There is both a darkness and emotional aspect to their lives. It’s not token representation either, as their status as women of color play major roles on the way they see themselves and their identity. Not to mention that all the women are women of color, because most of the book revolves around their plight, injustice, and lives in the low-deck. Each member of our main character crew is diverse ranging from an enigmatic, non-binary ‘mixed’ heritage Surgeon, to Aster, our eclectic and socially inept main character, to her asexual family member. I adored how much diversity there was within this book.

The next thing you should know, is that our main characters are nonbinary, in the sense that the traditional ideas and preconceived notions about gender expression do not apply to them. The first thing you should know about An Unkindness of Ghosts is that the society on the spaceship is organized much like the antebellum South and full of the dangers women of color faced. But all of that is about to change when the autopsy of the ship’s sovereign ruler reveals a startling connection to the death of Aster’s mother – a link that only Aster and her friend Giselle recognize that will utterly change the Matilda forever. Aster lives on the low-decks of HSS Matilda, a spaceship that is full to the brim with the last members of humanity, in search of the Promised Land.

Because of this, she is withdrawn and has few friends, taking comfort in plain stated truths and verbal abuse by virtually everyone. She is incredibly intelligent, but struggles to figure out how to interact with society and people. SummaryĪster has always been an outsider. It is refreshing and, beyond anything, hopeful, to see this book interrogate these issues in the newly published science fiction world.

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when I was reading the summary, but the diversity, discussion of race and gender, and characters are stunning. An Unkindness of Ghosts absolutely blew me away.

An unkindness of ghosts characters