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pacifickat's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
However, there was a section toward the middle where
Ultimately this is a story about finding balance, between a traumatic past and a hopeful future, between individual and communal identity, between colonizing forces and indigenous cultures, and between the land and sea itself. It is also about remembering.
"Remember. […] That was all remembering was, prodding them lest they try to move on from things that should not be moved on from. Forgetting is not the same as healing.” - Yetu
"One can only go so long without asking, ‘Who am I? Where do I come from? What does all this mean? What is being? What came before me, and what might come after?’ Without answers there is only a hole, a whole where a history should be that takes the shape of an endless longing. We are cavities.” - Amamba
Yetu bears all of her people’s generational trauma, that is her role as ‘memory keeper’ in a society where long-term memory has largely been erased to give her people the freedom to thrive in the present unhindered by a painful past. She is their matriarch, but she is ill-suited for the role.
"She couldn’t determine which was worse, the pain of the ancestors or the pain of the living. Both fed off her.”
"She learned how to make an inch for herself.”
"She touched each one of them, figuring out how each Wajinru was outside of the oneness the remembrance brought. That mattered. Who each of them was mattered as much as who all of them were together.”
"They could bear it all together.”
It is also a story about the function of memory in culture-making and identity.
In the afterward, The Deep is described as “a game of cumulative telephone.” The concept began as a song and was adapted over time by different musical groups until this novelization was produced.
“Each new telling of The Deep has been productive rather than destructive, and each new iteration has been carried out with admiration for the previous, […] happily taking on adaptations of each new interpreter into the future.”
This is a wonderful description of culture-making, the turning of ‘I’ into ‘we’, of carrying our stories, traumas, and longings together, erasing loneliness in the context of a communal tribe. It is forming collective memory, adapting a shared history into a cohesive perspective, a meaningful and unifying mythology.
"The living put their own mark on the dead.”
Graphic: Death, Self harm, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, and Fire/Fire injury
drowning, shark attacks, birth, biting, neurodivergence, generational trauma, collective traumathe_last_bookshelf's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
Graphic: Racism, Slavery, Violence, and Trafficking
savvylit's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
The Deep is a truly stunning novella. My only complaint is that the length of the story left me wanting more. I wanted more info on the Tidal Wars or Oori's family. The Deep was so immersive that I would have gladly stayed in its world for many more hours. Alas!
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Grief, Murder, and Pregnancy
directorpurry's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.5
Moderate: Racism, Slavery, Violence, Trafficking, and Murder
bearbookshelf's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Murder
catwhisperer's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Child death, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Grief, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Colonisation
haley49's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I hope any of that makes sense but what I mean to say is that it’s existence is profound and important but not necessarily enjoyable as it’s own work without context and intention.
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy
cookiecat73's review
- 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? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Death and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Animal death, Sexual content, Slavery, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, and Pregnancy
triley's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy
le_mur's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Slavery, Trafficking, and Pregnancy