Was there anything about her that wasn’t a performance for others’ gratification? (location 17%) The questions that Yetu asks herself in this process struck me as so poignant and painfully real. Similarly, although Yetu on some level wants to break fully away from her society, she also feels a responsibility to them and wrestles with how to be loyal to both them and herself. In other words, Yetu is not blamed for this problem, rather the culture is questioned and it is wondered how sustainable this model is if it doesn’t work for everyone in the culture. I love that no one in the book ever decides that Yetu is the one at fault for this. Her neurodiversity both made her a candidate to be the historian but also made the task soul-crushing and life-destroying for her. No one ever says explicitly that Yetu is neurodiverse, but it’s clear that she is. It’s a beautiful collaboration, and the song is well-worth the listen.

I love that the song authors gave permission to Rivers Solomon to write this book inspired by the song, and Solomon in turn credited them for the book. The number of authors is large because this book was inspired by a song by the hip-hop group. If you know you like mermaid stories and want a fresh take on them, just go pick this up immediately. This book wowed me, taking my breath away from start to finish. Can she both preserve herself and not abandon her people? One year, in the middle of the history ceremony, she flees for the surface in an act of self-preservation. But the pain of holding the memories is more burdensome for Yetu than for previous historians, as she is more sensitive than any historian before her. As the historian, Yetu holds the painful memories of her people, helping them to experience them once a year. Yetu is the historian for her people – the mermaid descendants of pregnant enslaved African women thrown overboard from slave-ships before they could give birth.

The deep book rivers solomon