Our Wives Under The Sea

I found it incredibly moving and emotional at the end . A book that’ll stay with me. Whether it’s a metaphor for the end of a love or the death of a loved one, it’s achingly beautiful and rendered without sentiment.

This is a difficult book to rate… It’s hard for me to reconcile the vivid poetic prose throughout the book with the dry exposition and summarization of events ALSO throughout the book. But it is a unique and intriguing story. I can’t think of any other book quite like it, and I mean that as a compliment. The story is told in a very non-linear fashion and I’m not sure if the plot even has structure in any traditional sense. If that’s not your cup of tea, then look elsewhere. But if you don’t mind that, then dive in and briefly drown yourself in this haunting love story. It’s ultimately about grief. One minor character sums it up quite nicely toward the end: “the thing about losing someone isn’t the loss but the absence afterward” That haunting absence that fills empty spaces it feels your loved ones should still occupy.

Truly a niche read. It’s slow and wandering between two POVs of a married couple, slithering between timelines. It’s visceral and existential with just enough to hold you into the here and now. The ocean in of itself is terrifying to me, so the one woman’s love and connection to it was uncomfortable to me which was exciting. Her wife is barely hanging on, trying to hold onto who her wife was before she was lost under sea. It poses a lot of interesting theories, bodily transformations and trying to remember the person you love through memories of who they once were. Not what I was searching for at the time or the type of genre I specifically seek out but was still very well written.

Honestly, best book I read last year.

This was very well written and eerie tinges to it. It did give me some anxiety which can't say I loved. But overall a well crafted story about love and loss.

I'm really struggling with how I feel about this book a week after finishing it, but I think my overall emotion would be disappointment. There are elements I really enjoyed, such as some of the intentional absurdity (the therapist who doesn't seem to react to what the protagonist ever says, the blood dripping from a character's face being called normal, phone calls that never get resolved). I think it also does a really good job exploring grief over your loved ones "haunting" your life while still alive. But other elements really don't work for me. There is no resolution of the various mysteries brought up. I suppose they're not meant to matter, just the exploration of Mira's emotions, but if that were the case then I wish tantalizing plot elements weren't included that made me think the book was going to accomplish more. The horror (and body horror) does not work for me. The aforementioned absurdity I praised starts to lose its impact and the newer horror elements added throughout feel too vague or uninteresting to really grab my attention. There was one reveal in particular that made me feel like it was supposed to be very shocking, but just had me thinking, "so what?" At a certain point while reading, maybe half-way through, I realized that the book does not escalate (or devolve?) despite the chapter titles suggesting you are descending into a horrifying pitch-black depth akin to the ocean. A passage from the start and a passage from the end would feel the same. It started to feel like I was reading the same thing over and over and I began to resent how long the book felt. I really, really wanted to like this book. I even really like elements of the ending. But I didn't feel haunted by it, or scared, or thoughtful. Just disappointed because I felt like it could have been a lot more than what it was.

This was voted as a book read for August so I took the plunge and said why not! Water, creatures and the unknown what could possibly go wrong a great recipe for a great book. The book is about a woman whose wife studies the sea (marine biologist) and goes on this stretches of exploring the sea. Which I thought okay this was interesting. I am not sure what happened (or didn’t happen in my case) I was struggling to finish this book. I am not sure if it was how the author wrote the book eluding to what happened but not really saying. Many times I wanted to throw my kindle against the wall because this book was just awful. This isn’t the book for me, I will not discourage anyone from reading this book. I did like the writing style between the two main characters which was good but that’s about all the praise I’ll give this book. I have never read a book so much that I disliked. For anyone else who is brave to read the book please go for it. My only regret is I read this book.

I found this book truly beautiful—the way it depicts everyday activities and explores grief through a supernatural, mysterious lens was deeply moving. I was in the mood for this slow-paced, atmospheric horror, but if you're expecting an action-packed read, you might find yourself disappointed.