Our Wives Under the Sea Review
This book was another one that I picked up because I read about it everywhere on the internet. It was advertised as a sapphic novel with elements of body horror and mystery. I am not the biggest fan of any kind of horror, least of all body horror, but the more positive reviews I have read, the more interested I was in finding out what was happening in this novel. I finished it a few weeks ago, and I am still not completely sure how I feel about it.
‘Our Wives Under the Sea’ is the debut novel by Julia Armfield and it follows the story of two women- Miri and Leah. Leah has just returned from the deep sea mission that went badly and took longer than anticipated. Although Miri is excited about her wife returning, it becomes painfully obvious really quickly that something is seriously wrong with Leah. As the story progresses, the narrative is intertwined between the present day falling apart of their marriage and Leah and their past as we try to piece together this story and understand what happened at the mission.
The story is between two narrators- Miri and Leah. While Miri’s chapters are more focused on Leah’s present state and her attempts to help her, Leah is mostly talking about the mission. However, the big issue I had was the fact that these two women are too similar, both as characters and as narrators. At times, it was hard to fully grasp who was talking. They are different people, for sure, but there were no markers in their narration to indicate that they have different ways of talking, thinking or observing the world. I understand the argument that because they are married and spend a lot of time together, they would eventually take on each other’s characteristics, but I still think that there should have been more to indicate their differences. The dual POV writing style does contribute to the story, as the readers are seeing different perspectives of the story, but the sameness of the women narrators was irking me the whole time.
The writing style is gorgeous and I enjoyed the descriptions, especially musings about the ocean and the ocean exploration. Although it did not nothing to help my fear of the ocean, I did enjoy reading from the perspective of somebody who adores and respects the sea as much as Leah does. The author’s description of the ocean made me want to visit an ocean side city for my best vacation, only if I do not have to go deep under. With that being said, I feel like the author decided to write a novel about the sea and the effects of it on the people and then just went on a mission to incorporporate every metaphor and symbolism of the sea and the ocean she could think of, making it quite repetitive and dull at points.
However, I found the story meandering and without an actual pay-out. Leah is radically different when she returns and Miri is doing her best to call up the people that sent her and look after Leah. This premise should work had there been a story behind it to support it. But by the end, we do not know what the hell in the centre that sent Leah and her crew on this mission and why and how they have disappeared? We have no idea about what happened to Leah at the bottom and what is actually happening to her now. Normally, I am not a reader that needs their hand holding and everything spelled out, but throughout this novel, there were not enough hints to try to grasp the meaning of it all.
I understand that this is a story about grief at the end of the day and being able to let go of something or somebody even if you really do not want to. Grief is never pretty or easy, and Miri’s story is ripe with feelings of helplessness and loneliness. She has no true friends and nobody that really understands what is happening to her and her wife. Reading her attempts to get Leah to do literally anything while Leah is literally turning to water and becoming transparent is definitely frustrating and it did make me want to understand what is going on. While I do appreciate this perspective and understand that not all books can or should be happy or exciting, this book did not offer much beyond a frustrating character and a lovely writing style.
Still, I think that I could have gotten over all of that and actually enjoyed the novel more had I cared more about the main two characters of the novel. As mentioned previously, their chapters felt so similar that at times I had trouble distinguishing them and they felt like one person. Because of this lack of individuality and the book’s resistance to actually attempt to answer any questions or try to leave breadcrumbs for the reader to do so, I found it hard to keep truly caring. I felt for Miri, I felt her frustration and sadness of essentially watching her wife disappeared in front of her eyes and I appreciate the need for the narratives about this topic, but I feel like this could have been done in a much more effective way than what ‘Our Wives Under the Sea’ has to offer.
I must admit that the ending did fit the rest of the story and was an apt conclusion to Leah’s slow descent into madness. By that time, I had already accepted everything that was happening including the changes of Leah’s body and to her behaviour as well as Miri’s almost blasé attitude towards all of this. Again, had I been made to care a bit more about them as characters or their faiths, I would have probably found it sadder and more devastating. This way, I was left staring at my kindle at midnight, wondering what the hell I just read.
I have read this book while traveling for work, so I will concede that might have had an effect on the overall impressions. Perhaps, when I have some time, this book does deserve a re-read in better conditions. Additionally, this is the author's debut novel and there are already a lot of amazing elements in this book. I am not sure if Julia Armfield is planning another book soon, but I will definitely give her a chance as I believe that with the few tweaks and edits of the book, this could have been so much better.
This way, the way it is ⅖.
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