The Deep
Octavia E. Butler meets Marvel’s Black Panther in The Deep, a story rich with Afrofuturism, folklore, and the power of memory, inspired by the Hugo Award–nominated song “The Deep” from Daveed Diggs’s rap group Clipping.
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 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.
The Deep is “a tour de force reorientation of the storytelling gaze…a superb, multilayered work,” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) and a vividly original and uniquely affecting story inspired by a song produced by the rap group Clipping.
- Pages
- 145
- First published
- November 5, 2019
- Language
- English
- Edition
- Ebook
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Shelved by 9 Litcadians
Reviews
Finished April 14, 2025
Started April 15, 2026 · Finished April 15, 2026
This story exists as such a unique, thought-provoking concept. It is a fantastic character study of the ways we endure the storm, shape our identities, and heal through generations of trauma in an effort to break the cycle. In some ways, it is horrifying, but I am so fascinated by the worldbuilding, by the underwater society and their customs, just…everything. For a collaborative project, this is really well done.
Finished April 5, 2025
3.75 ⭐
Finished March 12, 2025
This book wrecked me. The concept alone is breathtaking; water-dwelling creatures descended from African slave women who were thrown overboard, forced to build a new world beneath the waves. It’s haunting, magical, and deeply emotional. Yetu, the protagonist, is the historian for her people, burdened with holding all their memories... memories too painful for the rest of the Wajinru to bear. But carrying this pain alone is destroying her. As she flees to find herself, she instead discovers the true power of remembrance. This book does not shy away from the brutal history that shaped its world. It forces the reader to confront the past; how trauma shapes us, how memory binds us, and how healing can only come when we share the weight of history rather than letting it crush one person or one group. Masterful storytelling. Devastating. Powerful. Necessary.
Finished February 9, 2022
▸ Did not finish (1)
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