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

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A hazy horror that is primarily about loss, grief, and letting go. It’s about people missing and not returning, but also an allegory for progressive illnesses that slowly chip away at a person’s sense of self, memory, and ability to sustain oneself. It’s also about the loneliness in being a caretaker, that inability to connect to people around you, even your own support network, because of how difficult it is to explain and your desire to protect the person you care for from judgment. 

The story itself, at surface level, is beautiful but doesn’t provide answers or a clear story. It is when you dive behind the story, to the story that is behind it, that you get the truly breathtaking and achingly tragic love story.
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