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A review by cloreadsbooks1364
Private Rites by Julia Armfield
5.0
"Remember this: the world as it once was. The way things appear in the instant before they go under: first assured, then shipwrecked. The ease with which facts presumed permanent can change. There was dry land, once, and also the concept of drowning as emergency, a thing to be thrashed against. Now, there is simply inevitability, the narrowing gaps between floodplains, islands of viable space on which people build doggedly, insistently, upwards"
Private Rites
By Julia Armfield
5/5
Genre: speculative fiction
Armfield never fails to astonish me with her writing talent, particularly when creating an atmosphere throughout her works. The entirety of Private Rites has a murky, tense atmosphere, even during the fast-paced concluding chapter. It somehow felt viscous, dragging me slowly along and leaving me at the end feeling quite pleased with the consistency.
Private Rites is set in a time when global warming has led to constant rainfall, people losing family, homes, employment to the flooding. They have learnt to adapt in some ways, using ferries and just trying to keep going as normal. Three sisters, Isla, Irene, and Agnes, gather in the wake of their father (a famous architect) passing away. We observe the trio as they go about their daily lives, learn about their difficult childhoods and conflicted feeling about each other.
The root of all issues faced in this book is the protagonists’ father, a distant, emotionally abusive man, who constantly compared his daughters to enhance their dislike of each-other. He does not care at all about his children or their lives. Isla and Irene tried to protect themselves and each other from him while growing up, whereas Agnes (being ten/eleven years younger) had to put up with him for years alone. This has led to the three barely being in contact, and every interaction ending with an argument of some sort. A number of years before the present plotline, their father offered each girl a large sum of money and promised that he would never give them anything again whether they accepted him or not. Upon his death, he leaves his house to a surprised Agnes.
A paragraph from Isla’s perspective, in which she recalls a birthday as a young girl: "Their father had presented Isla with a water balloon of exotic fish and she had asked him several questions about their provenance, which appeared to irritate him, for he plugged the bathroom sink and poured them out to thrash about in shallow water, telling her that all that mattered was where they found themselves right now. Later on, he gave her a tank to move them into, though by this point she had been crouching by the sink for several hours with her hands in the water, trying to ascertain which of the fish was still alive."
Isla, the eldest sister, slowly unravels into increasing distress and indirection throughout the novel. Her ex is divorcing her, she has nobody to turn to, nothing to focus on as nobody seems to need her steadfast nature. Irene, my favourite of the characters, is known for her sharp nature, balanced by her calm partner, Jude. Their relationship was one of the things I adored the most. Agnes, the younger half-sister, spends the novel learning to love a woman named Stephanie, unused to being in a relationship and having a person who knows her well. She observes a number of people acting strangely around her, adding an eerie undercurrent to the book, which leads to the horror-esque revelation at the end.
This is ultimately a book about people, how they keep going and grip on to routine and normalcy as the world slowly breaks down, how a family who could have been close are estranged due to the treatment of their parent, how some people would do anything to feel that things will improve in the future.
"It is an accepted belief that things fall apart. The question of whether or not the falling apart is necessary is separate and usually secondary. People still discuss this, of course: the fact of the turn, the moment a warning mutated into the only possible outcome. When, people ask, was the last time you remember thinking oh it's raining again. When was your last real sunburn, your last flying ant day, your last good look at the stars. It is easy to think about these things, recollections of things passing fast from your grip, and decide they are simply too much to acknowledge."
Queer rep:
Queer protagonists
Nonbinary side-character
Sapphic side-character
TWs: death, suicide, emotional abuse, grief, self-harm, sexual content
Private Rites
By Julia Armfield
5/5
Genre: speculative fiction
Armfield never fails to astonish me with her writing talent, particularly when creating an atmosphere throughout her works. The entirety of Private Rites has a murky, tense atmosphere, even during the fast-paced concluding chapter. It somehow felt viscous, dragging me slowly along and leaving me at the end feeling quite pleased with the consistency.
Private Rites is set in a time when global warming has led to constant rainfall, people losing family, homes, employment to the flooding. They have learnt to adapt in some ways, using ferries and just trying to keep going as normal. Three sisters, Isla, Irene, and Agnes, gather in the wake of their father (a famous architect) passing away. We observe the trio as they go about their daily lives, learn about their difficult childhoods and conflicted feeling about each other.
The root of all issues faced in this book is the protagonists’ father, a distant, emotionally abusive man, who constantly compared his daughters to enhance their dislike of each-other. He does not care at all about his children or their lives. Isla and Irene tried to protect themselves and each other from him while growing up, whereas Agnes (being ten/eleven years younger) had to put up with him for years alone. This has led to the three barely being in contact, and every interaction ending with an argument of some sort. A number of years before the present plotline, their father offered each girl a large sum of money and promised that he would never give them anything again whether they accepted him or not. Upon his death, he leaves his house to a surprised Agnes.
A paragraph from Isla’s perspective, in which she recalls a birthday as a young girl: "Their father had presented Isla with a water balloon of exotic fish and she had asked him several questions about their provenance, which appeared to irritate him, for he plugged the bathroom sink and poured them out to thrash about in shallow water, telling her that all that mattered was where they found themselves right now. Later on, he gave her a tank to move them into, though by this point she had been crouching by the sink for several hours with her hands in the water, trying to ascertain which of the fish was still alive."
Isla, the eldest sister, slowly unravels into increasing distress and indirection throughout the novel. Her ex is divorcing her, she has nobody to turn to, nothing to focus on as nobody seems to need her steadfast nature. Irene, my favourite of the characters, is known for her sharp nature, balanced by her calm partner, Jude. Their relationship was one of the things I adored the most. Agnes, the younger half-sister, spends the novel learning to love a woman named Stephanie, unused to being in a relationship and having a person who knows her well. She observes a number of people acting strangely around her, adding an eerie undercurrent to the book, which leads to the horror-esque revelation at the end.
This is ultimately a book about people, how they keep going and grip on to routine and normalcy as the world slowly breaks down, how a family who could have been close are estranged due to the treatment of their parent, how some people would do anything to feel that things will improve in the future.
"It is an accepted belief that things fall apart. The question of whether or not the falling apart is necessary is separate and usually secondary. People still discuss this, of course: the fact of the turn, the moment a warning mutated into the only possible outcome. When, people ask, was the last time you remember thinking oh it's raining again. When was your last real sunburn, your last flying ant day, your last good look at the stars. It is easy to think about these things, recollections of things passing fast from your grip, and decide they are simply too much to acknowledge."
Queer rep:
Queer protagonists
Nonbinary side-character
Sapphic side-character
TWs: death, suicide, emotional abuse, grief, self-harm, sexual content