Title: Our Wives Under The Sea
Author: Julia Armfield
Year: 2022
Genre: Horror, LGBTQ+
Narrator: Annabel Baldwin & Robyn Holdaway
Our Wives Under The Sea is the debut horror novel by Julia Armfield, about a couple dealing with the aftermath of a catastrophic submarine mission. The book was voted for my book club read, though it was my personal second choice from that months selections as the blurb sounded interesting.
Miri and Leah are a married couple living in England. Leah is a researcher on a submarine for a company called The Centre. but her last mission went disastrously wrong and she ended up being underwater for six months. When she returned, Miri thought she got her wife back, however it soon becomes clear Leah came back wrong. Whatever happened to her, Leah has brought it back onto dry land.
As Miri tries to make sense of her new reality, she pulls from memories of their time before the mission but they only serve to remind her what she stands to lose. Meanwhile from Leah’s perspective we learn what happened down there during that fateful mission…
The book is told from a dual perspective with the majority focussed on Miri trying to deal with the effects of the mission, interspersed with short chapters which describe the events of what happened underwater from Leah’s perspective.
However I have to be completely honest that the book sounded far more interesting than it turned out to be in my opinion.
I listened to the audiobook version and unfortunately I did find I stopped listening to the book for huge chunks and then came back and felt like absolutely nothing had progressed and the further I got into it, the less I cared.
I have read the book is meant to be an exploration of grief and loss from a horror lens and whilst it did have some interesting things to say on this which some readers may relate to, I personally just found it very downbeat and depressing.
When the book did revert to Leah’s sections I found they were better than Miri’s and I did find myself trying to work out what happened down there. Also Armfield did a good job here of creating the feelings of isolation and claustrophobia that you feel when you see classic horror movies about characters lost, such as Alien.
However when the ultimate mystery was revealed I felt it was very unsatisfying and all the theories I had in my head where much better than what the book offered.
Whilst I do wish there was some redeeming feature of this book I have to admit that overall I didn’t enjoy it and I cannot recommend it. If you disagree with my review or have read the book then let me know in the comments down below.
