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The writing here was so gorgeous. Our Wives felt, to me, like a horror story. It was creepy, claustrophobic, and surreal.

I did want a little more from the ending, either in terms of clarity or impact, but this was still a haunting, beautifully-written little book.

It's not uplifting though. Be warned!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Do not read this book if you are afraid of the sea. Or claustrophobic. Or claustrophobic and afraid of the sea.

It's... damp!

(I was going to say moist, but that might give off the wrong vibe 🤣)

Check out my edges, though.

Miri's wife Leah has returned from a submarine expedition after months lost under the sea. But Leah has changed and Miri is left wondering if she has really returned after all.

I'm halfway through this beautifully written, but not-at-all uplifting read, and appreciating its waterlogged prose and sense of loss.

"The deep sea is a haunted house: a place in which things that ought not to exist move about in the darkness."

#firstlinefriday

This first line is *chefs kiss*

#flatlayfriday

A table of soon-to-be-reads 💃💃💃💃

Miri and Leah.
As Miri tells of the time after Leah came back from a sea mission. How Leah has changed.
Leah tells the story of the sea mission and how something went wrong and she and three colleagues stayed in the submarine for months.

What is love? That ending really had me asking that question

And several thing that was revealed, had me asking: Did Leah‘s employer plan this and what they the experiment?

Book club pick.Told from the POV of Leah during her time aboard a submarine that loses coms and sinks to the bottom of the ocean and her wife,Miri as she recounts their courtship and Leah‘s behaviors now that she‘s returned from sea.Leah was only supposed to be gone a few weeks and it turned into 6 months.Kinda strange,I kept wanting more and couldn‘t put it down.And then it just..ended. Book #55 in 2024

Slow moving but compelling- I keep reading to see what happened to the wife on her deep sea dive

A bizarre claustrophobia inducing story about being transformed by the sea and the unknown within it.

I can‘t decide whether I liked it or not. I kept listening to find out what happens to Leah, who is trapped in a sunken submersible, so it did capture my attention.

“Romantic horror” I‘ve seen this described as. Told from the alternating perspectives of Leah, a marine biologist trapped in the depths on a submarine mission gone wrong, and her wife Miri who recounts the aftermath. Weird. Very readable despite the weirdness, yet also baffling and unnerving. Still gathering my thoughts but secretly I think what I really wanted but didn‘t know it was an under-the-sea submarine drama a la The Meg 😳

This book was beautiful and detailed but it was very sad.

For a small book, this one took a long time to read (2.5 days). I think the dreamlike prose added to that effect. It's true not much happens plotwise. However, in life, it's easy to get mired in grief over a loved one, so this made sense to me. It's a soft pick, but still a pick because the language was beautiful. 3.5 stars.
#RushAThon
@Andrew65 @DieAReader @GHABI4ROSES

I have “I can't decide on a book-itis.“ Started reading this one today.

Um, for a short book - this took me forever to read. It‘s slow, haunting, atmospheric story with very little plot and very little revealed. It just is. Many seem to be disappointed/shocked at the ending. It made sense to me - I was more shocked that Leah actually did come back and all of it was real and not Miri‘s hallucination. Just not the book for me I guess.

Hmm. As an exploration of the grief of missing your beloved one even as they sit across the dinner table from you, this hits hard. And while I'm here for the oceanic weirdness, after nothing much doing for page after page, the ending felt rushed. And then, I enjoy a book with unanswered questions, but this had so many *unasked* questions that the main impression it's left me with is an unreachable gritty irritation.

Influenced by booktube, glad it did not disappoint. Mesmerizing. 4 🌟

I read this last month but apparently forgot to post it. The ending left me absolutely speechless and I needed a few days to recover. This is a dual POV novel told from the perspective of two wives. One, a scientist, is sent on a 3 week mission in a submarine. The other, a writer, is home waiting for her return. Things go horribly wrong and it's 6 months before the scientist returns...and she is somehow very different. 5⭐️

Beautiful writing, strange story & a short book, I liked the imagery & the creeping sense of dread as Mari‘s wife Leah returns from an exploration voyage that goes months longer than planned as the submarine sinks to the bottom of the ocean. The Leah that returns is different & Mari grieves for their relationship as Leah continues to change. An interesting combination of literary fiction & gothic horror.

Haunting, imaginative, and beautifully written.

As a big fan of existential horror, I really loved the way the book is soaked with a quiet, indulging dread. It's a book where it doesn't really feel like anything is happening, there are no huge narrative spins or action scenes, but there is a tender falling apart that permeates the narrative, a breakdown in self that you can identify so early on but have to sit and watch helplessly, much like the narrator. There is no other way for this to end.

It sucks you in, like an ocean, though you never really know why. Flowing, wavy narration. This book felt similar to The Secret History, but not because it's also classified as literary; maybe because of its gothicness, or its narration—it produced a similar sensation of flow.

4.5/5

"I think … that the thing about losing someone isn't the loss, but the absence of afterwards. Do you know what I mean? The endlessness of that."

I wanted goth/gay 20,000 leagues under the sea and I got this nightmare in which I contemplated my own mortality and the loss of everyone I love … but it created a dark, ethereal dream state, it made me think deeply and emotionally, and I won't forget it... ⭐⭐⭐⭐?

A few more books to add to my collection 😇
Found out the Forbidden Planet do exclusives too 😅

What an interesting little book. I enjoyed this literary story with a bit of a sci-fi bend.
I do wish we had more of Miri and Leah in the before times, I had a hard time seeing them as a loving couple.
The writing was strong and the story was wholely original.

Beautifully written tale of a woman whose marine biologist wife comes back from a deep-dive mission, altered. It‘s like a 12A, Cronenbergian body-horror. Often heartbreaking to read, and is clearly a metaphor for loss of loved ones through illness: Pretty much like The Fly but gentler. I think younger adults would enjoy this but it wasn‘t for me. ‘Scuse the puns but one of the charterers is a bit wet and the book meanders to an unsatisfying ending

Phenomenal Writing! Loved the details. A Beautifully creepy love story. So very interesting. I couldn‘t get enough

This is a weird little book. Finishing it up today

Outside reading for a few hours before the cold hits. Chance the cat has to check it out 😻😻

4⭐️/5⭐️

There is a sort of dreamy horror to this tale of two wives trying to come to terms with the aftermath of one‘s extended period trapped in a submarine. This is extremely character driven with a slow moving plot and rising menace. Dark and oddly insubstantial, I so very much wanted to like this more than I did. Full review at http://booknaround.blogspot.com/2022/10/review-our-wives-under-sea-by-julia.html...

What an interesting and beautifully written book! Two married women tell their story from their own point of view. Leah is in a submarine under the water and Miri is waiting for her to come home. Mitch, who posts here all the time, recommended it and I agree.

🎧 This was a quick listen but didn‘t really work for me. I didn‘t hate it or love it, just meh 🎧

In the pull quote on the cover, Sarah Waters calls this lesbian novel “Deeply romantic and fabulously strange.” I wholeheartedly agree with the second part of that statement. Miri‘s wife seems to be a different person when she returns from an underwater research trip. Armfield‘s precise word choices add to the unsettling atmosphere and build a strong sense of who these women are… and what has been lost & found between them. #LGBTQ

Friday Reads October 7 + making angelica candy & other herbal delights + printmaking with veggies
I chat about the books I read this week & other stuff:
https://youtu.be/w7ax7gZw5S8

When I was younger, I think some glib or cavalier part of me always believed that there was no such thing as heartache—that it was simply a case of things getting in past the rib cage and finding there was no way out. I know now, of course, that this was a stupid thing to think, insofar as most things we believe will turn out to be ridiculous in the end.

My heart is a thin thing, these days—shred of paper blown between the spaces in my ribs.

My local indie owner recommended this one. I‘m such an easy sell. 😂

This one didn't work for me, but I suspect a good amount of that is very personal. Body horror and hypochondria and... just a lot of focus on the body and the body going wrong. Gaah.

This was my #DoubleSpin, woo. I've also made a non-pretty #BookSpinBingo card so I at least have something to post.

Now I'm back from my holiday jaunt, here's this month's #BookSpin list. I feel a little like I'm cheating, as I got 80% of the way through Our Wives Under The Sea last month, and now it's the #DoubleSpin.

Last month I got my #BookSpin, #DoubleSpin, and one line on my #BookSpinBingo, but felt too exhausted and meh to go as far as creating a nice pretty card to post. Maybe this month...

This is weird and wonderful, surreal and grounded. It‘s full of menace at the edges and an unnerving relationship with time and place. It‘s got the sense of the ordinary - with the supernatural / science fiction knocking on the walls to get it. It‘s beautifully written and it‘s haunting nature will ensure the story stays with me. Loved it @DGRachel

Slow chilly morning at work calls for a new book and a butterscotch hot chocolate ☕️ 📖. Current outside temp 52* F. How is it by you?!

Reading plans changed - I‘m diving straight into the today. And thank you so much @DGRachel for speeding up my reading time as I don‘t have to find the perfect bookmark. I have it already! 😘

Thank you very much sweet friend - you pick the most awesome books. I love them both. The tagged sounds soo good and Sarah Waters has blurbed the cover and I love her! And you find the best treasures - I‘ve not seen Persephone Station but super intrigued with the Mandalorian comp. You‘re a super star. Thank you. @DGRachel

Leah‘s 3-week submarine expedition lasts 6 months. Long enough for Miri to have given her up for dead. Leah returns a different person, deteriorating mentally and physically. Miri‘s story about holding onto their love is interspersed with Leah‘s journal, written while lost under the sea. The hints of horror in the journal are too slight and vague and don‘t connect to the condition Miri witnesses. It's as if the _author_ didn't know what happened.

17 books for August and 2 bingos for #bookspinbingo! Oddly, the books I liked best this month are all in the top bingo row 🤔
Also complete: #doublespin and May‘s #bookspin -eternally playing catch-up, that‘s me! … or prioritizing holds for spooky season 😅

I liked this one more than I didn‘t, but not as much as I thought I would.

Had such a hard time getting into this one. Struggled to pick it up and when I did, I had no idea what was going on. I also had no interest in the “mystery”. My hold was running out and I had wanted to read literally anything else.

I read recently that fiction is (or can be) a way for an author to work through in metaphor things that are difficult to work through in real life. This novel feels like an exploration of the surrealness and isolation of grief. The deep sea trip feels to me both literal and a metaphor for the vast unknowability of life, how we can really only access a fragment of any experience and any conclusions we draw are likely to be limited, if not flawed.