A review by spacey_kate
Private Rites by Julia Armfield

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The evening struggles, darkness borne down heavy and replete. The rain falls, the night continues - black horizon and the pull of what's beneath. 

A masterpiece. This author has a brilliant way of touching on incredibly relatable fears and thoughts, and then pushing the boat way out on those themes. Depressingly atmospheric and unsettling.

This book is about navigating difficult sibling relationships as adults, about living through the end of the world, and about finding moments of respite and beauty in between the monotony of work and rain and arguments and worry. Hopefully we can all avoid becoming like our parents or drowning in a flood. Don't worry about the last 20 pages. Just don't think about it.

There are, Irene had always felt, few frustrations to match that of being read a certain way by family members. To be misunderstood is one thing, but the curious hostility of a sibling's approach lies less in what they miss than in the strange backdated nature of the things they choose to know. A person can be thirty, thirty-five, and yet still largely described by her sisters in terms of things which happened to be true at the age of seventeen. // Irene sits back in her chair. Only you make me like this, she wants to say. You think I'm like this and that makes me worse. 

I highly recommend re-reading the prologue after finishing the book.
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