An Unkindness of Ghosts - Rivers Solomon - A Short Summary & Review

 An Unkindness of Ghosts - Rivers Solomon - A Short Summary & Review

By: a.d. elliott | Take the Back Roads - Art and Other Odd Adventures

A Rite of Fancy Book Recommendation and Review

Slavery in space.

A short summary:

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon is a harrowing work of speculative fiction that exposes how systems of cruelty can be preserved, perfected, and disguised as necessity, even in the far future.

Set aboard a massive generation ship traveling through deep space, the novel reveals a rigid social hierarchy that mirrors the brutality of historic plantation slavery. Those at the top enjoy comfort, education, and safety, while those in the lower decks are subjected to violence, deprivation, and erasure. The past is deliberately obscured, rewritten, or denied, ensuring that oppression continues without accountability.

Through its protagonist, Solomon examines memory, inherited trauma, and the dangerous lie that distance from history somehow absolves injustice. The novel is not subtle, and it is not meant to be. It insists that progress without moral reckoning is no progress at all.

My favorite quote from the book:

"This far from the past, no one could truly know their history."

- Rivers Solomon, An Unkindness of Ghosts

Questions to ponder while reading:

Could you survive such a brutal society?

Would you stay aboard the ship?

My review:

This is a dark, deeply unsettling book, one that may be too much for some readers, particularly those sensitive to depictions of abuse and systemic violence. But its darkness is purposeful.

An Unkindness of Ghosts confronts the reader with the uncomfortable truth that humanity does not automatically improve with time or technology. Given the opportunity, we often rebuild the same hierarchies, the same cruelty, and the same justifications, only more efficiently.

The novel is heartbreaking in its honesty. There is little comfort here, and no easy redemption arc. Instead, Solomon forces the reader to sit with the question: If this is what we choose to preserve, what future do we deserve? By the end, the impulse to “crash the ship” feels less like rage and more like moral clarity.

This is not light reading. It is a necessary reading.

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About the Author
a.d. elliott is a wanderer, photographer, and storyteller traveling through life

She shares her journeys at Take the Back Roads, explores new reads at Rite of Fancy, and highlights U.S. military biographies at Everyday Patriot.

You can also browse her online photography gallery at shop.takethebackroads.com.

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