Book Review | Our Wives Under the Sea

After Leah disappears on a deep sea research trip, she returns home changed. She keeps leaving behind a mysterious residue in the bathtub, her water bill is skyrocketing, and her wife Miri can’t help but feel that she’s more emotionally distant.

Miri desperately searches for answers as she feels Leah slipping away from her.

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield is a Lovecraftian and beautifully haunting portrait about loss and dealing with an estranged loved one. In fact, it did remind me quite a bit thematically of Thomas Olde Heuvelt’s Echo in the best possible way.

This book first caught my attention because I heard it was recommended by Florence Welch, and it did not disappoint.

Despite the supernatural undercurrent, this story feels grounded. The characters reactions feel believable. This is definitely a character study, and there’s something so natural and flawed about the two women’s relationship that this book honestly has one of my favorite depictions of a f/f relationship in an adult sci-f novel.

As a disclaimer though, there are questions that are left unanswered and left up to the reader’s imagination, but I didn’t personally mind since a huge part of cosmic horror deals in the unknowable.

All in all, this is an utterly gripping and immersive book that pulled me out of a reading dry spell after so many other new releases had let me down.

Thank you, NetGalley and Flatiron Books, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Book Details:

Publication Date : July 12, 2022

Publisher : Flatiron Books

IBSN: ‎1250229898

Pages : 240

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