Daughter of the Merciful Deep, by Leslye Penelope
4 Aug 2024The Book
Synopsis:
A woman journeys into a submerged world of gods and myth to save her home in this powerful historical fantasy that shines a light on the drowned Black towns of the American South.
“Our home began, as all things do, with a wish.”
Jane Edwards hasn’t spoken since she was eleven years old, when armed riders expelled her family from their hometown along with every other Black resident. Now, twelve years later, she’s found a haven in the all-Black town of Awenasa. But the construction of a dam promises to wash her home under the waters of the new lake.
Jane will do anything to save the community that sheltered her. So, when a man with uncanny abilities arrives in town asking strange questions, she wonders if he might be the key. But as the stranger hints at gods and ancestral magic, Jane is captivated by a bigger mystery. She knows this man. Only the last time she saw him, he was dead. His body laid to rest in a rushing river.
Who is the stranger and what is he really doing in Awenasa? To find those answers, Jane will journey into a sunken world, a land of capricious gods and unsung myths, of salvation and dreams made real. But the flood waters are rising. To gain the miracle she desires, Jane will have to find her voice again and finally face the trauma of the past.
My Review
Daughter of the Merciful Deep is a historical fantasy novel written by Leslye Penelope and published by Orbit Books. A deeply touching story that explores the racism associated with the 20s and 30s in the American South, the systematic unfairness practised with the collaboration of the government and law against people of colour, while also weaving together an excellent portrayal on how trauma can shape a life.
The city of Awenasa is an all-African-American town in the 1930s America; a peaceful place where many have found their refugee due to Old George. One of those people that found a home there is the young Jane Edwards, mute after a traumatic event happened to her at eleven years old, communicating mostly through sign language; a peace that is about to be broken when the government informs that there are plans to drown Awenasa, forcing their inhabitants to flee. In order to save Awenasa and what represents, Jane will embark on a spiritual journey to an underwater world of magic and spirits, while also starting an interior one that will put her in front of what traumatized her.
With a really evocative and lyrical style, Penelope chooses to use the own Jane's POV as the main conductor thread, but putting a great attention to fleshing the rest of characters, necessary collaborators on this choral play around Awenasa. We get to experience not only the racism associated with being an Afro-American person, but also the ableism projected towards Jane and her mutism in a very real way.
While the underwater world associated with the narration is especially important towards the resolution, it is true that I felt it a bit disconnected at moments, becoming a different thread on its own; but probably it also helps the more human nature which ties the story to Awenasa and its people.
I found quite interesting the worldbuilding on its own, as it mixes real history inspiration with African myths and magic, taking the drowned cities' authentic stories and the Afro-American lynching episodes as the base to create a vivid story. It helps how descriptive and lyrical Penelope writes, creating incredible images that are tied to the narration.
Daughter of the Merciful Deep is an incredible coming of age story which plays excellent with the historical base to develop a deep touching plot; a great novel if you are looking to a story which will make you care about its characters, while showing the cruelty of what Afro-American people have experienced (and still experiences in some cases) because of racism.
The Author/s
Leslye Penelope
Leslye Penelope, who also writes as L. Penelope, has been writing since she could hold a pen and loves getting lost in the worlds in her head. She is an award-winning author of fantasy and paranormal romance. Her debut novel Song of Blood & Stone was chosen as one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time. The novel also won the inaugural award for Best Self-Published Fiction from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Her 2022 novel The Monsters We Defy won the 2023 Audie Award for Best Fantasy Audiobook.
She was born in the Bronx, not long after the birth of hip hop, but left before she could acquire an accent. Equally left and right-brained, she studied film production at Howard University and minored in computer science. This led to a master’s degree in multimedia and a career in website development. She’s also an award-winning independent filmmaker, co-founded a literary magazine, and sometimes dreams in HTML.
Leslye is an alumna of VONA/Voices and Hurston/Wright Writers Workshop. She has spoken and taught at conferences and festivals around the country including the Baltimore Book Festival, Romance Writers of America, Writers Digest Annual & Novel Writing Conferences, and the Historical Novel Society.
Her podcast, My Imaginary Friends, is a journal of her publishing life, perfect for readers and writers alike. Leslye lives in Maryland with her feline dependents.