A review by sahanac
Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

I read this in one sitting. It was heart-wrenchingly, horrificly, maddeningly romantic, and just as sad. This really follows from gothic tradition in a very Rebecca-esque way, which has a special place in my heart, always, so I was already fully committed to this book. Unlike many gothic novels, the home is less the center of the trouble - instead it is the sea, which is a whole ‘nother level of pain for those who have read the book: the sea is the home that fully envelopes Miri and Leah’s relationship and love. We start the book in so much liminality and progress forward to see the ways Miri and Leah loved each other before the sea - and Armfield weaves this together so well, with longing and desperation mounting, and mounting, and mounting, as we *need* to know what has happened, what will happen, what’s next. It feels almost like Emily Austin’s Everyone In This Room… at some points, with a smattering of anxious fiction interspersed with the more gothic notes. The characters are so unfortunately lovable too in their desire for one another, and that’s the real tragedy in the book - Armfield asks what happens when love isn’t enough? Miri says something about trying to make an audience love Leah, because most times, people don’t want to hear about how wonderful other people’s significant other’s are. But then immediately, everything she told me made me fall in love with Leah obstinately, to an unfathomable degree. 

There are books that belong in discussion, that beg to be read in community. And then there are books like this. That I don’t know if I’ll really be able to talk about in a meaningful way. I just know that there was a love there, and I watched something unbelievable happen to it, and now that love is in my head to deal with.