Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Deep by Rivers Solomon

79 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

pikkumarja's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.75

I believe this story is one of those stories that split the readers. I enjoyed reading this book. It was so powerful. All the emotions were so skillfully described I was almost able to feel the pressure, feel the dark, deep ocean around me and the weight of the history.

The novella is queer in a unique way and very emotional. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Slavery, Violence, and Blood

alyssarenee's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.25

queer little mermaid x the giver x the ones who walk away from omelas

short but packed with emotion. a dystopian underwater society descended from african slaves on ships. i loved the concept and depiction of intergenerational trauma, just wished this were a bit longer/fleshed out more. 

side note, i was definitely picturing the merpeople from harry potter.

this was my first read from this author, and looking forward to more!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Slavery, Violence, and Suicide attempt

kaiyakaiyo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I think this is a very important and well-written book, but I personally did not enjoy reading it very much :/ 

I also think I would’ve enjoyed it much more in discussion with others; this is a book for talking about, turning over with friends/classmates. it’s not really a sit and read along sort of experience, at least for me

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, and War

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

sandstar's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, and Abandonment

stagemanaginger's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.5

It’s always hard for me to know how to rate such short books because I feel like it was over before I got to really connect with the characters. I enjoyed how the author used time and followed Yetu’s story throughout while also weaving in the experiences of past historians.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and War

3eggomelet's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective 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? Yes

2.5

Maybe I can attribute this to the book being hyped up by others, but it was kind of a let-down. I expected more substance or more plot.

The ending felt like the easy way out. I thought Yetu and Oori were going to be together, but Oori being able to physically change so drastically was unbelievable.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Racism, Self harm, Violence, and Dysphoria

Minor: Pregnancy and Abandonment

crispr_breadboard's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

I didn’t hate it, but I typically prefer more depth and complexity to plots and characters. The allegorical symbolism didn’t go unnoticed (ie, understanding the complex emotions produced by generational trauma of the oppressed due to white supremacy). I enjoyed the portions that leaned into that message, but looking beyond that I felt the story lacked. Which made it feel simple- more like a grim fable than a novel. Probably intentional, but doesn’t mean I have to like it 😅

Truthfully, the afterword made me appreciate the novel more than actually reading it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery

Moderate: Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Stalking, Abandonment, and Colonisation

Minor: Self harm, Sexual content, Violence, and Suicide attempt

mfrisk's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad tense 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

3.75

Given that this is a book based on a song it is in essence very lyrical and free flowing in nature. I liked that in some aspects of the story but it also made it very hard to follow the story in a chronological way. The story from what I can tell skipped between Yetu’s narrative to that of their collective community and was not linear in nature which made it a bit confusing for me. That being said I thought the themes of remembering history in community and of defining yourself grounded in that history were very strong and despite not loving the format the writing was lovely and I think this story would be stunning in other visual formats as well to really carry on the story told here. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Slavery, Violence, and Death of parent

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