Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

391 reviews

andreanneveillette's review

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Grief, and Death of parent

mycarefulcardinal's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Terminal illness, Dementia, Grief, and Death of parent

beanaroni's review

emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Suicide, and Grief

Moderate: Death of parent and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

cali_dee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Mental illness, Suicide, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Abandonment

Minor: Lesbophobia

melodyseestrees's review

dark emotional mysterious slow-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? Yes

4.5

The horror elements were left primarily off page or very vaguely described. It was like HP Lovecraft without all the racism. The creature(s) were barely described and were just some Other figure in the depths. I liked the potential of the split POVS but we were constantly flipping between them so we didn't really get to feel the unwinding of those in the submarine alongside the wife on shore. 
The pace of the story is so slow that for most of it, the journey felt like "learning to love the spouse that came back wrong" but if the 'came back wrong' was a physical disability. This felt much more grief than horror and I'd been hoping for more horror than grief.

It's a grief metaphor! The whole thing is just Miri learning to let go! Leah might as well have never actually returned because then it would have been an interesting glimpse of a grief-stricken psychosis paired alongside the Husband in Space forum tangent.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, and Grief

Moderate: Death, Suicide, and Death of parent

Minor: Homophobia, Sexual content, and Lesbophobia

bexxhenders's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

When something bad is actually happening, it’s easy to underreact, because a part of you is wired to assume it isn’t real. When you stop underreacting, the horror is unique because it is, unfortunately, endless.

I have been in a reading slump for months, and I knew by the end of the first page that this book would be the one to pull me out of it. And that it did, in less than 24 hours! I was immediately hooked by Julia Armfield's poetic writing style, which gave us such a beautiful and haunting story about love, loss, and grief. My only issue was the plot holes—I wish we had a few more answers. BUT, I also get why they were there and it probably wouldn't have packed the same emotional punch had everything been so neatly packaged for us. It's a brilliant, moving, thought-provoking read I know I'll be thinking about for some time.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief and Death of parent

essie101's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, and Grief

miles's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Confinement

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Suicide, Blood, Vomit, and Death of parent

edurnehaeon's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad 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? No

3.5

really sad but I didn't really connect with the characters and I felt like both of them were very similarly written despite the 2 different povs

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

9inchnailzzz's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide and Death of parent