Deep Roots (2018)
Written by: Ruthanna Emrys
Genre: Dark fantasy (Lovecraftian)
Pages: 352 (Kindle)
Series: Book Two of The Innsmouth Legacy
Publisher: Tor.com
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions are my own.
Why I Chose It: Winter Tide was one of my favorite books from 2017, so I was obviously on board for the sequel.
The premise:
Ruthanna Emrys’ Innsmouth Legacy, which began with Winter Tide and continues with Deep Roots, confronts H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos head-on, boldly upturning his fear of the unknown with a heart-warming story of found family, acceptance, and perseverance in the face of human cruelty and the cosmic apathy of the universe. Emrys brings together a family of outsiders, bridging the gaps between the many people marginalized by the homogenizing pressure of 1940s America.
Aphra Marsh, descendant of the People of the Water, has survived Deep One internment camps and made a grudging peace with the government that destroyed her home and exterminated her people on land. Deep Roots continues Aphra’s journey to rebuild her life and family on land, as she tracks down long-lost relatives. She must repopulate Innsmouth or risk seeing it torn down by greedy developers, but as she searches she discovers that people have been going missing. She will have to unravel the mystery, or risk seeing her way of life slip away.
No spoilers
First, I must mention that one probably could read this without reading Winter Tide, but you really shouldn’t. Anyway, after reviewing Ruthanna Emrys’s Winter Tide last year, the sequel, Deep Roots, was one of my most anticipated reads for this year. I wasn’t disappointed.
One of the things that Emrys does well is creating wonderfully layered, complex characters. They aren’t perfect. They make mistakes, the same as anyone else. Despite numerous differences in age, race, culture, and even species, one commonality exists: the desire to do what is best for humanity. The conflict arises when those ideas of what is “best” begin to collide and conflict with the very nature of human beings and free will. This is seen on a larger scale with the Mi-Go and their desire to preserve humans from annihilating themselves, and on a smaller scale with Aphra’s desire to rebuild her own people. Should you force someone into doing something for their own good? Can you, personally, decide what is best for anyone other than yourself? One person’s prison may be another person’s perfect world. You cannot command that anyone conform to what you think is right or good.
Speaking of non-conformity, Emrys continues to send Lovecraft spinning in his grave by focusing on the very people that Lovecraft feared and hated the most. There are at least two interracial relationships that I can think of off the top of my head. There are a few same-sex couples. The old man would be horrified to see so many non-white, non-heterosexual characters as the heroes of stories set in the multiverse that he created. Personally, I’m delighted. May Emrys and others continue to reshape the Lovecraftian mythos in their own fashions.
As for the plot, as with Winter Tide, it almost takes a backseat to the fascinating character interactions and relationships. We spend more time with Aphra’s older relatives (the ones who’ve gone into the water). We learn a bit about what happened while Professor Trumbull was a visitor in the Archives (the home of the Yith who body-swapped with her prior to the events of Winter Tide). Even the Mi-Go are fascinating and complicated. Their own internal politics and beliefs aren’t explored as thoroughly as I would have liked, but that’s just not entirely unexpected, as they are the “villains” of the story. Even the ghouls that populate the Dreamland were interesting. Let’s be honest, I read these books for the characters alone. Emrys could write an entire novel about Aphra and company simply having a picnic on the beach, and I would read the heck out of it. I must confess: this book was hard for me to read for personal reasons. One of the themes that Emrys highlighted in both this and Winter Tide was the value of found family. Many of us have experienced this feeling towards a dear friend — the phrases “brother from another mother” and “sister from another mister” exist for a reason, after all. My difficulty with this book stemmed from the unexpected death of a member of my own found family about a week before the book was published. It was painful for me to fully sink into Aphra’s world and watch her continue to grow and build bonds with her confluence when my own “confluence” had splintered. This is, strange as it may sound, a good thing. It is a testament to Emrys’s skill as a writer that she has created characters that can move the reader so deeply. It has been several weeks since I finished the book, and Aphra, Charlie, Audrey, Catherine, Caleb, Deedee and the others still linger in the back of my mind.
In Conclusion: This series is more than worth your time, even if you haven’t given Lovecraft a second thought. You don’t have to have read a word of his fiction to be able to appreciate these novels. Having some familiarity with the mythos definitely informs the reading experience, but Emrys makes things entirely accessible for even complete newbies. Read Winter Tide first, then snag a copy of Deep Roots.
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