Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Our Wives Under the Sea

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

64 reviews

jazhandz's review against another edition

mysterious sad slow-paced

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

3.25

I found this too meandering and literary to be effective horror. The style was great, the story was compelling, but this story and this style were a mismatch for me.

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zombiezami's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

5.0

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cady_sass's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

3.75

I don’t know what I was expecting but it certainly wasn’t what I got. What a weird, eerie piece of writing. Yet also beautiful and elegant. But I need to stress on the weird - this definitely won’t be for everyone and has an ending that some/most may find maddening. It’s not quite horror, but it’s not quite anything else either, and I’m not sure how to quantify it. I would love to see an indie film adaptation of this.

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megmahoney1's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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mold_munchr's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

This wasn't a gothic horror novel in the traditional sense of the word, but rather a novel about slow inevitable loss and self-destruction. The horror aspect of it was a vessel for the emotions which it held - it's not really about what's at the bottom of the sea, is it? And I guess maybe that's what ultimately makes it a gothic horror after all.

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andrewhatesham's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

I used to think there was such a thing as emptiness, that there were places in the world one could go and be alone. This, I think, is still true, but the error in my reasoning was to assume that alone was somewhere you could go, rather than somewhere you had to be left.

This one lives up to the hype.

Our Wives Under the Sea is a grotesquely beautiful exploration of grief in its many shapes and forms, both figurative and literal. The writing style is amazing and the plot is refreshingly unique. Some of the body horror did get to me, but overall the horror aspect is much more psychological and emotional. I still don't know what to make of the ending, but I think that's the way it's supposed to be. Uncertainty is scary.

Don't go into this expecting terrifying scenes and mind shattering plot twists because it's not that type of book. This is the type of book that can have you reading the same passage over and over again, lingering on certain words; a book to get comfortable in despite the discomfort.

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ienbdri's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Very interesting premise, sadly the writing and protagonists just didn't do it for me. I love the two perspectives and the ocean facts, it just was a really weird mix of genres and because of that nothing was really explored but instead mentioned once and never again, which left more questions than answers. For my personal liking it was also too little horror to be scary but too much for it to be a realistic story which is just a really weird mix and honestly,

when the monster or whatever it was (again, not explained) appeared I laughed just because it felt so random and out of place even though the entire book tried building up to it, In my opinion it should have focused either on the griefing/loss or on the horror/ocean part. As it is, they kinda cancel each other out in terms of credibility. The grieving part is so realistic and heartfelt but the other stuff isn't, so you don't really know what to trust (and not in an unreliable narrator kinda way, in an annoyingly unfinished way) but then again, there is too much deep and tragic stuff to fully enjoy the horror.

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