hi so today i wanted to do a review video
of one of my new all time favourite books
which is and unkindness of ghosts by rivers solomon
so, i read this yesterday
for, the queer black readathon (blackathon)
and i was thinking that i wanted to like
sit on it for a bit
and just like
yeah, reflect on it for a bit before
before i made a review, but
i just, i love it so much
and like, ive read a lot of really
great books this year
but i havent read like
a book thats like
thats had such a like, immense emotional impact
on me
the way that this has
in a really long time
so i wanted to make a video
where i talked about it
i just wanted to do a quick mention again
i have a lot of links in
the description
for fundraisers and
places to donate like
to black people, activists, and communities
resources, mutual aid
and that sort of stuff and i highly recommend
or urge you
to press the links
and donate
educate yourself
dont stop there
change the way you life your life etc.
but yeah,
this book
ive wanted to read this book
for years
as i mentioned in my previous video
but had a hard time getting a copy
of it, but
i finally got it and
i read it like, i read some
on friday, and then i read in all in one go yesterday
it's amazing
me saying it's amazing isnt a great review
so, im going to first get into
what it is actually about
and then talk about
some of the stuff that i love about it
this book follows aster
who lives on this like massive
like spaceship
called mathilda
and its kinda like
sort of a classic sci-fi story in the sense that
they are on this like, the remains of
humanity are trying to find this like haven,
that is literally heaven
and on this ship
all the horrible like
and on this ship all the horrible like
all the horrible parts of human history are alive and well and like replicated
so there are these like
different levels
of the ship
and they are based on like
well some of it is
is based on class but mostly race
like the lower levels
where aster lives
they are slaves
and treated really horribly
and i want to put a content warning
well for a lot of stuff in this
but especially for sexual violence
and racism, and .. psychosis
and like
the effects of trauma
and kinda just like
horrible racialised and
gendered violence
so, just a heads up
aster's on
this ship
she is 25 and
she is working as
a healer, like a doctor and a botanist
and she is just such a great character
and rivers solomon is
non-binary
and identifies as a dyke
and they are autistic
and
aster is also autistic
and neurodivergent
i dont know just like
the way her perpspective
is just so amazing
and i love that just like
it just really resonated with
her way of like seeing
the world and how she like
she loves to speak
but how she knows that
when she says things they arent interpreted right
so she feels like she has to choose her words
and even when she does so
its wrong, or its like interpreted wrong
and its just
exceptionally well written
and very interesting
also
even though like
this book deals a lot with gender and there are some
parts of the deck where people use
gender neutral pronouns
aster uses she/her pronouns and
theo
one of the other main characters
who i also really love
he uses he/him pronouns
but like he isn't a man
and i just wanted to say that i use
the pronouns that they use for themselves
in the book
but like
aster has a very complicated relationship to her gender
and theo isnt a man
and thats made very explicit
so i just wanted to
highlight that, but yeah
this is about aster
and like, when aster
right after she was born
her mother committed suicide
and its about her kinda like
reading her mothers journal to
with the help of giselle, who i love
giselle has also experienced a lot of traume
and she has a very intense relationhsip
with embodiment
and pain
and just like her body
in relation to sex and
the horrible violence
that has been done towards her
and just
i love their friendship
and i love aster's relationship with theo
and i just love theo
i didnt cry while reading this book
but ive cried like four times since
thinking about it
religion is a really
religion and memory
is a very big part of this book
and the way that
theo's devotion
and the way that his devotion
how he can pray for clarity
and make these hard choices
i really loved reading about that
and i just loved the way that he and aster
communicates and
the way that they
yeah how they like
clear up these miscommunications between them
and their respect for each other
and kinda like how they see each other and
their gender and their understanding of gender
was really amazing, and
yeah i just love that so much
and i love the relationship between them
and i just cant stop thinking about it
and i just, i love theo like
he's great
all of you who have watched my videos know
that i, uhm health autonomy
is something that is very important to me
and just both
aster and theo's medical practice, or the way
heal each other and themselves
and the way that like
one of the medicines that aster makes for theo
blocks the way that testosterone moves around his body and
and allows him
to raise his oestrogen levels
and i love how they like
even though they live in this horrible world
where they are confined to this ship, to the
confined to this destiny
that really cant escape
its confined and then its just like the vastness of space
around them , they can still
even though their bodies are being completely violated
and their bodily autonomy
they can control
they can help each other
not just heal
but modify their bodies
i just love the way that like
it deals with like consent and bodily autonomy in medicine and
the power
of health autonomy and
not being reliant on
horrible structures and systems
and the way they heal themselves and others in this book
is amazing and i also kinda like love
the familial relationships and the communities
they have formed together in this horrible situation
it isnt called slavery but it is. it is forced labour
and then how the women
and then there is like how the women have
these relationhips
the elders and the older women are like
they dont have this mothering relationship to the kids but they
they care for and love them
and i just really enjoyed that
and i read some one star reviews of this
because i loved it so much so i wanted to see
what people who didnt enjoy it
what their issues with it was
and it was mostly obviously like
ohh there is forced diversity
even though that is ridiculous
because it is one of the most beautiful
im going to cry
representations of like
neurodiversity and gender
yeah its just really lovely
and some other issues that some people had
with this was
the pacing
and i really loved the pacing
i think in this world where
everyone are so traumatised
im going to cry
i wish i knew how to edit so that i could edit that out
this world where people are so traumatised and like
experience so much physical pain
i think it kinda like
like it makes sense for the pacing with this intense introversion
and then like
reflecting on like
your own relationship to language and how
other people speak to you
and communication, and then
oh words
and then obviously like
all this violance happens and there are these intense external things
do happen
and i think that makes sense
kinda like how
you kinda like, not
hide but
move inside yourself and
and inside your relationships to the people that you trust and love
and then there are these really like intense
more fast paced moments of like
well like you cant move, aster cant move
freely around the ship
so she is having to move, hide
and having these really intense
happen to your body
mixed with like
again, intense
introspection
it's just really great
and one thing that people was commenting on
was the ending being a bit rushed, unsatisfying
and as someone who hates things ending
the worst bit of every book is
it ending
i wish it would have just gone on forever because i love reading it so much
but like
she is trying to solve the mystery
of her mother's life and what her mother was trying to do
and, i think
when, and also they are starting a civil war
a revolution
i think when you have these very like
tensions and these like underlying goals
that are also quite overt
you are coming towards something
it will always feel a bit rushed
i didnt just, i didnt
find it rushed, but i found it
like abrupt
like it moves, kinda
with such an intensity, but
at a certain pace towards the end
and then it has a very final ending
which is also quite open
and it is very intense
and just like
beautiful and heartbreaking in a lot of
ways and
i just, i really
enjoyed the ending
i dont understand like
the other thing i guess that solomon could hve done
was to just like
have a
ended it before the ending
but i really enjoyed the way
it was resolved and i just really think that this is
this is an amazing book
and i dont really know what to say im really incoherent that is the case in all of my videos
im incoherent and i dont know why i keep apologising
but
i think
if you are a fan of speculative fiction
if, i dont know
if you like queer fiction
if you like fiction that exposes all the
horrors of like our history and
racism and bodily autonomy
if you like queer love and relationships
and like, madness
obviously a lot of these people are really traumatised
and especially giselle, i love giselle
her want to, to wanting to hurt herself
and the people she loves
i thought that was just like really,
well done, really
beautiful
so i think that like
yeah again, if you are in
a place where you can handle really intense topics
and you like to read about
just like
queerness and you want like
amazing neurodiverse
representation
if you like
 
familial love, and familial love in the sense
that like
family can be so much more than like
conventional family structures
which is really interesting as well
when giselle and aster were younger they
used to pretend to be
husband and wife, and
they have no conception of what
a home is
but they pretend to be in
a home
and to be married
and it was just like really
really violent
and i think that this is also
this shows like even though
it is a horrible dystopia
it kinda shows like
what family can be beyond
the family model we currently have
and i thought that was really nice
and
i love the way it talks about memory and
the divine, and
and just like spirituality
it is really well-written
in the beginning i was like it's good but
it isn't great
i was like it is well-written but then
when you are in her mind
you have gotten used to the pacing
you have uncovered some things
its just
i think about halfway through
i was just so into it
it was just amazing
and
yeah, if you havent read this book
please read it
it is now one of my all time favourite books
and yeah
i hope you are having a good time
i also, like when i ordered this
i ordered the deep by rivers solomon
but they run out of it so
i didn't get it, they just refunded me
and was like, we will let you know whenever you can buy it again
so sadly i wasnt able to read that but i will
as soon as i possibly can
but this morning i was able to find some short stories
that they have written
that are avaliable online at like tor and a different website
and i'll link those down below
as well, but yeah
please read this book
it is really great
and
yeah i think just one more thing
that i wanted to say, again
i should have scripted this maybe
but i really love
again, how this talks about gender
and one thing i really like
is just like
it moved me
is when aster is 'passing' as a man
and she is imagining like what her relationship with theo could be
if she was perceived as this man she was pretending to be
and i thought that was
just a lot to handle
and
yeah, sorry this is really embarrassing
i was like, im not going to cry!
and i havent cried i have just been
emotional
but yeah
please read this book
and if you have read it
please let me know what you think
about it like please talk
to me about it
and, yeah
sorry about the sounds, there are like strange sounds
there is a storm outside
there is thunder and lightning, the whole thing
but yeah
i hope you enjoyed this attempt at a review
and
please read this book
thank you so much for watching, and i will talk to you soon x
