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A review by cozeebee
Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
Our Wives Under the Sea is one of my favourite reads of the year. I've completely fallen in love with Julia Armfield's writing style.
The story follows the perspectives of two wives in an interwoven narrative that combines Leah's time under water and Miri's perspective during her disappearance and the aftermath of Leah's return. Once Leah resurfaces, she is changed and the women must contend with their new normal. With heartfelt memories of the past sprinkled amongst the somber present, Our Wives Under the Sea depicts a love story like no other. The novel touches on the subjects such as grief, loss and love.
While I was reading this book, it felt like a limbo. Floating through liminal spaces while being enveloped by water. There was a sense of heaviness, but also light-headedness.
At first, I thought I may have cracked the code. Thought I figured out the twist, but as I continued to read I realized that wasn't the point and that it wasn't that kind of book. So I went with the flow and the more I read, the more I absorbed the emptiness of the things left unsaid. Herein lies why I love the book so much: the details kept away from the reader added to the hollow atmosphere.
In an interview, Julia Armfield had this to say about the lack of detailed description detailing Leah's condition and what truly lied deep at the bottom of the ocean:
"So I always kind of wanted to walk that line a little bit, because I think most of the time, whilst there isn’t necessarily an explanation, you do see things in the novel. I think it also has to do with the fact that I’m really interested in the intersection between realism and genre, and what I want to do most of the time is invoke extremely normal people in semi-extraordinary situations, because I’m completely fascinated, always, by the fact that people deal with things."
"things become normal so much quicker than I think we expect them to, because people don’t have space in their brain to continue being shocked. I think that it’s just not the way that people actually function."
The story follows the perspectives of two wives in an interwoven narrative that combines Leah's time under water and Miri's perspective during her disappearance and the aftermath of Leah's return. Once Leah resurfaces, she is changed and the women must contend with their new normal. With heartfelt memories of the past sprinkled amongst the somber present, Our Wives Under the Sea depicts a love story like no other. The novel touches on the subjects such as grief, loss and love.
While I was reading this book, it felt like a limbo. Floating through liminal spaces while being enveloped by water. There was a sense of heaviness, but also light-headedness.
At first, I thought I may have cracked the code. Thought I figured out the twist, but as I continued to read I realized that wasn't the point and that it wasn't that kind of book. So I went with the flow and the more I read, the more I absorbed the emptiness of the things left unsaid. Herein lies why I love the book so much: the details kept away from the reader added to the hollow atmosphere.
In an interview, Julia Armfield had this to say about the lack of detailed description detailing Leah's condition and what truly lied deep at the bottom of the ocean:
"So I always kind of wanted to walk that line a little bit, because I think most of the time, whilst there isn’t necessarily an explanation, you do see things in the novel. I think it also has to do with the fact that I’m really interested in the intersection between realism and genre, and what I want to do most of the time is invoke extremely normal people in semi-extraordinary situations, because I’m completely fascinated, always, by the fact that people deal with things."
"things become normal so much quicker than I think we expect them to, because people don’t have space in their brain to continue being shocked. I think that it’s just not the way that people actually function."
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Death, and Grief