Reviews tagging 'Eating disorder'

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

31 reviews

kris386's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

1.0

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Eating disorder and Body shaming

rtthalia's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Medical trauma, Medical content, Body horror, Death of parent, Eating disorder, and Grief

tillydaisym's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder and Suicide

mmirjamm's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Confinement

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Terminal illness, Violence, Vomit, Suicide, Mental illness, Dementia, Eating disorder, Death of parent, and Lesbophobia

chris_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

I genuinely don't know what to feel about this. Somehow really good and meh simultaneously. I loved the prose and themes and atmosphere, but I also felt like I was missing something? It ends in a somewhat inconclusive way in which I'm not really sure what the author was trying to say. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Confinement, and Mental illness

Moderate: Body horror, Dysphoria, and Medical content

Minor: Dementia and Eating disorder

lily_peach's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Medical content, Abandonment, Confinement, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Gore, Vomit, Death of parent, Blood, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual content, Animal death, Fatphobia, and Eating disorder

Minor: Alcohol, Lesbophobia, Dementia, and Homophobia

sophieissapphhic's review against another edition

dark

4.25

"To know the ocean, I have always felt, is to recognise the teeth it keeps half-hidden."

This was unsettling and I loved it. This book will be lurking in my thoughts long after I've finished.

Content Warnings Below!
Graphic: body horror (including teeth horror, eye horror, nail horror, gore), confinement, vomiting, blood, grief,
Moderate: disordered eating, psychosis, parental death (cancer), hypochondria
Minor: fatphobia

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Vomit, Grief, Blood, and Body horror

Moderate: Death of parent, Eating disorder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Fatphobia

hvokey's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Body horror

Moderate: Death, Vomit, Eating disorder, and Death of parent

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. 

---

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

akira_outofthegravity's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad slow-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

5.0

I’m crying so hard right now. This is a good book that is turned into a great book by the Hadal Zone portion. I’m literally sobbing. 

This is a very unique book. It’s about Leah and Miri. Leah is a marine biologist who occasionally goes on dives that last for weeks. However one time she and her crew don’t resurface for six months and her wife Miri presumes her dead.

When she does resurface, this Leah is not the one Miri remembers. It’s a dual narrative, with Leah writing about her experiences in the submarine with her two colleagues, while Miri’s portions explore the relationship before and after the event, as well as Miri’s personal coping strategies- or lack thereof. 

This is an incredible story, and the layout is really fascinating because the story progression does give you the feeling of sinking and being unable to stop the inevitable- much like what Leah feels during the accident. It’s an ending you can see coming, but really that just makes it more tragic. 

The ending is beautiful and I like how horror focused this story is without distracting from the story- but most of all I love how Leah and Miri love. You can feel the adoration and romance oozing from the pages. Above all, despite everything they love each other. Even when Leah seems lost, a part of her seems to be fighting to return to Miri. Even when Leah seems unreachable, Miri still tries to accommodate her. And that makes this a 5* read for me. A lot goes unanswered, but to be honest I don’t mind. That’s not what the story is about- it’s not a mystery, it’s not crime, it’s romance and tragedy.

Personally, I think the story is actually an extended metaphor for Leah’s death and Miri’s grief process. Leah and Matteo die down in the ocean, and the last entry is her being released to the afterlife, while Miri letting Leah go in the ocean is her finally accepting her death. That’s my interpretation anyway.

 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Confinement, Death, and Body horror

Moderate: Death of parent and Eating disorder