Book Review: An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

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, she’d be powerful enough to tear down the walls around her until nothing remains of her world.
Aster lives in the lowdeck slums of the HSS Matilda, a space vessel organized much like the antebellum South. For generations, 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. Embroiled in a grudge with a brutal overseer, Aster learns there may be a way to improve her lot—if she’s willing to sow the seeds of civil war.

This book has been in my TBR pile for a long time, and I deeply regret it took me so long to decide to read it.

The last humans alive travel aboard the HSS Matilda, an enormous, decrepit intergenerational spaceship, in search of a Promised Land. This massive spaceship is organized into levels in a way that evokes the American Antebellum South. Aster is one of the inhabitants of the lower levels, which makes her part of a marginalized and enslaved population, but she’s also incredibly brilliant, which has landed her a place as assistant to Theo, the ship’s surgeon.

This book feels very special to me because Rivers Solomon dared talk about topics we don’t normally see in literature. Aster, apart from being a part of a marginalized subset of society, is also autistic, intersex, and bisexual. The word “autistic” never made it into the book, but Solomon perfectly described experiences that profoundly resonated with me. I’ve also loved Theo as an atypical character, which was Solomon’s contribution to trans representation.

I loved discovering how the innards of the Matilda were organized, the architecture of the field decks, and how Baby Sun worked. This is one of those books that starts in mid-res, so discovering how such a sick society worked was one of the things that kept me reading. But what I found most compelling in this story was the several mysteries Aster decided to investigate for everyone’s survival.

This is a hard book to read. Many unfair atrocities happen aboard the Matilda, from which no one can escape. Things are terribly difficult for Aster and her loved ones, and it’s easy to despair at times when reading her story, but Aster is a fighter and so very clever, and I couldn’t help but root for her and want to hug her so tight.

This is my first Rivers Solomon book, but won’t be my last. I want to read everything they’ve written.

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lomeraniel

My name is Elena. Since I was a little child I loved science fiction and fantasy, and I can’t resist a good novel. In 2015, while wait I started to listen to audiobooks and I discovered the pleasure in being able to read while doing my daily tasks, so there’s always an audiobook playing on my phone. If you see me with my Bluetooth headphones on, please be gentle, I get easily startled.

I live with my boyfriend, which I met during my six-year stay in Belgium, four cockatiels, eight lovebirds, and a hamster in Madrid, Spain; and I like to spend my free time knitting and sewing while listening to audiobooks.