Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

90 reviews

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.

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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

bookjudy42's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This was gorgeous. Beautifully written with a palpable depth. The book does have a kind of sci-fi element to it, but it isn’t the main focus of the story (in case you’re not into that). Believable characters and a reflective, touching journey. Loved it!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

Minor: Homophobia and Lesbophobia

ceruleanseas's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Terminal illness, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Lesbophobia

jaimc's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death and Death of parent

Minor: Blood and Dementia

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

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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

tinyjude's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

I find myself unable to describe this book in such a manner that it deserves. The word that comes to mind most often is "haunting" in all its senses.

It is a book about grief and slowly losing someone you deeply love, either by time, death or unnatural changes. It's also a mystery in itself, it makes you question the reliability of both narrators as they are at the precipice of a mental breakdown. The best way to explain this book is by connecting it with the genre "cosmic horrors", also known as lovecraftian horrors and I quote from the wikipedia "subgenre of horror and weird fiction that emphasizes the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible" it encompases inquieries related to existentialism. Cosmic horror is about "the forbidden and dangerous knowledge, madness, non-human influences on humanity, religion and superstition, fate and inevitability, and the risks associated with scientific discoveries."

Rather than a visceral, descriptive and gorey type of horror, the author delves into this niche subgenre both in connection with the ocean and human relationships- especifically the main couple, Leah and Miri -. The writing style is gorgeous and profoundly sorrowful from the very first words. You kind of know what is going to happen but you still refuse to let your guess win, you get to know their past-selves and the shells they have become now and you weep for both their journeys.

I cannot fanthom how deeply traumatic the time underwater must have been. Sensing being watched, everyone slowly stripping away from their consciousness and memories, having erratic behaviours and witnessing the deterioration of the minds of your crewmates. The ocean in itself and its depths hold such mysteries and dangers we barely know about, so every little description or data we got from this incommensurable part of the Earth is in itself a wonder and a horror. But also the uncertainty of your partner's location, health state, anything, for six months, would certainly drive out someone mad.

In a sense, especially at the beginning, it reminded me of "The Haunting of Bly Mannor" 

and Dani's end, as well as Jamie's desperation, pain and longing for Dani for the rest of her life.

. Which only made this book more special. I felt that I could connect with the characters' pains and fears and I was deeply immersed until the last word.

How painful must it be to find someone you knew every part of, a complete stranger. How painful must it be to watch them transform into something you barely comprehend and can't do anything about. How painful must it be to come to terms with what's best for them, even if that leaves you broken inside.

I think that simply the soft repeated words of "My Leah" in that final chapter, will haunt me for a long long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Eating disorder and Lesbophobia

sav_22's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

I fell in love with the writing style used in this book. I would classify this as an introspective; it unfolds into two storylines, with one following flashbacks and the other following the aftermath. I think if you are looking for a thriller, this isn’t for you; while this contains a lot of body horror, disturbing and complex trauma, it very much focuses on the trauma of grieving someone that’s fundamentally changed—someone that’s still there physically, but has disappeared everywhere else. It’s a book about trauma of loss as well as the trauma of loving.

as much as I would have loved to know the actual cause of Leah’s condition and what happened down there in the dark depths of the sea, I think this book is meant to live through the metaphor of what’s happening. I interpreted Leah’s condition as symbolism for a greater complex trauma that’s destroyed her spirit and in turn is destroying her physically. It reminds me of how people shut down after a traumatic event, with the ptsd of it further sinking them into oblivion. Viewing it this way made the story all the more gut wrenching, as Miri has to both process the grief of losing Leah twice: once to her incident, and the next to her trauma. Overall, I found the incompleteness of this conclusion to be purposeful and reflective on the reoccurring theme of “unstillness”; Life goes on, and so will you, even if you aren’t able to understand everything. <spoiler/> 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Excrement, Medical content, Dementia, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Cancer, Gaslighting, and Dysphoria

scytheria's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Grief, and Abandonment

Moderate: Chronic illness, Suicide, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Trigger warning for those with thalassophobia (fear of deep water/what is under the ocean). Also lots of metaphors involving teeth.

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

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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

walenchao's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.25

A beautiful cosmic horror story told not for scares, but for the scars a harrowing experience leaves. A love so true it can only be broken by something so of this world, yet completely unknown. Beautiful prose, only wish there was more to read of it if I’m being honest.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual content, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail