregnant women ...more

flag 63 likes · Like · see review

Dec 24, 2019 NReads marked it as to-read

so short it makes me want to finish it in an hour

flag 60 likes · Like · see review

Jan 19, 2020 Tyler J Gray rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2010s, lgbtqia, favorites, own, fantasy, poc-authors, poc-mcs, diversity-own-and-read, own-physical, mermaids

This story hit me hard from the very beginning. I was so angry at the Wajinru for putting the burden of their entire history all on Yetu's shoulders. All alone, in so much pain, pain they should have been sharing together rather than dumping it all on Yetu and it was killing her, literally. As the story progressed though I understood why they did it. I felt so much for Yetu. At times I related to certain things from being disabled, neuro-divergent and a rather sensitive INFP. I just wanted to hu This story hit me hard from the very beginning. I was so angry at the Wajinru for putting the burden of their entire history all on Yetu's shoulders. All alone, in so much pain, pain they should have been sharing together rather than dumping it all on Yetu and it was killing her, literally. As the story progressed though I understood why they did it. I felt so much for Yetu. At times I related to certain things from being disabled, neuro-divergent and a rather sensitive INFP. I just wanted to hug Yetu and scream at the rest of the Wajinru that they were killing Yetu and didn't even seem to notice.

The writing flowed and sucked me in. The book may be short but it packs a powerful punch and has so much weaved within it I can't believe it's short. No sentence felt wasted, everything important. It is a complex story with several layers but I was never confused by it. Though I think I might have been if I had read it too fast rather than taking my time with it as I did.

It has themes of being oneself, of being a part of a group and having a group history, of kinship, trauma, climate change. I'm sure there is even stuff I missed. It has powerful messages wrapped in a fantasy story with merfolk. I loved learning about the Wajinru and how they worked. I loved the arc the story went on as well as Yetu's character arc. I may have been angry for much of the story but it ends on hope and so beautifully, the ending had me sobbing. It moved me and it made me think. I had to put it down sometimes to really digest it as well as calm myself down. I enjoyed the hint of romance. I'd gladly read more from this world and these characters.

If you pick up this book please read the afterwords about how this book came to be. It's inspired by This song.

Quotes

"Forgetting was not the same as healing"

"That mattered. Who each of them was mattered as much as who all of them were together."

As my ass is white and this centers black people i'd like to direct you to a couple of reviews by black people: ONYX Pages and The Artisan Geek.

Review can also be found on my blog Here. ...more

flag 54 likes · Like · see review

Sep 18, 2018 Elle (ellexamines) marked it as tbz

Shelves: author-love

releases: June 2019
BITCH okay I was waiting I was watching I was desperate for something more by Rivers Solomon, whose work I have vowed to keep up with after loving their first book so much, and now it's HERE and I am READY ...more

flag 44 likes · Like · see review

Apr 16, 2020 Mara rated it liked it

Shelves: recommended-to-me, ebook-owned

3.5 stars -- I'm so conflicted here, because I really enjoyed the characters, writing, & thematic content of this one. It's a book I certainly recommend, as it reminded me of a fascinating take on a "The Giver" type story. The problem I had is that the disparate parts didn't quite come together for me into a fully realized book. I think probably it should have been either shorter or longer, but there's something about the various components that aren't wholly cohesive. That said, I enjoyed my ti ...more

flag 43 likes · Like · see review

Jul 27, 2020 may ❀ rated it really liked it

Shelves: ded, magic-realism, standalones, 100-pgs, fantasy, my-heart, aaaaaaaaaa, i-am-trash, audiobook

wow.

this was incredible, the story, the emotion, the setting, the narration and the storytelling was absolutely masterful.

wow, i really enjoyed this.

4.5 stars

flag 41 likes · Like · see review

Feb 13, 2020 Joey rated it it was ok

Shelves: ya, don-t-even-ask-why-i-read-this, into-the-trash-bin, fantasy

/2.5 stars/

This has been another round of Joey dashing into a book too fast and missing the ‘lgbt’ label. 🤦‍♂️
But yeah. That’s always fuuuun.

I didn’t hate it. I promise, I really didn’t. I’m not gonna do a typical review here, I’m just gonna share some thoughts and then do content.

1) There is no freaking way I’m trying to spell the names cuz i listened to the audio.

2) There were weird undertones of like... evolution/new age/ humanism, which was just weird.

3) I loved the writing. ABSOLUTELY GORGE ...more

flag 38 likes · Like · see review

Dec 23, 2019 Holly rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy-science-fiction, 2019-read, audiobook

3.5 stars

This was a really interesting/upsetting/disturbing/wonderful premise - all the pregnant women that were held in slavery on ships and tossed overboard to drown, their babies were kept alive by the ocean by turning them into a new race of mermaid-like people. This new species then develops a culture that focuses on letting go of their past. In fact, they have a designated person, the historian, who is responsible for holding their memories/history, and that person is the protagonist of th ...more

flag 41 likes · Like · see review

Dec 10, 2019 Mary Robinette Kowal rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, recommend, gave-away

The Deep by Rivers Solomon is a short fresh take on mermaids -- and I hesitate to say "mermaids" because the wajinru are very much their own thing. It's filled with beautiful language and an interesting exploration of the relationship between memory and self and community. ...more

flag 37 likes · Like · see review

Jun 15, 2020 Jessica rated it liked it

Shelves: audiobook

I really do not think the audiobook is the way to go with this one, which is the format I read this in. I was excited for the premise about mermaids who are created from the African slaves that were thrown overboard during the slave trade. The premise was so unique and interesting. There was one character who held all of the memories of her race and discussed how much of a burden that job was.

However, the story itself was really hard to get into and the plot jumped around and was hard for me to ...more

flag 33 likes · Like · see review

Aug 17, 2019 Kaa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: queer-sff, challenge-reads, group-buddy-reads, wbtm-challenge, favorites, things-i-won

I read/listened to The Deep twice in two months, and it was definitely worth returning to, especially since the audiobook was narrated by Daveed Diggs. I appreciated it as an eye-read, but it was even better for listening to. The writing is perfect for being read aloud, which is a style I always enjoy, and it suited the story extremely well. The plot is fairly simple, so the story is primarily driven by its emotional arc, which grapples with generational trauma, memory, communal obligation, and ...more

flag 32 likes · Like · see review

Feb 12, 2020 Adri rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ownvoices, favorites, audiobooks

FUCK.

flag 33 likes · Like · see review

Oct 31, 2019 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019-sword, sci-fi-fantasy, music, read2019, netgalley, novella, reviewcopy, ebooks

The Deep by Rivers Solomon is in conversation with a song by William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes and performed by Daveed Diggs, based on the underwater mythology of the 90s Detroit electro band Drexciya. (You can hear the song on Episode 623 of This American Life.)

Mercreatures descended from enslaved women murdered and thrown overboard when they were pregnant live in communities on the ocean floor, with the ability to connect telepathically. Yetu is the historian and bears the weight of the colle ...more

flag 30 likes · Like · see review

Jul 23, 2020 April (Aprilius Maximus) rated it liked it

Shelves: 2020

“What is belonging?” we ask. She says, “Where loneliness ends.”

representation: all Black characters (own voices), non-binary character (own voices), f/f relationship, m/m relationship.

[trigger warnings are listed at the bottom of this review and may contain spoilers]

★★★.5

This was super powerful and interesting, but I wasn't a huge fan of the writing. I definitely recommend reading the afterword as you get much more of a background on how this story came to be and it's very interesting.

trig ...more

flag 28 likes · Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
The Bookworm Soci...: The Deep by Rivers Solomon - Starting February 26th 2021	14	25	Mar 02, 2021 10:35AM
SciFi and Fantasy...: "The Deep" by Rivers Solomon (BR)	37	129	Mar 01, 2021 02:16PM
Into the Forest: The Deep spoilers allowed	17	34	Sep 20, 2020 02:07AM
Into the Forest: The Deep spoiler free	15	23	Jul 26, 2020 11:21AM
Book to the Future!: January 2020: The Deep	1	5	Jul 01, 2020 10:27AM