Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Our Wives Under The Sea

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield

43 reviews

lilybearillini3's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes

4.5

This book is so unique and mysterious. The slow buildup to the end was worth the wait. It's romantic, dark, and the more I read, the more captivated I became. It was very slow for me in the beginning, but it picks up towards the middle, and I couldn't put it down in the last third. The pacing gives readers a lot of time to marinate in Leah and Miri's relationship and how their dynamic is affected by the situation. I love the perspective changes with Miri's in the present and Leah's in the past, but also in the different environments. Some people don't like a book with an open ending and questions unanswered, but I don't mind and I enjoy reading other people's theories. Armfield nails the atmosphere and the sudden feeling of suffocation as the tension builds. The writing is amazingly poetic and insightful. I wish there were a tiny bit more elaboration on a few things like

Spoiler

the creature and the theory they were trapped on purpose. The body horror from Miri's perspective was cool, but it could've been more frightening. At the same time, I don't think that's what Armfield wanted us to focus on.

This is not a spoiler, but It's goes without saying that reading this book relatively shortly after the Titan Submersible incident (June 2023) was a weird coincidence and experience. Coming off of that, I made predictions on what would happen. Potential spoiler?: The second submarine media that I thought of was

Spoiler

Iron Lung, a video game and soon-to-be movie by Markiplier. In Iron Lung, the person is sent in the submarine for research, but the organization sending the person knows they will most likely die. Matteo suggests this possibility for their situation and that changed everything for me.

Another thing it reminded me of is

Spoiler

the movie Arrival. The part where Leah holds up her name to communicate with the creature was so reminiscent of Amy Adam's character in Arrival.

Content Warnings

maeverose's review against another edition

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mysterious sad

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

I’m unsure how I feel about this yet.

TL;DR: As other people have said, this isn’t so much horror as a book about grief with horror sprinkled throughout. I was interested to see what would happen the whole way through and I do tend to like books about grief, but in the end am left feeling overall ‘meh’ about the book.

A note on the horror elements for those worried about it:
If you’re especially bothered by body horror, gore, or themes of going insane I would go in prepared for that if you plan on reading it. I’m not a horror reader and I dislike reading those themes, but most of this book was fine for me (check my content warnings section for which parts to skip if you also dislike these themes but want to read anyway. You can’t really skip the ‘going insane’ stuff unless you just don’t read any of Leah’s chapters, but you’d be missing out on some parts of the story then). That being said, you know what your own limits are best. I have a moderate tolerance for gore in books and I’m rarely bothered by non-gory body horror. If you have a low tolerance overall, I’d probably skip it.

Now on to my thoughts:
(Vague/minor plot spoilers, but not really since this is not a plot-focused book)

I liked the way the Centre was depicted as this mysterious corporate entity, and wish that was explored more, as well as

Spoiler

the whole sea creature thing

. I get that the horror and mystery elements aren’t the focus, the focus is on Miri’s grief, with the horror elements being a metaphorical parallel to losing a loved one to illness. But it’s left somewhat unclear whether or not it’s also actually happening. If it is actually happening, then that leaves me a bit frustrated with how Miri acted. She seemed so uninterested in finding answers or taking any sort of legal action against the Centre. At no point does the idea even come up to do that, and that seems so ridiculous to me given everything they kept quiet about and the entire way they acted and operated. If I were Miri I’d be pissed at them. I’d be demanding answers. She pretty much gave up after they stopped responding to her calls. I didn’t understand why she never took Leah to a doctor, especially given how much she obviously cares about her, why wasn’t she doing everything she could to help her?

Spoiler

When Juna met up with Miri and tried to explain what she found out and Miri cut her off and left, I was so annoyed. She seemed so uninterested in what Juna had to say and I would be the exact opposite. She didn’t seem at all shocked to learn that someone died on the same trip her wife was on…

In general Miri seemed much more focused on her own grief rather than being concerned for her wife who clearly went through an extremely traumatic experience. Again, if none of it is really real then it makes sense but with it being somewhat left up to interpretation, it was frustrating.

On that note, I’ll end with some quotes about grieving missing loved ones that I liked:

“-grieving was complicated by lack of certainty, that the hope inherent in a missing loved one was also a species of curse.”

“In almost every case, the sense of loss was convoluted by an ache of possibility, by the almost-but-not-quite-negligible hope of reprieve.”

“Grief is selfish: we cry for ourselves without the person we have lost far more than we cry for the person - but more than that, we cry because it helps. The grief process is also the coping process and if the grief is frozen by ambiguity, by the constant possibility of reversal, then so is the ability to cope.”

Content Warnings

ashavila1's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book captivated me from the beginning. Julia Armfield does an amazing job of creating a tense, rich atmosphere to explore themes relating to love, horror, decay, and memory throughout the story. I often found myself being so immersed in the story, I would need several minutes afterwards to recompose from the intensity of this book's grasp. This story falls along the lines of an intense study of character, grief, and love wherein the plot is pushed by internal reflection. This isn't going to be a book for everyone. It's intense and fueled by the atmosphere and it's themes. But if you're looking for heart wrenching sapphic romance with a touch of horror, this is an extraordinary book. Highly recommend for fans of gothic horror, mysteries, and tragic lesbians trying their best.

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saintyeehaw's review

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challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This reminded me so much of "The Rememberer" by Amiee Bender, one of my favorite short stories. Unfortunately, as a long form novel, I did not enjoy this as much.

Spoiler

I thought the amount of mystery and sinister secret society stuff was just right. The "boss" with his eye ring, the eye of the creature, the disappearance of the Centre--all of it made my stomach drop when the connections started appearing. I like that we don't get the full picture; what would you want to know? That there's a group sending sacrifices down to an ancient creature that is the ocean itself? I think it works much better unclear and up to your imagination.

Content Warnings

sonygaystation's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.75

I really enjoyed the writing but the plot itself left things to be desired. I wanted more spookiness, more weirdness. I felt like it ended with a lot of unanswered questions and I wish it had more of a plot rather than just two alternating perspectives basically written like journal entries. Would’ve LOVEEEED to have more fleshed out time in the ocean and maybe a little more detail into the company who put them down there.

Content Warnings

julesadventurezone's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A story about being a hypochondriac living in a rented flat with thin walls who finds it so hard to keep up with friends, whose wife says she'll be gone for three weeks and instead stays gone for six months. And then when she comes back she comes back so wrong. How do you live with that grief? What can you even hope to do about this?
It's a love story, it's a ghost story, it's a horror story.

Content Warnings

emmaura's review

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dark mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

A weird and unsettling story about the ocean, grief, and acceptance.

Overall I enjoyed it a lot and would recommend it to someone who likes books about love, people, and ethereal horror

Content Warnings

carbinara's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I had went into this with high hopes, then got let down a bit, then left having enjoyed it. An odd process. I had went in expecting horror, not really having read lit fic, so I found the first 150 pages quite slow and tedious. However, once you get past the 150 page mark the plot starts going and I really enjoyed it. While I much preferred Leahs POV to Miri’s, both gave such an insight to these characters and the situation they’re in. I found myself really feeling for both of them by the end. I think the characterisation was well done, although I wish the plot was more neatly wrapped up. That being said, I think that was intentional.

Spoiler

I’m really glad we actually “saw” a sea monster and it wasn’t just left as movement in the darkness

Content Warnings