Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield

49 reviews

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

i loved the premise, the writing, the character development, etc. but i feel like there was a tiny bit left to be desired in terms of the ending. however, i do not know if more would actually increase the amount i enjoyed this or totally destroy the ambiguity. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Chronic illness, Grief, Mental illness, and Sexual content

jes312's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I loved how it was written, especially how it describes/captures feelings of grief, but wanted more of a wrap up at the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Chronic illness, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Death

bruisedtigers's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Beautiful writing for something absolutely haunting. I physically winced at several scenes (in a good way). Absolutely gripping in the story of grief and trauma that it sets out to tell. It hurt my heart. 

One complaint is the cast of characters speak very similarly, particularly in how they share anecdotes/stories — which is likely more of a theme that the author is putting in place deliberately, but it stands out nonetheless. 

Editing to bump this to 5 stars, since I keep thinking about it and find it's very much deserved. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

its_gracielou's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This hurt to read. It’s wrought with tension and grief. I don’t know that I could in good faith recommend you read it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Minor: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death of parent, and Dysphoria

emmelinelc's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Chronic illness

Minor: Lesbophobia

vigil's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

this book has its audience most certainly, but i do not think it is the audience that the book is marketed towards. the "horror" is not necessarily horror, aside from a handful of scenes, largely relegated to leah's pov chapters. this book is mostly literary, and its immediately evident from the writing style, and themes. it is a book heavily concerned with loss, losing others, yourself, your faculties, your relationship, and previous way of life. i think in some ways in relied on themes too much, nearly to the extent that a reader may be writing the book for her in their imagination. it is not plot driven, or particularly well explained, preferring to leave the reader in the dark as much as the characters. frankly, i think this book could’ve been a bit longer, especially concerning the final pages of miri’s pov, which i think would’ve benefited from it somewhat.

there are moments of genuine arguable horror, but this is not a horror book. it does not concern itself with the horror genre, instead leaning towards dissecting the human psyche. this is not a happy story, and does not have happy ending, but with the tale the author set up, i truly don't think it could've ended any other way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Suicide, Chronic illness, and Grief

sarah984's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This book is definitely not for everyone - it's a slow, almost meditative book and it doesn't exactly tie up neatly at the end - but I really enjoyed it. Miri's wife Leah was missing for months after her submarine mission for a mysterious oceanography centre went awry (or did it??), and upon her miraculous return, she's changed in some pretty fundamental ways. The book is divided into sections where Miri is dealing with her grief and frustration in the present, and where Leah is telling the story of what happened on the mission in the past.

I do wish that Leah had gotten a POV chapter in the present, and a few of Miri's chapters had some weird biphobia for no real reason, but other than that I loved it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, and Grief

Moderate: Death, Medical content, Terminal illness, Blood, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness

Minor: Ableism, Homophobia, Sexual content, Suicide, Biphobia, Vomit, Animal death, and Eating disorder

linguaphile412's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Death, Body horror, Death of parent, Suicide, Blood, Confinement, and Vomit

Moderate: Sexual content

charleshasalibrary's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail