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A review by onepartyending
Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I really wanted to love this book, but the way the plot and the characters move in it doesn't hit for me.
There's much more that could've been explored - any other characters that appear or are mentioned in the book feel underdeveloped in a way that doesn't seem to be intentional. Maybe the intent was to make clear how little they mattered to Miri, how everything faded to the background after Leah came back. Except it doesn't feel that way at all, I kept thinking "why are you mentioning this, why is this happening", which to me translates into a disconnect with the story itself. Also, everytime Miri mentions her mom I could see the attempt to connect two lines of the plot, but they felt frail and not really that well tied together.
As many people pointed out, the narrative voices for Miri and Leah are mixed, not very distinct. It wasn't too glaring though, so it didn't bother me that much.
I did like the premise, the general idea of the plot. But the ending was bland. Not necessarily eldritch, just a little silly. It didn't bring me any sense of horror; however it did make me want the story to end a bit faster, because I had better things to do.
It had great one liners, and it did make me reflect a bit about parents and relationships. It's a good book if you're expectations of it aren't high.
There's much more that could've been explored - any other characters that appear or are mentioned in the book feel underdeveloped in a way that doesn't seem to be intentional. Maybe the intent was to make clear how little they mattered to Miri, how everything faded to the background after Leah came back. Except it doesn't feel that way at all, I kept thinking "why are you mentioning this, why is this happening", which to me translates into a disconnect with the story itself. Also, everytime Miri mentions her mom I could see the attempt to connect two lines of the plot, but they felt frail and not really that well tied together.
As many people pointed out, the narrative voices for Miri and Leah are mixed, not very distinct. It wasn't too glaring though, so it didn't bother me that much.
I did like the premise, the general idea of the plot. But the ending was bland. Not necessarily eldritch, just a little silly. It didn't bring me any sense of horror; however it did make me want the story to end a bit faster, because I had better things to do.
It had great one liners, and it did make me reflect a bit about parents and relationships. It's a good book if you're expectations of it aren't high.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror