Deep Roots

Innsmouth Legacy, Book 2

By: Ruthanna Emrys

Narrated by: Gabra Zackman

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.

©2018 Ruthanna Emrys (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"Deep Roots is a marvel of a fantasy novel, with monsters fighting for their very existence and a place to call their own." (Booklist)

a very good sequel

This book, and the one that came before it, feel so good that they feel.... personal? The characters, the plot, the ideas brought up, the backdrop. This one is going to be sitting with me for a long time.

Wonderful and Haunting

Very enjoyable sequel. This time around, we have the "migo" (aka the Outer Ones), the trapezohedron, ghouls, and the Dreamlands threading their way through the plot. The Innsmouth books are more about connections between people (of whatever species), but sometimes those connections are forged through conflict. And sometimes people make choices that others do not understand. It's a beautiful exploration of free will, and understanding, and trying to figure out what the right thing actually is.

Highly recommended.

Gabra Zackman is an excellent narrator, and I wish she would read more things that interest me. She's quite good. I was surprised by her pronunciation of trapezohedron. I had mentally pronounced it trapeze-oh-hee-dron. She pronounces it tra-pez-oh-head-run. It's an uncommon enough word that I don't know that there's actually a definitive standard. :)

#LovecraftReborn #Migo #Trapezohedron #tagsgiving #sweepstakes

Excellent expansion and improvement

The first book interesting in concept had the short coming of a conflict that did follow the stakes promised. This made for an inresting window, but deflated resolution to the story.

Deep roots solves that problem. There are genuine and interesting builds of tension and stays true to its promise. The author does an excellent job of adding to the Lovecraft world while expressing her own views without being ham-fisted with the execution.

There are great moments of strangeness understanding and genuine revulsion. The Mad one's exploration was a genuine and visceral experience.

Perfect? Why should it be? But is interesting without making me cringe at what could be perceived as political or personal slants and does well of keeping faithful to the Era and to the feeling of Lovecraft.

I'd like to see if the author takes it else where

Eager for the next installment

I will never recover from the world Emrys has built, and the ways it brushes so gently against our own. This story explores queerness, otherness, spirituality, and belonging in ways I never expected. Highly Recommend.

They are the best Lovecraftian writers

The Ruthanna Emrys duet are along with Ed Erdelac, the best thing going in Lovecraftian literature for adult readers.

Buy it if you liked the first one

This is a hard review to write! I loved the original book and was so looking forward to this one. On a technical level I think it’s as well written as the first.

The difference is that the surprise of the world was used up in the first book, and this book lacks the same punch. Yes there are new surprises but it quickly lost steam.

I’d like a little more excitement and drive. I know they’re not superheroes but... I know some people enjoy slow plodding novels about normal people living their day to day but not me - and this is kind of the fish blooded version of that.

I’d like more to be on the line and the characters to acknowledge that. Maybe their long life spans distorts their view in this regard but it doesn’t do much for the reader.

The reading was flawless as usual. I will likely buy the next book. But I may not stick with it after that if the slow pace continues. It’s just not for me.

Bland but interesting

Similar to the first one, I have mixed feelings about it. The situations and characters are interesting but the pacing is meandering and the author doesn’t do a great job of establishing stakes and tension. Sometimes a slow pace gives one time to develop characters more richly, but two books in, I still feel like I barely know these people. Yet, despite having mostly criticism for it, I will probably pick up the next installment. Maybe it’s because I like the idea of the series more than the execution, and perhaps I am hoping to see it improve to meet its potential.