Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Our Wives Under the Sea

Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

556 reviews

woodsybookworm's review against another edition

challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Leah, a marine biologist, joins a research expedition with a mysterious company known only as the Centre. What was supposed to be a routine test of equipment turns into a horror story when the research vessel suddenly goes dark and sinks to the bottom of a crevasse. Leah and her two crewmates are trapped at the bottom of the ocean with no hope of escape.

Months later, having assumed her wife died at sea, Miri gets a call from the Centre to pick up Leah who has apparently been in quarantine. Readjusting to a life with her spouse after months alone proves to be more challenging than either woman thought. Especially when odd things begin happening to Leah - like the incessant need to drink salt water, random bleeding, taking night long baths, and the desire to listen to ocean sounds on repeat.

This book was so bizarre. If my wife came back the way Leah did then I would not be as calm about it as Miri was, I can tell you that much. I'd be breaking down the door of the Centre demanding answers, dragging her to a hospital kicking and screaming - I couldn't understand how everyone in this book was so gosh darn CALM about this wild situation both at the bottom of the sea and back on land. I'd be freaking out.

Was this book good? I honestly don't know. It was more an experience than anything and I'm not sure who I'd recommend it to other than fellow water obsessed readers. But my copy now has sticky tabs all throughout so it was definitely something!

Content Warnings

peregrinwho's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

2.75

You know when you're reading and you struggle through certain pov's so you can get to your favorite characters pov? Imagine that, but there's only two pov's and your favorite only gets 2 or 3 pages per chapter. Does that make this book bad? Absolutely not. For my tastes, it just made the pacing really slow, since things only really happened in those little windows. Maybe if there had been more prose in between to keep the mind engaged more it wouldn't have felt this way. What did happen was very intriguing and thought-provoking however, and the author has a way of describing physical things that makes you feel like you can touch them. It's just too bad I cared about the mystery more than the internal conflict of the characters the mystery symbolized. Either way, it will make you tear up on the last few pages.

Content Warnings

audioaxolotl's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

mapleleaf_kat's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.0

The book was really good but I’m not sure if it’s going to stay in my psyche the same way it has for other readers.

Content Warnings

breebeebaz's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.25

sad but beautiful, nauseating at times. horror in a human way, not in a scary way.

Content Warnings

lizardgod's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I thought this was a horror, I left with only sadness.

Content Warnings

orizenda's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

I don’t understand what happened in this book. I don’t know if you’re supposed to fully. I don’t entirely know what to make of it. I was bored in the beginning, but then I started getting more interested. Especially seeing Miri’s side of things. There’s not really Leah’s present side of things? but I think the strong part of the book for me was the emotional aspect that Miri brought out. Ig dealing with love and loss and stuff

Content Warnings