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.
In a Nutshell: A hard-hitting diverse adult fantasy with merfolk
Published: Nov 5th, 2019
Format: Physical
Number of Pages: 166
Finished: January 2020
Rating: 5⭐
Diversity: All the characters are black, some are queer, some disabled, and it's written by a black autistic non-binary author
My Thoughts
This story hit me hard from the very beginning. I was so angry at the Wajinru for putting the burden of their entire history all on Yetu's shoulders. All alone, in so much pain, pain they should have been sharing together rather than dumping it all on Yetu and it was killing her, literally. As the story progressed though I understood why they did it. I felt so much for Yetu. At times I related to certain things from being disabled, neuro-divergent and a rather sensitive INFP. I just wanted to hug Yetu and scream at the rest of the Wajinru that they were killing Yetu and didn't even seem to notice.
The writing flowed and sucked me in. The book may be short but it packs a powerful punch and has so much weaved within it I can't believe it's short. No sentence felt wasted, everything important. It is a complex story with several layers but I was never confused by it. Though I think I might have been if I had read it too fast rather than taking my time with it as I did.
It has themes of being oneself, of being a part of a group and having a group history, of kinship, trauma, climate change. I'm sure there is even stuff I missed. It has powerful messages wrapped in a fantasy story with merfolk. I loved learning about the Wajinru and how they worked. I loved the arc the story went on as well as Yetu's character arc. I may have been angry for much of the story but it ends on hope and so beautifully, the ending had me sobbing. It moved me and it made me think. I had to put it down sometimes to really digest it as well as calm myself down. I enjoyed the hint of romance. I'd gladly read more from this world and these characters.
If you pick up this book please read the afterwords about how this book came to be. It's inspired by This song.
Quotes
"Forgetting was not the same as healing"
"That mattered. Who each of them was mattered as much as who all of them were together."
As my ass is white and this centers black people i'd like to direct you to a couple of reviews by black people: ONYX Pages and The Artisan Geek.
My Review on Goodreads
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