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A review by jess_mango
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
4.0
I am torn on what to rate this. Somewhere around 3.5 or 4. There was a lot I liked about this and other stuff that I didn't. It is definitely an ambitious book. The best way to describe it is "Slave Narrative in Space".
Humans have been living on the Mathilda for several generations. They left a dying Earth and are headed for a new place to settle. The Mathilda has many decks with the upper decks being populated by the Sovereign and their ilk and the lowest decks being populated by the dark-skinned slaves who do all the farming and other work to keep the ship society functional. The protagonist Aster is a wonderful character. I also found it interesting that in this society babies are presumed and treated as female or non-binary. There are a lot of non-binary characters in this book.
So, lots of stuff here about race, gender, etc. There is a lot of trauma, misery and outrage packed in this story. Imagine a slave narrative where the slaves have no chance of escape since they are on a space craft moving through deep space. I enjoyed the writing and the characters and will definitely check out Solomon's latest novel.
This book reminded me of:
[b:Binti|25667918|Binti (Binti, #1)|Nnedi Okorafor|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1433804020l/25667918._SY75_.jpg|45491127]
[b:Dawn|60929|Dawn (Xenogenesis, #1)|Octavia E. Butler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388290339l/60929._SY75_.jpg|1008111]
[b:Across the Universe|8235178|Across the Universe (Across the Universe, #1)|Beth Revis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1401852218l/8235178._SY75_.jpg|13082532]
Humans have been living on the Mathilda for several generations. They left a dying Earth and are headed for a new place to settle. The Mathilda has many decks with the upper decks being populated by the Sovereign and their ilk and the lowest decks being populated by the dark-skinned slaves who do all the farming and other work to keep the ship society functional. The protagonist Aster is a wonderful character. I also found it interesting that in this society babies are presumed and treated as female or non-binary. There are a lot of non-binary characters in this book.
So, lots of stuff here about race, gender, etc. There is a lot of trauma, misery and outrage packed in this story. Imagine a slave narrative where the slaves have no chance of escape since they are on a space craft moving through deep space. I enjoyed the writing and the characters and will definitely check out Solomon's latest novel.
This book reminded me of:
[b:Binti|25667918|Binti (Binti, #1)|Nnedi Okorafor|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1433804020l/25667918._SY75_.jpg|45491127]
[b:Dawn|60929|Dawn (Xenogenesis, #1)|Octavia E. Butler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388290339l/60929._SY75_.jpg|1008111]
[b:Across the Universe|8235178|Across the Universe (Across the Universe, #1)|Beth Revis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1401852218l/8235178._SY75_.jpg|13082532]