The Deep

“The Deep” is built on an excellent premise. The Story is built upon a song by the group clipping, also listed as authors.

In the book, we learn of a civilization of merpeople adapted from the babies of slave women thrown off of ships going from Africa to the Americas. The story is told from the perspective of the Historian, who is the one member of the civilization who carries the weighty and painful memories of their origin.

So, what went wrong? Rivers Solomon definitely has a gift. However, they seemed to get lost in a rather angsty and whiny viewpoint of the Historian who should be in her 30s, but acts about 12 years old. And, for a book under 170 pages, the pacing is incredibly slow and murky. The few pages by clipping at the end of the novella are the best part of the entire book.