While the mermaid aspect of this book may be fantastical, the historical reference point of the massacring of slaves prior to reaching their final destination is true.

These women then gave birth to children who turned into mermaids known as the Wajinru in this book. I'm sure everyone is familiar with the premise: pregnant women who were captured and made into slaves were thrown overboard during the transatlantic journey to the Americas and the Caribbean. The Deep explores so many themes that personally made me feel like this book was written for me.

So if you didn't get it the first time around. It will feel as though you're sifting your way through pages of nonsensical ramblings set against the back drop of a mermaid tale. I liked to preface my thoughts by saying that if you only read this book as a fantastical 'mermaid' tale and don't dig deep into the core of its purpose, this book will make no sense to you. I think that it's probably going to take more than just a written review, but I'm going to try. I'm sitting here, at this moment, in my chair attempting to figure out how to summarize/express my feelings about this book. How does a book under 200 pages stump me in terms of writing a review. Make sure that you listen to the song The Deep by clipping. Inspired by a song produced by the rap group Clipping for the This American Life episode “We Are In The Future,” The Deep is vividly original and uniquely affecting. If they are all to survive, they’ll need to reclaim the memories, reclaim their identity-and own who they really are. Yetu will learn more than she ever expected to about her own past-and about the future of her people. 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 remembers for everyone, and the memories, painful and wonderful, traumatic and terrible and miraculous, are destroying her.

This demanding role has been bestowed on Yetu.

Their past, too traumatic to be remembered regularly, is forgotten by everyone, save one-the historian. 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. The water-breathing descendants of African slave women tossed overboard have built their own underwater society-and must reclaim the memories of their past to shape their future in this brilliantly imaginative novella inspired by the Hugo Award nominated song “The Deep” from Daveed Diggs’ rap group Clipping.

The deep daveed diggs