An Unkindness of Ghosts

by Rivers Solomon

340 pages

Published Sept. 18, 2017 by Akashic Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-61775-599-6

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.

5 editions

Kadomi@buecher.pnpde.social reviewed An unkindness of ghosts by Rivers Solomon

Dark SF debut novel

4 stars

Content warning Spoilers, CN sexual assault

What a debut. This is a very dark book, set onboard the Matilda, a giant spaceship with an artificial sun that is taking people away from Earth from an unnamed catastrophe. But society on the ship is strictly segregated. Led by white supremacists in the upperdecks, all people of color live in the lower decks and are held like slaves to do all manual labor. One of those slaves is Aster, the main character. She works as an assistant for the Surgeon, a very religious medic who is also a bastard of a previous leader, and a lowerdeck woman. Aster's mother died under strange circumstances shortly after Aster's birth, and now she is trying to make sense of the many notes that her mother left behind. As the new leader starts a brutal vendetta against Aster, she learns the truth about Matilda's journey and what her mother achieved.

It's really not for the faint of heart, this book, because it needs a lot of content warnings. It really shocked me to see how casually Aster treats herself with creams in preparation of common sexual assault from the guards, for example. It's brutal, sometimes confusing, doesn't always make sense why Aster gets so singled out, but it was also a good book to read.