Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

54 reviews

houseofjules's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

 Although my time with this book oscillated between transfixed curiosity and exasperation to reach the point, I ultimately think this is a really well written and mostly captivating story. Despite the many questions I kept posing while reading, I understand they were sacrificed for the vibes. And the vibe is immaculate, albeit sad and weird. But in a good way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Death, Blood, and Death of parent

jojothefool's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Beautiful prose on grief, abandonment, and PTSD. It’s definitely literary fiction in that every word is saying five words and there’s metaphors and dreams and stuff. But I enjoyed myself overall, it’s just not my favorite genre. I enjoyed Mary’s POV as Leah essentially disintegrates before her. Trying to balance grief and anger and caregiving and love, it’s heartbreaking and relatable. I think the writing was a little too dense for me to enjoy in an audio format tbh.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, and Grief

Moderate: Chronic illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Abandonment

The main character has hypochondria so explicit descriptions of that (although nothing causes super detailed panic), deep sea, drowning

rebeccadiv's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Death

Moderate: Gore, Mental illness, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Chronic illness, Homophobia, and Death of parent

torismazarine'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

hedsek's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

Truly an amazing read. Extremely gripping and the descriptions of how things used to be are so realistic and slice of life that it becomes heartbreaking. The horror elements go really well with the emotional stuff.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, and Grief

Moderate: Death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Vomit, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cancer, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Death of parent, and Lesbophobia

Eye stuff

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

challenging 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, and Dysphoria

sometimes_not_dead's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Mental illness, and Grief

Moderate: Chronic illness and Death of parent

smothermewithscifi's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Sexual content, Medical content, Grief, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Death, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

kickitupanotch7's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

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

Minor: Suicide

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