My first thoughts
Honestly, I loved the book but I was real glad to finish it. It’s dark.
What I really think
An Unkindness of Ghsots is a spider’s web. A shiny, alluring web and you don’t realize what it really is until you’re in too deep, trapped, and about to be eaten alive. Solomon’s debut starts with the amputation of a child’s foot and it isn’t long before you realize every sentence is dripping with the intergenerational pain and trauma of slavery and oppression. I was horrified, saddened, and enthralled in the story. The pacing lurches a bit in places, but I was so taken in by these characters that I didn’t mind.
This is not for light reading (something the author regularly mentions in interviews). It is, however, refreshing to read something like this book because it so obviously does not give one single f*ck what the market wants or what the mainstream trend is. I am forever grateful to the agent, editor, and team who helped make this a published book, when they so easily could have said it was too strange, too upsetting, too whatever.
I mean… the book is about a Black, intersex, autistic, queer woman. In space. Unapologetically autistic. Unapologetically a revolutionary simply because of who she is and how her mind works. I challenge you to find one single other book like this anywhere. Most of the POC in the book are queer, including those who are biracial (upper deck and white and lower deck Black/POC parentage, typically). But, and I thought this was really interesting, the upper deck whites are extraordinarily heteronormative. Strict male/female gender roles are in place, with men dominating women. There is no room for queerness (this is driven home by the inability of a biracial trans woman owning that she is a woman but completely unable to come out and live as one openly without endangering her life). It is a sickening recreation of the mainstream status quo in our own world.
Content warnings
Anyone who has suffered abuse should expect some triggers in this book. Much of the violence and abuse is easy to see coming (in my opinion), so hopefully it will help anyone avoid scenes they would otherwise not wish to read.
Discussion of murder, sexual assault, child abuse
Normalization of abuse
Child murder
Self-harm
Transphobia (including the consistent misgendering of the transwoman character, which is not done maliciously as she is not out to anyone)
Should You Read This?
Honestly? If you’re up for it, I highly recommend this book.
My Final Thoughts
Rivers Solomon’s next book is about mermaids! Mermaids born from pregnant African slave women thrown overboard on their voyage into bondage. It’s out today. I can’t wait to read it.
The Course of Events 