Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

91 reviews

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

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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

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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. 

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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

aquariusisms's review against another edition

dark emotional informative mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Blood, Sexual content, Grief, Mental illness, Confinement, and Suicide

Minor: Alcohol, Animal death, Vomit, and Medical content

linguaphile412's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Death, Body horror, Death of parent, Suicide, Blood, Confinement, and Vomit

Moderate: Sexual content

decie's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective

3.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Mental illness

Minor: Terminal illness, Suicide, Violence, and Death of parent

talasterism's review against another edition

dark emotional lighthearted reflective tense 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? Yes

4.5

IT WAS SOOO GOOOD?? all the ocean lore is amazing and the two POVs of past and present are so smart and sexy and just very beautiful writing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Grief, Vomit, and Confinement

Moderate: Death of parent, Mental illness, and Death

julesmae's review against another edition

mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.0

While I loved the tenderness of the prose as juxtaposed with its strangeness, there is a point in open-ended mysteries when so much is left unanswered that there is very little payoff. While I enjoyed the premise and journey of this book, it felt too unfinished even if lingering questions were the goal.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Confinement

Moderate: Death and Death of parent

Minor: Vomit

marioncromb'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

This is a portrait of grief, and the grief felt before the inevitable finally comes. With sea monsters.

Armfield is a master of atmosphere and gives the perfect amount of suggestion of whats happening to leave you satisfied but fittingly uncomprehending.

My only occassional problem was that i sometimes forgot during paragraphs whether i was reading Leah or Miri, the narrative voices were not as distinct as they could have been, assuming it wasnt a deliberate choice.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Confinement

Moderate: Body horror, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Death

Minor: Vomit

I was considering adding Dementia, but its not dementia, but there's a lot in common

forestthieves's review against another edition

challenging 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? Yes

5.0

No review I write could justify how eloquent, haunting, and masterful Our Wives Under the Sea is.

This story follows the relationship between Miri and Leah, after Leah has returned from a submarine mission gone wrong, and begins to undergo frightening and unusual changes, both physically and emotionally.

Armfield is a master of imagery, and I hung on every single line, attempting to absorb as much of her writing as I could. The tones of nostalgia, grief, transformation, and horror envelop her words, causing you to sink deeper and deeper into the story, until everything else around you fades to black and all you have is Our Wives Under the Sea.

Longer review to come once I’ve processed this deep sea gothic queer love story.

Thank you to Netgalley as well as Flatiron Books, for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Vomit