The Deep by Rivers Solomon

Octavia E. Butler meets Marvel’s Black Panther in The Deep, a story rich with Afrofuturism, folklore, and the power of memory, inspired by the Hugo Award–nominated song “The Deep” from Daveed Diggs’s rap group Clipping.

Yetu holds the memories for her people—water-dwelling descendants of pregnant African slave women thrown overboard by slave owners—who live idyllic lives in the deep. Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly is forgotten by everyone, save one—the historian. This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu.

Yetu remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her. And so, she flees to the surface escaping the memories, the expectations, and the responsibilities—and discovers a world her people left behind long ago.

Yetu will learn more than she ever expected about her own past—and about the future of her people. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity—and own who they really are.

The Deep is “a tour de force reorientation of the storytelling gaze…a superb, multilayered work,” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) and a vividly original and uniquely affecting story inspired by a song produced by the rap group Clipping.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

"History was everything. Yetu knew that. But it wasn't kind."

For our September Book Club meeting, Fat Forward Books subscribers overwhelmingly voted for The Deep by Rivers Solomon, which is based on the eponymous Hugo Award-nominated song by clipping. Before diving into this review, if you haven't listened to the song, I highly suggest you check it out.

The Deep is a high fantasy/sci-fi story following Yetu, a water-dweller who's been given the role of historian and tasked with remembering the traumatic beginnings of her people's idyllic life beneath the sea. None of the other wajinru remember, leaving Yetu with the additional work of helping them recall their two-legged roots. Yetu's ancestors were pregnant African slaves thrown overboard by slave owners, and the horrors of their experiences overwhelm Yetu until she desperately flees to the surface, where she makes unexpected connections and, ultimately, has to decide what to do about the future.

I listened to The Deep audiobook narrated by Daveed Diggs, who co-wrote the song with his clipping. counterparts, producers William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes. It's a surreal and powerful experience to listen to the song, then dive into the audiobook. Diggs's narration is emotional, impactful, and affecting. It will stick with me for a long time.