An Unkindness of Ghosts

It feels strange to say I really enjoyed this, because it is brutal. An Unkindness of Ghosts is set on a massive spacecraft with stratified decks, operating as a sort of racial caste system. Those on the upper decks live lavishly, while those on the lower decks toil and starve and freeze, made to ration resources they can barely access.

People on the lower decks live entrenched in scarcity and cruelty. But despite moments of hopelessness, Aster and her loved ones are defiant. Aster wastes no energy humanizing those whose worldview requires her dehumanization. She matter-of-factly rejects demands that she sympathize with or apologize to people that subject her and countless others to gratuitous violence.

Moreover, Aster, Theo, and others reject binary definitions of gender and sexuality. They are skeptical and unimpressed. They are bored by the boxes they are expected to place themselves and others into. Which is not to say they don't see the impact of gender and sexuality in their society; quite the opposite. The way they practice medicine shows this.

Aster and Theo use their expertise in medicine to provide healthcare that not only decreases pain and fear, but increases autonomy. The pain suffered by their patients is seen as trivial, or even necessary for the stability and advancement of society. The care they take in healing these wounds refutes this.

There's a lot more to say about this book (like its searing but precise depiction of mental illness, for example), but you should probably just read it. I've come away drained, but it can't be about what it's about and be a feel-good read. It didn't feel like torture porn to me: the guards and political leaders subject the lower decks to gratuitous violence, but the book is about how that violence is gratuitous and despicable. It depicts cruelty so that it can be challenged.

I think this is a strong debut by an author who has a lot to say. I'll definitely read more Rivers Solomon in the future.