Review of The Deep by Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes

 

 

The Deep is an interesting take on mermaid mythology, where mermaids came from pregnant women who were thrown overboard slave ships.  In their society, a historian stores all the memories of their people and shares them with everyone once a year and then takes them back.  This is so that everyone can live without the weight of the memories.

I did enjoy this story but at times felt lost and many aspects of it could have been expanded for a more full story.  The part that I enjoyed the most was Yetu's time on the surface when you got to see the character development.  I wish there had been more character development throughout the rest of the story because it gave the general impression to me that this story was complete and still needed to be fleshed out.

I did enjoy this and would recommend it to someone that is interested in unusual mermaid stories.
       

Review of Starfish by Lisa Fipps

 

Starfish by Lisa Fipps is about Ellie who has been bullied about her weight since her fifth birthday party, and ever since then she has lived by the "Fat Girl Rules" which are meant to help her not stand out.  Ellie does have a small network of people who support her in a sea of bullies.  

I absolutely loved this book!  I read this book in a single sitting, once I started I couldn't put it down.  I wish that this book had been around when I was in middle school.  A book about body positivity is unfortunately few and far between.  I had tears going down my face for most of the book.  There were some really heartbreaking parts of this, like when her mom keeps putting weight loss articles on the fridge for Ellie to see and ending a lot of things she says to Ellie with "if only you lost weight".  This book really points out how much more hurtful people's words are especially when they come from the people in our own families.

As I was reading this, I kept thinking about all the people that I want to give this book to and I will definitely be recommending this to just about everyone!