Uncitizens,
An Unkindness of Ghosts, my debut novel about a young (disabled, intersex, lesbian/queer) Black woman living in the slums of a generation ship, came out October 2017.
I’ve been really honored by the overwhelmingly positive response; however, I wanted to do a little bit of book-related outreach, to make sure anyone who might be interested in Unkindness has at least heard of it! So this is my little masterlist post of all the reasons you might want to buy this book or pick it up from your library! tl;dr, it’s gay as shit.
1) Okay, so it feels decidedly notgood to me to simplify complex social locations into a laundry list of identities, but I do think Unkindness will speak to folks looking for books exploring the following topics & experiences:
– being trans, nonbinary, genderweird, genderantagonistic, gendertraumatized
– being a dyke, dykegender, loving women, wanting women
– being autistic, adhd, psychotic, “not otherwise specified,” borderline, PTSD
– being a descendant of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade, a refugee, & diasporan2) A lot of folks have had nothing but kind things to say, and here’s a little blurb that gives you a better idea about what An Unkindness of Ghosts is actually about.
“Solomon’s big, unflinching and poetically detailed sci-fi debut tells the story of Aster Grey, an orphan raised on the slavery deck of a starship called the HSS Matilda as she searches for answers to her mother’s death and the mystery of the forces who control the starship. Aster is both neuroatypical and queer, and these elements of her characterization work seamlessly and nonexploitatively into a plot that mirrors so many of our own world’s greatest injustices, probing at our ideas about classism, racism, abuse and tyranny. A stunning first novel by a writer I can’t wait to see more from.”
Amal El-Mohtar’s stellar review in NPR said of the book:
What Solomon achieves with this debut — the sharpness, the depth, the precision — puts me in mind of a syringe full of stars. I want to say about this book, its only imperfection is that it ended.
It’s been favorably reviewed on several blogs and other venues as well!
3) It made more end-of-year lists that I can count, including
Publisher’s Weekly Best Books of 2017, The Guardian’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2017, & Them’s Best Queer Books of 2017. It’s also been featured as a part of Paste Magazine’s Best Audiobooks 2017, Buzzfeed, Elle UK, Shondaland, and Bustle, among others.
You can read an interview with me, the author (Rivers Solomon) about the book at The Rumpus: Magical Systems and Fusion Reactors, and you can read an excerpt in the Rumpus here.
ANYWAY, my cat almost deleted this whole ass post so I think that’s a sign I should quit while I’m ahead. Thanks for your support. Please reblog if you feel up to it.