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the_true_monroe's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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? No
3.5
This book left me with more questions than answers, yet I was satisfied with the ending enough to accept this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Homophobia, Sexual content, Dementia, Lesbophobia, and Sexual harassment
thebechdelbitch's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
I haven't been this affected by a book in ages. Frequently I had to put it down because I was too scared, or too sad. It freaked me out, broke my heart, stunned me with its beauty and absolutely prodded at my thalassaphobia throughout. AND it was gay. AND a beautiful exploration of grief. And like 200 pages long. So so impressive. Wow.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer and Lesbophobia
kathleenivy's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, and Grief
Moderate: Death, Terminal illness, Dementia, and Death of parent
Minor: Eating disorder, Gore, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
mruds's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
It was a journey — I understand why the sections are labeled in the way that they are.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gore
kirkspockreads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail
heartofhorrors's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Grief, and Death of parent
maeverose's review against another edition
mysterious
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.0
I’m unsure how I feel about this yet.
TL;DR: As other people have said, this isn’t so much horror as a book about grief with horror sprinkled throughout. I was interested to see what would happen the whole way through and I do tend to like books about grief, but in the end am left feeling overall ‘meh’ about the book.
A note on the horror elements for those worried about it:
If you’re especially bothered by body horror, gore, or themes of going insane I would go in prepared for that if you plan on reading it. I’m not a horror reader and I dislike reading those themes, but most of this book was fine for me (check my content warnings section for which parts to skip if you also dislike these themes but want to read anyway. You can’t really skip the ‘going insane’ stuff unless you just don’t read any of Leah’s chapters, but you’d be missing out on some parts of the story then). That being said, you know what your own limits are best. I have a moderate tolerance for gore in books and I’m rarely bothered by non-gory body horror. If you have a low tolerance overall, I’d probably skip it.
Now on to my thoughts:
(Vague/minor plot spoilers, but not really since this is not a plot-focused book)
I liked the way the Centre was depicted as this mysterious corporate entity, and wish that was explored more, as well asthe whole sea creature thing . I get that the horror and mystery elements aren’t the focus, the focus is on Miri’s grief, with the horror elements being a metaphorical parallel to losing a loved one to illness. But it’s left somewhat unclear whether or not it’s also actually happening. If it is actually happening, then that leaves me a bit frustrated with how Miri acted. She seemed so uninterested in finding answers or taking any sort of legal action against the Centre. At no point does the idea even come up to do that, and that seems so ridiculous to me given everything they kept quiet about and the entire way they acted and operated. If I were Miri I’d be pissed at them. I’d be demanding answers. She pretty much gave up after they stopped responding to her calls. I didn’t understand why she never took Leah to a doctor, especially given how much she obviously cares about her, why wasn’t she doing everything she could to help her? When Juna met up with Miri and tried to explain what she found out and Miri cut her off and left, I was so annoyed. She seemed so uninterested in what Juna had to say and I would be the exact opposite. She didn’t seem at all shocked to learn that someone died on the same trip her wife was on… In general Miri seemed much more focused on her own grief rather than being concerned for her wife who clearly went through an extremely traumatic experience. Again, if none of it is really real then it makes sense but with it being somewhat left up to interpretation, it was frustrating.
On that note, I’ll end with some quotes about grieving missing loved ones that I liked:
“-grieving was complicated by lack of certainty, that the hope inherent in a missing loved one was also a species of curse.”
“In almost every case, the sense of loss was convoluted by an ache of possibility, by the almost-but-not-quite-negligible hope of reprieve.”
“Grief is selfish: we cry for ourselves without the person we have lost far more than we cry for the person - but more than that, we cry because it helps. The grief process is also the coping process and if the grief is frozen by ambiguity, by the constant possibility of reversal, then so is the ability to cope.”
TL;DR: As other people have said, this isn’t so much horror as a book about grief with horror sprinkled throughout. I was interested to see what would happen the whole way through and I do tend to like books about grief, but in the end am left feeling overall ‘meh’ about the book.
A note on the horror elements for those worried about it:
If you’re especially bothered by body horror, gore, or themes of going insane I would go in prepared for that if you plan on reading it. I’m not a horror reader and I dislike reading those themes, but most of this book was fine for me (check my content warnings section for which parts to skip if you also dislike these themes but want to read anyway. You can’t really skip the ‘going insane’ stuff unless you just don’t read any of Leah’s chapters, but you’d be missing out on some parts of the story then). That being said, you know what your own limits are best. I have a moderate tolerance for gore in books and I’m rarely bothered by non-gory body horror. If you have a low tolerance overall, I’d probably skip it.
Now on to my thoughts:
(Vague/minor plot spoilers, but not really since this is not a plot-focused book)
I liked the way the Centre was depicted as this mysterious corporate entity, and wish that was explored more, as well as
On that note, I’ll end with some quotes about grieving missing loved ones that I liked:
“-grieving was complicated by lack of certainty, that the hope inherent in a missing loved one was also a species of curse.”
“In almost every case, the sense of loss was convoluted by an ache of possibility, by the almost-but-not-quite-negligible hope of reprieve.”
“Grief is selfish: we cry for ourselves without the person we have lost far more than we cry for the person - but more than that, we cry because it helps. The grief process is also the coping process and if the grief is frozen by ambiguity, by the constant possibility of reversal, then so is the ability to cope.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Suicide, Terminal illness, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cancer, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Vomit, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Fatphobia and Lesbophobia
There are depictions of people gradually losing their mind in confinement,julesadventurezone's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
A story about being a hypochondriac living in a rented flat with thin walls who finds it so hard to keep up with friends, whose wife says she'll be gone for three weeks and instead stays gone for six months. And then when she comes back she comes back so wrong. How do you live with that grief? What can you even hope to do about this?
It's a love story, it's a ghost story, it's a horror story.
It's a love story, it's a ghost story, it's a horror story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cursing, Gore, Homophobia, Sexual content, Blood, Vomit, Dementia, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Minor: Body shaming and Fatphobia
Contains descriptions oftheirgracegrace's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I read this book in a whirlwind three weeks and I cannot get it out of my head. The pastiche of character moments (especially at the end) can come across as jarring but helps to solidify the main characters Miri and Leah. Their relationship deteriorates when Leah comes back "wrong" after a routine research trip in a submarine leaves her stranded on the ocean floor for six months. The point-of-view bounces between Miri trying to make sense of her wife's strange behaviour and Leah explaining how the trip might have purposefully done for some mysterious ends. A tragic ending puts this book high on my list of recommended books. A fantastic read!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Vomit, Dementia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Violence, Blood, and Alcohol
Minor: Cancer
One of the main characters is trapped in a submarine with two other people for six months and the three of them go clinically insane.readingqueerly's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
It's gonna take me a bit before I can stop thinking about this book.
As always I have to say I'm not a lit fic person. I dabble with the occasional lit fic novel, but in general it's not my preferred genre.
However.... This fucking book, my dudes. It was so very creepy and every and spooky without really trying to be any of that. I can't explain it exactly. The whole time I kept thinking 'wtf is going on?' and not in a way where I couldn't follow the story, but in a way where you only got bits and pieces and everything was strange and mysterious and you could kinda see the picture but it's vague and missing pieces. Somehow that made it even more almost uncomfortable to read.
But it was so fucking good because of this. The writing style is also very beautiful and lyrical, not a must for me, but in this case it really elevated the story itself I found. It helped to create these images or helped form characters more abstract thoughts and emotions.
The way this whole novel came together was just so expertly done. Every word carried weight. That made it quite heavy for a book that's just 230 pages long. But it was so worth it. I cannot explain enough how much this book will keep swirling around in my brain until I can finally let it go.
As always I have to say I'm not a lit fic person. I dabble with the occasional lit fic novel, but in general it's not my preferred genre.
However.... This fucking book, my dudes. It was so very creepy and every and spooky without really trying to be any of that. I can't explain it exactly. The whole time I kept thinking 'wtf is going on?' and not in a way where I couldn't follow the story, but in a way where you only got bits and pieces and everything was strange and mysterious and you could kinda see the picture but it's vague and missing pieces. Somehow that made it even more almost uncomfortable to read.
But it was so fucking good because of this. The writing style is also very beautiful and lyrical, not a must for me, but in this case it really elevated the story itself I found. It helped to create these images or helped form characters more abstract thoughts and emotions.
The way this whole novel came together was just so expertly done. Every word carried weight. That made it quite heavy for a book that's just 230 pages long. But it was so worth it. I cannot explain enough how much this book will keep swirling around in my brain until I can finally let it go.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gore