An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon is a haunting, character-driven science-fiction novel set aboard the generational spaceship Matilda. Blending speculative world-building with historical echoes of slavery and segregation, the novel explores trauma, identity, resilience, and the quest for freedom in an oppressive and stratified society.
The story centers on Aster, a brilliant but socially withdrawn healer and scientist who lives on the lower, brutally policed decks of the Matilda. Orphaned and alienated, Aster has spent her life scavenging knowledge from forbidden sources, driven by both her scientific curiosity and the mystery surrounding her mother’s death. Her journey is as much about unraveling the ship’s secrets as it is about claiming her own identity in a society that dehumanizes her.
Aster’s closest ally is Giselle, her volatile childhood friend whose own traumas manifest in self-destructive ways. Their complicated bond reflects both the shared pain of the lower-deck residents and the difficult intimacy forged under oppression. Through Giselle, the novel examines how trauma can fracture relationships while still creating deep, inescapable ties.
Another key figure is The Surgeon, the ship’s chief medical officer, who serves as a reluctant mentor to Aster. While outwardly complicit in the ship’s hierarchy, The Surgeon quietly supports Aster’s efforts, embodying the tension between survival within an unjust system and the moral urge to resist it. His relationship with Aster highlights the complexity of finding allies in hostile structures.
The society aboard Matilda is rigidly stratified, with a ruling class on the upper decks enforcing strict religious and racial hierarchies, drawing clear parallels to the antebellum South. The oppressive environment not only shapes the characters’ struggles but also underscores the central themes of power, dehumanization, and resistance. Aster’s pursuit of forbidden knowledge leads her to decode her mother’s encrypted journals, revealing truths about the ship’s failing systems and pointing the way toward liberation.
As Aster unravels the mysteries of both the ship and her mother’s legacy, the story builds toward a reckoning—personal, political, and existential. The revelation that the Matilda’s journey has been long derailed transforms Aster’s quest from one of survival to one of possibility: the hope of charting a new course, both literally and figuratively.
In the end, An Unkindness of Ghosts combines the starkness of dystopian science fiction with deeply intimate character work. Solomon’s novel examines the enduring scars of slavery and systemic oppression, portraying survival as both an act of defiance and a testament to inherited resilience. The story’s layered exploration of identity, memory, and liberation makes it a powerful and unsettling meditation on what it means to seek freedom in a world built to deny it.
