I loved this book! It had a good atmosphere and a growing sense of dread throughout the book. The ending was a little lackluster but I can live with it.

Our Wives Under the Sea defies a quick review. The plot itself, feels a bit like Science Fiction, a bit like horror. But, half of the book (more, really) is firmly set in the point of view of Miri, the wife left behind, left on land, left in charge as everything unravels. Grief, loneliness, connection is all so powerfully explored.

I first heard about Our Wives Under the Sea back in February (of 2022) and I knew I had to get my hands on an ARC. This book was perfectly in my wheelhouse, it was pitched to me as a gothic novel about a woman whose wife comes home changed from a submarine mission - and oh was it that and so much more!

Julia Armfield tackles impossible questions about love and grief while delivering a moving gothic tale imbued with cosmic horror. Our Wives Under the Sea far exceeded my expectations in every way. This is a beautifully written novel about a woman named Miri who has, in every way, lost her wife, Leah, and is coping with the fact that the wife who did return is not the woman she married. Ultimately, asks us if we can love someone after their entire essence is changed, or is it better to let someone go once they are changed than to try to cram them back into their old lives?

Our Wives Under the Sea flips back and forth between Miri and Leah's perspectives. Miri is a woman whose marriage and entire world is falling apart. Going through this experience with Leah is destroying her, but she has absolutely no idea what to do and she so desperately wants to fix her lover. All the while, a sense of dread and strange, cosmic horror looms as Leah grows worse and worse.

Miri gives us the bleak and strange contemporary world she and Leah live in. Miri's chapters are bogged down with fighting corporate bureaucracy for answers and attempting to help and comfort Leah as she goes through strange and unexplained changes as the two women co-exist as practically strangers. Alternatively, during Leah's chapters I could feel her calmness and her longing during her time under the sea. There was an overwhelming sense of dread, a sense of something waiting for them that she just had to find. I became just as transfixed about this potential something as Leah.

If you are looking for a beautifully written and engrossing book to read, I highly recommend Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield. This book has taken a hold of me, body and soul. It is a beautiful exploration a relationship after a strange and unchangeable trauma and the grief that inevitably comes. Juna, a sister to another victim in the novel, expresses her feelings on grief in a conversation with Miri towards the end of the novel:

“I think,” Juna says after a pause, “that the thing about losing someone isn’t the loss but the absence of afterwards. D’you know what I mean? The endlessness of that.”

Juna, like Miri, was left in the dark. During the absence of their loved ones they experienced an endless silence and grieved in their own ways - only to later grieve again. The endlessness of Miri's love for Leah is felt throughout the novel as well as the sense of impending doom bubbles below the surface. There is always something more, something that cannot be explained looming in the sidelines even during moments of hope as Miri looks back on the happiness she and Leah had in the past. Through these flashbacks and reflections, we the reader can feel the absolute hole that this change in Leah has made in Miri's life and the absolute endlessness that will be the loss and absence of Leah.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who:
- is looking for books about intimate relationships after a significant trauma
- is looking for a book with lgbtqia+ books that are not about "coming out"
- is a fan of the gothic horror genre - and specifically Mexican Gothic
- are fans of authors like Jeff VanderMeer, Virginia Woolf, and Sarah Moss
- people who are fans of climate science-fiction who are looking to try out the horror genre

This debut novel was a quick read; I read it in one day.
The story is told in alternating viewpoints from the perspective of Miri and Leah. Leah has returned from a six month dive that was only supposed to take three weeks, and she’s not acting like herself. Her wife Miri is concerned and does her best to try to adjust to this new version of Leah. In the chapters from Leah’s perspective, we read about the events leading up to the dive and the dive itself.
As the book goes on, Leah is acting stranger and stranger.

Overall, I really enjoyed the prose in this book. There were several lines that I thought were thought-provoking and provided a great reflection on what was happening in the book. I really felt for Miri as she struggles to adjust to Leah’s return and strange behavior.
I wasn’t sure what would happen in the beginning, but once Leah starts changing physically, the ending felt like the inevitable conclusion. We as readers are just reminiscing with Miri about how she and Leah’s life used to be, and we all know that their life will never be the same after thus last dive. I loved all the little details that we learn about Miri and Leah and their relationship,
I don’t mind that all my questions didn’t get answered, but something about the last part just fell flat for me, which is why im giving it four stars instead of five.

What happens to a relationship/marriage when one person has an experience/trauma that changes them fundamentally? How does the other partner cope and come to terms with it? What is the effect on their relationship moving forward?

Leah is part of a deep sea research mission gone horribly awry. The mission was to last a couple of weeks yet Miri, her wife, doesn't know for over five years if Leah is even alive. The Center responsible for the mission refuses to provide any information or answers.

When Leah does arrive home, it is quickly apparent that she is not the same person she was when she left. Whatever happened at the bottom of the sea, has changed her in ways that willl only slowly be brought to light.

The story is told by alternating chapters giving Leah's and Miri's POVs. Well written and even prosaic at times, this is a book about finding love, realizing that though love remains the relationship will never be the same, grief, acceptance, and letting go.

In interesting and thought provoking read.

My thanks to Flatiron Books for permitting me access to an e-ARC of this book via NetGalley. It is scheduled to be published on 7/12/22. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

4 stars

The premise of Armfield's debut novel grabbed me, but the real surprise is how relatable such an unusual set of circumstances can feel. I expect that many readers will walk away with - similarly - much more personal relevance than they were expecting.

Miri and Leah share perspectives, a marriage, past memories of their relationship, and especially the joint processing of a truly unusual circumstance. Leah's journey to the depths of the sea provides some really solid deep sea/deep space what-the-heck-happened-out-there vibes to both readers and to her wife. She's gone for much longer than anticipated, and when she returns, her behaviors and even her physical body demonstrate that she has...changed. These changes become a central part of both characters' lives and - by default - relationship. For Miri, Leah's experiences prompt a lot of reminiscing, and these are some of my favorite moments. She fantasizes about earlier aspects of their relationship when - though things might not have been perfect - they were much closer versus where they stand now. Miri also has a lot of processing to do. She is literally watching her wife disintegrate, and the sense of loss is both literal and symbolic. Though Leah's thoughts were not as gripping for me (they come with some intentional veiling and focus on the deep), what happens to her body is really something. As is the case when any partner experiences a trauma, rupture, etc., managing the new way of being and who they are now/will be becomes the new normal.

For me, the strongest feature of this novel is the richness of the symbolism. I expect that some readers will find this off-putting; this book FEELS like *literature* and without some of the skills/work to dig into the layers, I can see how some readers would find the plot/development lacking. BUT, readers who organically want to plumb the depths (like Leah!) will have a field day here. The particular situation is unusual, but the references to changing relationships, trauma, loss, aging, mental health, and so much more can be related easily to any more typical connection that readers may have encountered themselves. In that way, this piece will offer an invaluable mirror to many.

This novel is both subtle and over-the-top, original and relatable, and unquestionably surprising in its low-key but palatable didacticism. It's an intriguing read for a specific audience, and so I'll be recommending this one highly to a targeted group. Oh, and this author will be on my to-read no matter what list going forward.

One last note about the format: I started this book on my Kindle and switched to the audio for about the last 90%. I highly recommend the audio version when/where available. The narrators add so much.

“I used to think there was such a thing as emptiness, that there were places in the world one could go and be alone. This, I think, is still true, but the error in my reasoning was to assume that alone was somewhere you could go, rather than somewhere you had to be left.”

OUR WIVES UNDER THE SEA is an atmospheric, multilayered novel about grief, love, and the fine line between real life and the creatures that haunt our depths. The story is told from two perspectives: Leah, recounting her recent undersea research expedition that lasted far longer than planned after their submarine lost communications and all other functionality other than basic life support, and Miri, her wife, dealing with the aftermath of Leah’s journey when she arrives home part-sea creature, subtly, eerily, and irrevocably changed.

This story is haunted, haunting, feeling initially a bit like a modern-day fable and by the end, a horrifying, grief-stricken fever dream. It’s a strange and compelling meld of genres, like Everyone in This Room Will Someday be Dead meets Wilder Girls meets Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, anxious queer millennial literary fiction meshed with body horror and a mysterious journey to the depths of the ocean, while somehow also containing one of the most epic and ordinary of tragic love stories.

The writing is fascinating and beautiful, immersing us in the world of a deep sea explorer and carrying that imagery into all aspects of the novel. Leah and Miri’s relationship, while undoubtedly at the core of the story, seems to lurk beneath the surface at first, coming more clearly into focus as the story progresses and you see the depths and details of their love for each other. Armfield contrasts the monotonies of life - the bills that come, the sounds of your neighbors’ television, the dishes that accumulate, the hold music cycling back on itself, the throbbing of a toothache - with the sharp realization that something has changed with the person you once knew so well, that nothing will ever be as it was again. There is a strong feeling of powerlessness, of helplessness, allowing yourself to be submerged beneath forces both weighty and banal, slipping into a mist that obscures, dulls, diminishes your senses, which pulls at the reader from both Leah and Miri’s perspectives.

I can see this novel as an extended allegory for a rupture in a relationship, where one partner has experienced something traumatic or fallen in love with someone else or gone on some other kind of emotional journey while the other partner is left on the outside, unable to truly understand what their partner has experienced, lamenting the loss of the everyday joys and conflicts the couple uses to share. Or perhaps where one partner is sick or dying, and the other is struggling with how to grieve while caring for them. There’s a definite parallel between Miri’s slow loss of her mother to illness before her death and the way Leah slips away from her: incrementally, confusingly, leaving Miri alone to figure out how to mourn while Leah is still physically with her but otherwise gone. This is another way in which this is a remarkable book: it’s such a singular, incredible story, with a multitude of universal human experiences contained within.

It’s a strange and gorgeous and unsettling novel, by turns existential and creepy, romantic and heart-wrenching, and I really, deeply loved it - more than that, I felt it. Thank you to Flatiron Books and Dreamscape Media for the review copies! The audiobook, narrated by Annabel Baldwin and Robyn Holdaway, is lovely. This book comes out in July.

Content warnings: death of a parent/loved one, terminal illness, some gore/body horror

Our Wives Under the Sea has an addicting lyrical prose and overall eeriness that attempts to keep the book engaging while repetitive dialogue and writing keep it from achieving breakthrough status. The premise, Leah comes back to her wife, Miri, after being lost under the sea in a submarine for 6 months, is fascinating. The strange changes that happen to Leah, her skin changing, her gums bleeding, and vomiting water is all strangely magical and kept me turning the pages wondering what the hell was happening to Miri's wife.
Yet, the plot is told 50% between memories of past events that don't directly impact the plot, giving off a disjointed vibe that doesn't always link up. If you took a shot for each time the author mentions the 'tap running' or 'the neighbors tv', you'd probably be dead of alcohol poisoning.
Our Wives Under the Sea could probably have been half as long (and it's already a short book) and been just as impactful, if not more. The book attempts to dive (get it) into the struggles of marriage, of loving someone in their most trying times, and I don't know how effective that narrative is executed.

Miri waits at home while Leah leaves for an experimental deep-sea mission that is supposed to take her away for two weeks. But for some reason, they do not return when expected and Miri cannot get any real information from the company that sent her wife under the deep.

As Miri starts to come to the realization that her w is most likely dead, she gets a call saying she is back. Months after she is expected and come and pick her up.

I'm not sure if I was reading a horror novel or a sci-fi novel but I don't think I got either...or I got both and more.

Miri thinks a lot of what their early years were like. How they met, how they became a couple, and wonders if Leah ever thought of her while she was under the sea. I didn't like Miri much at the beginning of this book. I didn't understand or think she loved her wife very much, more like she needed her to feel anything. When she thought of their intimate moments together, she used a term that did not translate to making love so much as that animalistic slamming together of bodies to fill a need, not an expression of love.

As for Leah, I was waiting to get to know her, to understand what was happening to her.

I'm glad I held on and didn't give up as I became frustrated with not getting the point. As Leah explained not why they were under the sea, but what brought her to her love of the sea to begin with, as well as what brought her to Miri and just how much she loved her.

We watch in horror as things turn very ugly and weird after Leah returns, the horror jumps out, at last, slashing across your mind with the terror Leah must have felt as well as the horrid transformations that were happening.

But honestly, by the end, I realized I was reading a love story. Miri stayed by Leah's side and helped as she could, protected her, and loved her in her way without fail. I realized this was not one of those sickly, overly romantic, unrealistic Lesbian love stories I have read but a real story of what 2 humans share as they come together to share a life. The not-so-pretty or romantic parts matter little when the ultimate sacrifice is needed and the heart does not hesitate to do what its love needs.

I admit the end brought tears to my eyes, a very unexpected reaction but an honest one.

Thanks to @netgalley, Flatiron Books, and Julia Armfield for the opportunity to read this eArc in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Thank you to NetGalley.com for the opportunity to read this ARC exchange for an honest review. And honestly? This is a less than compelling book. It should also be noted that we have some sci-fi and mystic tones and I do not like either genre. Julie is a world class scientist who is not unaccustomed to hazardous working conditions like those she encounters on the submarine launched by an independent research group who offer little in the way of transparency about the mission. Julie comes home to her partner Mira.

Julie has PTSD. Very little effort is made by Mira to get her the help she desperately needs. Mira never contacts the families of the other scientists in hopes of finding more details. Instead the author branches off into a sci-fi story. After that I was barely interested in continuing. I did finish the book. I gave it 3 stars, but only because it isn’t a terrible book. If you like sick-fi, mysticism and beyond belief stories you might enjoy this.

I absolutely love this book. It has an incredibly original story that quickly draws the reader into it. I finished it and immediately started reading it again. This book is going to be out a lot of wish lists.

This is an intriguing story about a couple. The story is told from the perspective of the two women involved in a relationship and their individual experiences related to a very stressful event. It seemed like an odd story to me, but it grew on me. It made me think.

This is a firm new favorite and solidifies Julia Armfield's status as one of my most beloved litfic writers. Internal, haunting, and filled with dread, it delves into the trauma of crumbling relationships through the lens of a slow-burn deep-sea expedition gone awry and some truly gnarly, affecting body horror. The prose is so exquisite, so evocative, I want to slide into it and tread. Gratitude to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for the arc.

I had to stop this book at 20%. I did not find the story interesting & the characters fell flat for me.

I'm not sure what to make of this book, honestly. It was an odd one - evocative and engaging, but the "plot" was hard to follow and I just...didn't relate to any of the characters. I had to actively make myself return to reading.

In some ways I’m stunned to what in the world did I just read?!

I loved being surprised by a book. This had Annihilation vibes but also the love story side of things was so sweet.

This was interesting horror, tapping into the actual unknown in the most believable Black Mirror ish way.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. I loved the prose, but the story was just a bit too surreal for me to give this more than 3 stars. 3.5 would be more appropriate because it was consuming and beautifully written. I just had a hard time with the magical realism aspect, particularly because the ending felt very abrupt.

I was SO excited for this book, but unfortunately I was underwhelmed.

The story is told in dual perspectives: Miri, after her beloved wife has now resurfaced after being lost in a submarine for five months, and Leah, from the perspective of what went wrong to have their science expedition go so off-course. It is supposed to be a tragic romance with horror-like aspects.

Unfortunately this story just fell flat for me. I found myself bored, and though was so intrigued to see how it would end, I also was disappointed in the ending.

The writing was stunning so I would still read more by Julia Armfield, but this was definitely not for me.

Our Wives Under the Sea is a beautifully written (and creepy) story about Leah and Miri’s marriage. Leah is a marine biologist and her three-week mission goes awry, leaving her and her crew stranded on the sea floor for months. When she returns, she starts behaving in strange ways including drinking salt water. Her wife, Miri, struggles to understand this new version of Leah.

There are elements of horror to the story which made me feel anxious as a reader as it is not my preferred genre. I thought the ending was lovely, albeit vague. While this wasn’t the right book for me, I recommend it to readers who enjoy tense storylines, sci-fi, and light horror.

Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read the ARC via NetGalley.

Our Wives Under the Sea
by Julia Armfield
Pub Date: July 12, 2022
Picador
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.
* Horror *Fiction
Not the book for me. THE WRITING of this book kept me going even when I felt the storyline was kind of slacking. The prose is so beautiful and captivating. The story itself was good as well, just a bit slow at times. However, I can still see this being a great book club book selection. Trigger warning for those who don't like claustrophobia, because she writes it so well.
3 stars