Tag: rivers solomon

Twenty-thousand Years of This, Seven More to Go: Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag 2021

by cephalopodiatry, posted in Books

Hello, dear traveler! It has been quite a while since my last post. My unexpected semi-hiatus from Twitter, Instagram, and WordPress gave me a good breather, but I missed the joyous chaos of book blogging.

Since we have last met, much has changed:

  • I wrote my second full-length novel.
    • I finished the first extremely rough draft in just a few weeks, and I started sending out queries for the project recently. Exciting and scary times!
  • I decided upon the college I’ll be attending in the fall.
    • See you soon, UC Berkeley!
  • I watched a lot of television.
    • My current fave recent shows and movies: Vincenzo, Way of the House Husband, Demon Slayer, Nevertheless, Bo Burnham: Inside, In the Heights, and The Problem With Apu
  • I graduated from high school!
Be sure to watch my YouTube vlog about my graduation experience!

Plus, the blog has been a bit rebranded! For one thing, I changed up the fonts. The header image for my homepage is also different, and I’ve updated my About page. Be sure to tour around and check everything out!

And of course, I’ve read a few books. 😏

Perhaps the middle of the year has passed us. According to my Google research, July 2 was the midpoint of the year. Regardless, I am glad that our paths have intertwined again.

Welcome to Sophie and Their Stories‘ first ever Mid Year Book Freak Out! 💞 The tag originated from Chami at Read Like Wildfire, and I’m excited to be diving into it.

Let’s catch up with each other, shall we?

Continue reading “Twenty-thousand Years of This, Seven More to Go: Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag 2021” →

Memory is a Flood: A Review of The Deep

by cephalopodiatry, posted in Books

Greetings, traveler. It’s Black History Month! During every month of the year, I will be featuring an array of amazing works by Black authors (as all readers and bloggers should) via rec lists and book reviews. Let’s always celebrate the incredible beauty of diverse stories!

Today, we’ll be diving into the breathtaking world of The Deep by Rivers Solomon, a novella inspired by the song of the same name, written by Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes of Clipping (one of my new favorite hip-hop groups. Their album, Visions of Bodies Being Burned, is so good).

SYNOPSIS:

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 to 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.

Goodreads | Book Depository | IndieBound

Rep: African, non-binary author and characters; African protagonists, characters, and setting; sapphic and queer protagonist and characters; intersex character

Content Warnings: animal death; grief and trauma; slavery and themes of slavery; death of loved ones; self-harm and injury; attempted suicide; hallucinations; the aftermath of war

tl;dr: Do I recommend this book?

Image result for yes fish image

MY RATING: ★★★★★

This is my first five-star rating on this blog! Hooray!

Our mothers were pregnant African women

Thrown overboard while crossing the Atlantic Ocean on slave ships

We were born breathing water as we did in the womb

We built our home on the sea floor

Unaware of the two-legged surface dwellers

Until their world came to destroy ours

With cannons, they searched for oil beneath our cities

Their greed and recklessness forced our uprising

Tonight, we remember.

Traveler, what do you remember?

Continue reading “Memory is a Flood: A Review of The Deep” →