Wish Not For The Sea To Take Our Memories

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Pros: World of mermaids is interesting, taking a part of African diaspora trauma and creating a story from that, message about remembering, message about how remembering effects people differently, representing that pain/trauma that comes from the tragedies from the slave trade across the African diaspora, all the characters are black, lgbqt representation, even as I am thinking there is probably more to explore that I am missing

Cons: Wears its message on its sleeve, telling me the message instead of exploring/ruminating on it, ended just when it was beginning like it needed more to round the entire story off, repetitive, did it explore enough memory & African diaspora & slavery

It turns me off that I know the message from page one and it almost seemed like that is all the story had to say (another book made me feel this way).

Thoughts

Might be good to read in school- short and deals with different topics/issues in a fantasy setting

I wonder how much of the story progression is based on the song and original concept? Was there things about these original works that limited where the story The Deep went?

“Forgetting was not the same as healing.”

-The Deep, Rivers Solomon

What does memory mean for a people who have lost so much? There is this big amount of lost, there are things that will more than likely never be recovered.

Many people have compared this to The Giver (I thought about it too) the interesting thing is for black people across the diaspora who ancestors lived through slavery it takes on a special meaning. Black people are told actively to forget. They are pushed to erase their history because it is shameful and depressing/heavy.
It is important to have a message about memory in a genre that many people want to distance themselves from the pain of the ancestors.
I want us to own our history not run from it.