Short, heavy, and stunning

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This is an utterly amazing novella. It accomplishes so much, and is so moving, in a very short amount of space. It's not a 'quick' or 'easy' read by any means, as it deals deeply with the ancestral trauma of slavery, albeit in a fantastical or magical setting where the descendants of pregnant African women thrown who were drowned during the middle passage are now merpeople who channel all of their traumatic memories into one memory-keeper per generation. It focuses on this memory keeper--Yetu--and the hellish mental toll such isolation and concentrated trauma wreaks on her, and it follows her decision to rebel against her fate and the ways her society must adapt to deal with this rebellion. It's not a particularly action-packed novella, but it is deep on character development (particularly the early ancestors we get in 'flashbacks') and bigger ideas. There's also a hopeful plot (or, arguably, a series of them) built in toward the end, to counterbalance all of the trauma and despair.