Emotional novella with an intriguing concept

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"Those cursed with more intact long-term recollection learned how to forget, how to throw themselves into the moment."

The Deep is a novella with an intriguing concept.  It reminded me a bit of The Giver by Lois Lowry, combined with the Little Mermaid, with some important African history as an overarching theme. Imagine we never stopped breathing underwater as we did in the womb, would the human race have split in two?  Rivers Solomon is skilled in writing in such a way that I felt like I was personally feeling the emotions and struggles of the main character, Yetu, speaking in a first person point of view. I didn't envy her and the deep anxiety she seems to have felt over the past two decades. The story ends up becoming a bit romantic though, which is not my preferred genre hence the lowered rating.