#an unkindness of ghosts by rivers solomon

[kodiescove]

An Unkindness of Ghosts

Tw: institutionalized racism and segregation, off screen rape, corporeal punishment

Representation: black, (possible) autism, intersex, transgender and nonbinary identities

I chose this book for black history month and I honestly feel like it was the right choice.

One thing you must know is this book is rather heavy. I feel like I have walked away from this book with a better understanding of these problems, and the ways they affect different people inflicted with them.

I found the storyline to be captivating, and to make up for the heavy feeling in my chest that formed from reading about the struggles the characters faced at the hands of their oppressors.

The prose were well written, and each character felt unique compared to each other instead of each character being the same which could have so easily been the case.

If you would like a great story about an intersex woman unraveling the mystery of her mother's death, that explores the depth of racism, I highly recommend this book.

[papenathys]

Forgot to mention Rivers Solomon among good political sff writers..... Some of you "Babel is the most heartwrenching revolutionary educational political fantasy ever" girls would shit your pants and cry if you read Sorrowland, An Unkindness of Ghosts or The Deep. All of them are trans and sapphic btw.

[haveyoureadthisqueerbook]

[haveyoureadthisbook-poll]

[contracat25]

Alright, some more recommendations for the end of #TransRightsReadathon! Here are some standalones by trans authors I've enjoyed.  These books mostly fall under the sff umbrella except for Confessions of the Fox which is meta-historical fiction.

They are beautiful, heartfelt, creative explorations of humanity, of our drive for connection, self-understanding, love, and survival. So many of these books look at history, personal, and community, aaaand they are filled with complicated, lovable, engaging characters. All of these books gave me something from a soft place to rest to a new way of viewing the world we live in. 

Many of these have trans characters as well, but not all of them. Most of these authors have other books that are also wonderful. Annnd as always there are so many other fabulous books by and about people who are trans.

One Last Stop by Casey McQuistion

An Unkindess of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg

All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

ID: a stack of 8 books on a teal background 

[queer-book-character-tournament]

Character, book, and author names under the cut

Aster- An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Mo Xuanyu- Mo Dao Zu Shi/Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Csorwe- The Unspoken Name by AK Larkwood

Victor Vale- Vicious by VE Schwab

[mangotortoise]

Finished four books this month! (Technically three books and a novella):

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw: fucking amazing. Their style lends perfectly to the weird, slightly ambiguous, apocalyptic world of the setting and I enjoyed the unconventional romance (unconventional because how tf else am I supposed to describe the relationship between a mermaid and a sorta immortal plague doctor?) I might need to read it again, but the print version. 4/5

A House at the Bottom of the Lake by Josh Malerman: Super eerie, especially at the beginning. Kind of had this wonderous, childlike, dreamy quality to the story that still has me not sure which bits were real or not. Not a super spooky horrorific read, but enjoyable. 4/5

Beartown by Fredrik Backman: Lost my fucking mind this was so good. Was knitting through part of the audiobook and had to stop knitting and lie on the couch for the last twenty minutes. Got chills with the last line. 5/5

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon: A DEBUT NOVEL? THIS GOOD?? Yeah no the style here was excellent and I usually hate Sci-Fi and loved this (the Worldbuilding was subtle which is more my jam.) Absolutely horrific given the subject matter (sort of a sci-fi twist on a spaceship with an antebellum style caste system. Heed the trigger warnings on this one.) Anyway Aster is an amazing protagonist. 5/5

[te-intheworld]

Another bingo for me. For a book with an intersex mc I read An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon. A heavy book but also beautiful. I bought this copy a long time ago and waited for the perfect moment to read it.

@queerliblib

[havewereadthis]

"Odd-mannered, obsessive, withdrawn, Aster has little to offer folks in the way of rebuttal when they call her ogre and freak. She's used to the names; she only wishes there was more truth to them. If she were truly a monster, as they accuse, she'd be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remained of her world, save for stories told around the cookfire.

Aster lives in the low-deck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, the Matilda has ferried the last of humanity to a mythical Promised Land. On its way, the ship's leaders have imposed harsh moral restrictions and deep indignities on dark-skinned sharecroppers like Aster, who they consider to be less than human.

When the autopsy of Matilda's sovereign reveals a surprising link between his death and her mother's suicide some quarter-century before, Aster retraces her mother's footsteps. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer and sowing the seeds of civil war, Aster learns there may be a way off the ship if she's willing to fight for it."

[tigger8900]

An Unkindness of Ghosts, by Rivers Solomon

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Aster is a healer and a scientist, splitting her time between working food production in the field decks, producing medicine and providing medical services among her fellow low- and mid-deckers, and serving as medical assistant to the Surgeon, a white-passing doctor heralded as a genius on the wealthy upper decks. She lives and works on the Matilda, a generational ship that fled Earth 300 years ago as it faced a now-forgotten calamity, its course set for the Promised Land. But the lower decks of Matilda have begun to face blackouts and power cuts reminiscent of the events of 25 years prior — the year Aster was born, as well as the year her mother killed herself. As Aster searches for the truth behind her mother's suicide, she finds connections not only to the technical difficulties plaguing the ship but also to the recent illness of the Sovereign, the ruler of Matilda. As her situation grows ever more precarious, Aster is determined to stop at nothing to uncover the truth, even if it means ripping the only life she's ever known to pieces.

This book was incredible. I've never met a protagonist quite like Aster: queer, neurodivergent, sharp in both manner and intelligence, and scarred by a lifetime of trauma but hell-bent on getting her way. The rest of the cast didn't disappoint either, with a varied collection of complexly-written and -motivated characters comprising both the heroic and villainous casts. Theo was an incredible supporting character. Again, complicated and frustrating at times, but I was so glad we got to meet him and even spend a chapter in his head. I would have liked to hear more from his point of view in fact, though I admit it wouldn't have served the plot any better. I just want more Theo, and I want him to be happy. It's a purely selfish desire. And no, there's nothing on AO3. I checked.

Anyway. There were a lot of ways this book could have gone wrong. The concept of "antebellum slavery recreated aboard a generation ship in transit" was ambitious, and I can think of few other authors who could have done it justice — N.K. Jemisin, perhaps? Jemisin wouldn't have done the character work in the same way though, so it would have been a very different book. I thought the level of scientific crunch was perfect for the story Solomon was trying to tell. The science seemed mostly sound to my layman's understanding(with the exception of the siluminium), but rather than taking on a starring role it formed the backbone that supported the main point of the story, which was about the society that relied on that science to survive.

My only complaint about this book is that the pacing gets a little weird in the last third. A lot of time passes, but the plot remains urgent, so there's some very weird time skips that leave the narrative feeling disjointed, even rushed at times. But this only brings the overall score down to maybe a 4.75, so I rounded it up. If you're someone who likes your sci-fi with science that at least puts up a pretense of being grounded in fact, but who still prefers a focus on character and society over hard scientific crunch, the style of this book would probably appeal to you. Just be mindful of the content warnings, as there's quite a lot of them and Solomon pulls no punches. I'll definitely be looking for more of their work in the future, as soon as space opens up on my TBR…

[book-quotes-and-moodboards]

A scientist, Aster had learned something Giselle had not: decoding the past was like decoding the physical world. The best that could be hoped for was a working model. A reasonable approximation. That was to say, no matter what Aster learned of Lune, there was no piecing together the full mystery of her life. There was no hearing her laugh or feeling her embrace. A ghost is not a person.

An Unkindness of Ghosts (by Rivers Solomon)

[kodiescove]

WE'VE GOT POSSIBLE QUEER/T4T LOVE

LESS GOOOOOOO

[sock-to-the-third]

“What spirit told you to get into it with that guard? Certainly not a spirit to be trusted if they didn’t also tell you to finish it,” [said Aint Melusine].

“Finish it?” said Aster.

“Finish him. Death ends a issue. A fight makes it fester on and on.”

pg 68 of Chapter 5, An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

[littlemissinkdrinker]

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Another stunning masterpiece. Heartbreaking but hope found in every beat, in every pause, in every breath. I love Aster and I love Theo - I fell in love them even while I hated the background vibrant, cruel world that is pressing down on them. This was a one of those reads that has you entranced and enthralled and utterly horrified because you know it's a reflection of the past and the possible future.

Read : April 8th - 16th, 2023

Rating : 5 Stars

[edinsfbookgroup]

Book for June 2024

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Chosen by Tony.

When: Tuesday June 25th, 7pm

Where: The Keller Taproom, 23-27 Broughton St Ln

If you would like to join us to discuss the book, send an email to the address on the home page, or send us an ask!

[hotguynextdoor2]

“In [Frederick Hauser’s] speech to the Guard’s remaining members, preserved forever in a phonograph cylinfer, Hauser explained that Tarlandeds came from the Realm of Chaos — the workd that existed before the Heavens overriled it, replaced nonsense with divine structure. Their demon forms could not conform to the Holy Order set forth by the Heavens.

(Aster knew he referred to what the Surgeon once called hereditary suprarenal dysregula. Due to a broad range of hormonal disturbances, Tarlander bodies did not always present as clearly male and female as the Guard supposed they ought. This explained Aster’s hairiness and musclar build despite being born without the external organs that produced testosterone.)

pg 19 Ch2, An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

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Not only do the Tarlanders present in a quasi intersex fashion but depending on the deck of Matilda the children are refused to in a different fashion pronoun wise. For instance, on Aster’s deck, their default pronoun is she while on Flicker’s deck, it’s they.