Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

45 reviews

judassilver's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Self harm, Slavery, Grief, and War

Moderate: Child death, Genocide, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Violence, Xenophobia, and Fire/Fire injury

rosa_lina96's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

The message of the book- that we should hold onto and value our history, even the parts of it that are painful- was profound, and the writing itself was beautiful, but for some reason this one didn't stick with me despite the premise itself sounding interesting. Maybe it was because the fast pace doesn't really give the narrative time to really flesh out the characters as much as they could have been, maybe it's because the plot kind of jumps from place to place in a manner that feels haphazard rather than artfully executed, or maybe I'm just not the intended audience for this story--either way, I didn't find myself connecting to it as much as I hoped I would. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Slavery, and Grief

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

Minor: Child death

highkingmargo's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I'm very satisfied having read it once, but i already want to again, just to better understand certain parts with context.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Hate crime, Slavery, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Gore, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

violetends's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Racism, Blood, Grief, and Colonisation

Moderate: Suicide attempt and Pregnancy

kirstieanya's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

This novel has strong thematic ideas and a great general concept, but I found it really difficult to get into (despite its short length).

I couldn't put my finger on why until I read another review discussing the writing style. The writing is not varied regarding sentence structure, making it not particularly engaging.

As mentioned, the premise is incredibly strong, poignant, and thought-provoking. I just wish it were written in a slightly more engaging way. I wanted to love this book, but unfortunately, I didn't.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Racism, Self harm, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment

gandalf_a's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Slavery, Grief, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicide attempt, Murder, Abandonment, and War

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Eating disorder, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

gabepants's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Racism, and Slavery

culpeppper's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious sad

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

I already wrote out a review and it didn't save, so I'm gonna do a bullet point style thing here:

• The metaphors were immense, sometimes clever and sometimes a little too on the nose, but largely the use of weaving those metaphors into the story was done well and enhanced the reading experience. As an example, the descriptions in the underwater mimic the setting, relying on feelings and ideas to form the world before Yetu goes to the surface where descriptions change to more solid things rather than concepts. 
• The story has multiple perspectives. Though I do feel it worked thematically to have these other perspectives, and the stories they told enhanced our perspective, but it was always jarring and confusing in a way that took me a bit out of the story sometimes. 
• It's a work of creative wonder, filled with countless concepts, and it's inspired me to read more of Solomon's work so I can have a longer experience that I think will suit their style of writing better. 

Overall, there were some things it lacked that could have built out the world a bit more, and the pacing felt weird and off at times, I think that's partially the form and maybe some stylistic elements I don't fully understand. But I liked the experience of this world, of this look into our world, and the use of history and remembering as critical to it. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Xenophobia, and Colonisation

Minor: Child death, Fire/Fire injury, and War

bucketsjen's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

The children of pregnant African women thrown overboard by slavers have adapted to the water and built their own society. They appoint one person every generation to be the Historian that holds all of their memories - but the current historian is struggling as the only person holding the awareness of pain and history. She returns the memories and flees, leaving her people to grapple with their history alone as she tries to find herself... but of course, their unprocessed pain effects everything.  

Has themes of cultural, generational, and personal trauma, the pain of being the only one who Knows and Understands, and processing/healing to move forward.  It's REALLY well done. While the subject matter is heavy, it's managed deftly and the book is surprisingly healing to read.

I really recommend the audiobook for this one. Daveed Diggs does an incredible job, and the work's musical history really lends it to auditory retelling.  There's an Afterward by Diggs which was an awesome addition to the story (he's funny and insightful).

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery and Grief

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Suicide attempt

Animal death, Attempted suicide, Grief, Hallucinations, Slavery (past), Self-harm, Trauma (personal, generational, cultural), violence, references to familial death.

numerous_bees's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Death, Genocide, Slavery, Blood, Pregnancy, and Colonisation

Minor: Racism, Sexual content, and Fire/Fire injury