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Our Wives Under the Sea
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR (NPR, The Washington Post, Lit Hub, The Telegraph, Goodreads, Tor.com, them, and more)
A FINALIST for the LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD and GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD "A deeply strange and haunting novel in the best possible way...An impressive and exciting debut novel that may leave you thinking about your own relationships in a new light." --NPR "Shocking...Achingly poetic...Sharp and beautiful as coral polyps...Armfield exercises an exquisite--even sadistic--sense of suspense." --Ron Charles, The Washington PostLeah is changed. A marine biologist, she left for a routine expedition months earlier, only this time her submarine sank to the sea floor. When she finally surfaces and returns home, her wife Miri knows that something is wrong. Barely eating and lost in her thoughts, Leah rotates between rooms in their apartment, running the taps morning and night. Whatever happened in that vessel, whatever it was they were supposed to be studying before they were stranded, Leah has carried part of it with her, onto dry land and into their home. As Miri searches for answers, desperate to understand what happened below the water, she must face the possibility that the woman she loves is slipping from her grasp. By turns elegiac and furious, wry and heartbreaking, Our Wives Under the Sea is an exploration of the unknowable depths within each of us, and the love that compels us nevertheless toward one another.
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Community Reviews
the voices, the burning smell, the religious undertonesâ¦was hell underneath them down there?? were they in hell?? am I crazy?
AND THEN the voices from the TV ABOVE them when they were homeâ Miri has NEVER seen those neighbors and just adjusts to ignore it but Leah asks them to turn it down and says theyâre kind even though they make ZERO change to the volume. and it doesnât bug her until she comes back from under the sea.
maybe Iâm bonkers and the curtains are just blue, or maybe I just cracked this religious allegory about grief wide open
gorgeous writing either way. felt like an A24 film on the little screen in my head. cannot stop picturing that giant eye. itâs officially the season to jump back into horror
AND THEN the voices from the TV ABOVE them when they were homeâ Miri has NEVER seen those neighbors and just adjusts to ignore it but Leah asks them to turn it down and says theyâre kind even though they make ZERO change to the volume. and it doesnât bug her until she comes back from under the sea.
maybe Iâm bonkers and the curtains are just blue, or maybe I just cracked this religious allegory about grief wide open
gorgeous writing either way. felt like an A24 film on the little screen in my head. cannot stop picturing that giant eye. itâs officially the season to jump back into horror
I joined another local book club and this was their book, chosen in June intentionally. 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 but I kept wanting more and couldn’t put it down. And then it just…ended. Intimate? Yes. Emotional without being overly dramatic? Eh, yes. Boring with a dumb ending? Also, yes. 2 stars
Book #55 in 2024
A really beautiful story about love, grief, and letting go. The horror elements are really interesting as well but I wish there was more about that
Just so unsettling yet romantic.
This novel weird, niche and horrific. It’s about sapphic love, grief and the scariness of the unknown ocean. The whole way through it felt like my heart was in my throat and the ending touched me. I can’t explain this story other than in the first sentence I used here.
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