An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

 

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon was an incredibly well written novel covering a variety of topics from race, gender, religious trauma, sexuality, and disabilities. The novel follows Aster who lives on the ship Mathilda, which left Earth 1,000 years ago due to Earth becoming uninhabitable. The Mathilda is split up between the upper decks, the mid decks, and the lower decks; all separated by class and race. The lower decks inhabitants are essentially slaves and treated incredibly poorly. Aster, along with her friends Giselle and Theo, make a plan to decode her mother's notebooks and find their way out of the hell they are living in.

I absolutely loved Solomon's voice in Sorrowland so I knew that I was going to love An Unkindness of Ghosts, they have such a distinct and vivid voice that the novel was impossible to put down. I enjoyed reading from Aster's perspective and seeing her unique view of the world, how she navigated her relationships with others through the lens of someone who has autism. I felt that her character was written respectfully, especially because the author is on the autism spectrum. I felt that it helped me to understand people with autism a little better. The other characters are also deep and interesting people, even the characters we're supposed to support have their own detrimental flaws.

An Unkindness of Ghosts is incredibly well written, especially for a debut novel and, honestly, my only complaints are that there isn't a sequel and the random POV switches where a little odd. Other than that, I would highly recommend this book and rate it a 4/5.