An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
IDs: Black, Multiracial, Intersex, Transfeminine, Nonbinary, Queer, Physically Disabled, Neurodivergent, Mentally Ill
Author IDs: Black, Nonbinary, Queer, Neurodivergent, Disabled, Mentally Ill
CWs: Sexual assault, rape, race-based violence, racism, enslavement, homophobic violence, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, death, graphic descriptions of surgery, mention of suicide
An Unkindness of Ghosts takes place on a generation spaceship heading for a vague “Promise Land” after a nuclear disaster has destroyed the Earth. The ship is separated into decks, and these decks correlate with race. The lowest decks are populated by Black people, while the highest are populated by white people. The lower deck people work in indentured servitude-like positions for the upper deck people. The system purposefully mirrors chattel slavery in the Antebellum South, reminding us that the horrors of racism are not behind us, and we must ensure that we do not return to such a system in the future. Solomon’s protagonist is Aster, a neurodivergent, intersex, possibly nonbinary, queer, Black doctor-in-training. She works under Theo, a transfeminine, queer, multiracial amputee with OCD. Theo is white-passing, and his multiracial identity is concealed when he is born so that he can be raised white. He and Aster are both brilliant doctors, and they also share a deep love for one another.
The novel follows Aster, along with the assistance of Theo and her best friend Giselle, a queer, mentally ill/mad Black woman, as she attempts to uncover the mystery of her mother's disappearance many years ago. Her mother disappeared around the same time that the ship started experiencing "blackouts," losses of power from the artificial sun on the ship. At the beginning of the novel, the ship begins experiencing them again, and Giselle and Aster wonder what connection the blackouts may have to Aster's mother's disappearance. Through this quest, Solomon examines and explores how our past haunts our future, the ways in which we create and frame our historiography, and how our ghosts show up in our past, present, and future.
Solomon’s text is essential reading for their character representation alone. Yet Solomon doesn’t just feature these complex and multiply marginalized characters; they also weave a narrative that explores and centers these multiply marginalized experiences and simultaneously grants autonomy and joy to these characters while also demonstrating the ways that they must navigate and adapt in a world that refuses to grant them space. Solomon’s text is a beautiful testament to the necessity of centering disabled, queer, trans, Black voices. They set the precedent for what these kinds of narratives have the ability to do, and what speculative authors should be aiming for. They explore liberation, marginalization, racism, transphobia, imagined futures, and more, while still granting autonomy to characters that represent multiply marginalized existence. This novel is the foundation for this project. It showed me what was possible, and I hope it does the same for you.
Discussion Questions
1. What do “ghosts” mean in this story? How is Solomon connecting ghosts to memory, history, race, family, time, etc?
2. Is this a ghost story? Why or why not?
3. What does the end of the novel mean? How are we meant to interpret Aster’s descent?
4. How does the return to Earth parallel other “returns” in the novel? (ie the “return” to chattel slavery, the “return” to Aster’s mother / family history, etc) What do these parallels mean?
5. How does disability show up in this novel? Gender? Queerness? How does Solomon challenge our notions of what these identity categories mean?