I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book! A journey into a world of loss and waiting tinted with surreal elements. The relationship dimensions were very truthful and real. A gripping undersea world with surface world results. Dark, disturbing, moving. A book I couldn't put down, yet predicted the inevitable conclusion. high recommend. Thanks netgalley!

What a strange but utterly compelling book! Leah is a scientist chosen for a deep sea mission that nearly ended in tragedy, leaving her stranded on the ocean floor for months. When she returns, her wife Miri is overjoyed, only to find that the Leah who has returned is a far different Leah than the one she fell in love with. This book is short (only 224 pages), but packs a huge emotional punch! If you’re looking for something that’s eerie and chilling without being too spooky, then I highly recommend this one! The writing is incredible (very literary at times, so if that’s not your thing, then I’d probably skip). It’s a quiet novel, but it’s so compelling. I had a really hard time putting it down, so I personally think it read pretty quickly, but others have said they found it slow, so take that with a grain of salt. A really good and super unique read that I really enjoyed!

So interesting. It’s a consistent slow burn from start to finish, but is also haunting and beautiful. Quietly horrifying - lots of Astronaut’s Wife vibes but totally low key. I was a bit unsatisfied with the ending and felt a little underwhelmed and uninformed, but I honestly feel like it matched the book’s vibe so I’m not even that mad at it. I definitely recommend this one for a great spooky season read for folks who don’t like the super spooky. Plus, it’s an easy one-sitting story.

Spooky and atmospheric. I expected this one to be open ended - but I do wish we had a little more insight into what exactly was happening. This is definitely a book for readers who don't mind some ambiguity in their stories. I particularly wish the conspiracy aspect had been fleshed out more - that was one of the most intriguing parts of the book for me and it just kind of fell flat when it came to that.

Our Wives Under the Sea will its reader in awe the characters and occupied in thought regarding women's relationships, grief, and love. Highly creative and unique.

I don't know what happened in this book but I still loved it. A lesbian horror story about how one changes after the trauma they experience.

Love and sea monsters! What more could one ask for? I felt like the book was a little overwritten and long but the story was different and compelling enough one kept going. I like a little horror element and liked the main characters well enough but I wish they had more strongly different voices. They "talked" similarly and it was hard to keep them straight at times.

When Miri's wife Leah leaves for her more recent deep sea exploration everything appears routine enough, until they lose contact with the submarine. Six months later, Leah is back from the sea - only Miri suspects the Leah in front of her isn't the same one who left all those months ago. The story unfolds through two POVs, with Miri showing their relationship in the past and present, and Leah's POV being from her time under the sea.

While this book wasn't a true horror, the author did a wonderful job with creating a deep sense of unease throughout the novel, especially during chapters told from Leah's POV. The months spent in the submarine are months spent surrounded by the vast darkness of the sea. The author employs all of the explorerer's other senses - the disgusting rotting smell Leah mentions, the noises that that consume Jilka - so that it really feels like you are on board with them. There were also some truly gross body horror moments when Leah is back on land.

I really enjoyed this book, despite it not being quite what I thought it would be. This book is slow moving, but Julia Armfield's beautiful writing makes it worth it.

Thank you to Flatiron Books and NetGalley for a review copy.

I really enjoyed this read.
It was a slow burning horror where the frightening parts aren't in your face, but simmering just below the surface so that it leaves you feeling unsettled.
Aside from the horror elements, it also deals with grief, which I was pleasantly surprised by.
If you decide to pick this one up, make sure you have some time carved out of your schedule because you'll want to read it straight through.
Thank you so much to Flatiron Books & NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book!

So weird, twisted.... what a book! I can see why everyone was freaking out over this. Beautiful writing, and such an inventive story. I'm impressed!

This book is fantastic. It has that magical realism quality that fills it with unforgettable claustrophobic images and deeply touching moments.
It's a gothic queer love story about change. It is also about the unknown depths of human experience, grief, loss, and the constant need for explanations. It is narrated from a dual perspective: Miri and Leah.
Miris's outlook is about the relationship and their previous lives together, and about what's happening with her wife, Leah, since coming back from an under-the-sea expedition that ended catastrophically.
Leah's POV is about the expedition itself and her inner slow transformation.
We know the previous Leah only from Miri's perspective and we can't help but mourn the kind human being that Miri is so desperately trying to recover.
The prose is flawless and the language is so poetically sad that it is in perfect balance with the content of the novel and the state of mind of its narrators.
One of my favorite books of the year.

Audiobook and book received for free through NetGalley

I saw this book awhile back and before I could read it noticed it was also available as an audiobook. I loved the audiobook and couldn’t put it down. After reviewing it I somehow forgot to go back to the book to review. As such here’s the review for the audiobook: I absolutely adored this book. Slow going at bits but the words used where sublime. Story grabs you and you need to keep listening to find out what happens. So glad I came across it.

An odd, slow, and ultimately beautiful novel, Our Wives Under the Sea tells the story of a married couple, Leah and Miri, in alternating chapters, as Leah returns from a deep-sea expedition that went awry resulting her changing in ways neither can explain or anticipate. The writing is lyrical, often a bit esoteric and the premise haunting. Some have called this a literary horror novel but for me, it was a satisfying and immersive read unlike your typical novel. If you like unusual narratives and can open yourself up to mystical happenings, you'll enjoy this book but it's not for everyone.

Like so many others, I was intrigued by a premise that sounded like an under-the-sea version of Annihilation. This is that, though it also isn't.

I think that last sentence pretty much sums up a lot of my feelings about this one. The plot really doesn't go anywhere. In fact, there's not much of a plot beyond the blurb that drew you here in the first place, really. But that kind of feels like the point.

Ultimately, it's an interesting little mood piece that keeps you at arm's length throughout. Like you're staring at it through the window of your submarine, but you'll never quite touch it.

Many thanks to Flatiron for the ARC!

This was not what I was expecting in a a good way. It made me think a bit as I was reading, which is something that I enjoy in all titles that I read. However this title also left me wanting much more. I wish that we had a better understanding of what happened while Leah was in the submarine for 5 months. And were Leah's chapters all her journal entries from while she was down there? The flipping back in forth in some ways was a bit confusing since I always wanted more explanation from each chapter as to what Leah and Miri were thinking.

I finished this one up last week, and it’s one I will definitely want to revisit. I enjoyed it but feel like I may have glossed over some of the details, and I’d like to revisit go over it with more of a fine toothed comb at some point.

It’s got some of my favorite things. Queer ladies and the ocean depths. When Miri’s wife’s submarine hits the ocean floor, deviating from the routine expedition, she comes back changed. She barely eats and is lost in her thoughts, obsessed with running the water taps in the house. It’s available wherever you get your books.

A thank you to Netgalley for sharing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

As haunting and deceptively gentle as calm ocean waves. Beautiful, surreal, meditative, and morse, this is not the kind of book you read for a pick-me-up. I liked it, but I wouldn't want to read it again.

Thank you Netgalley, author, and the publishers for allowing me the opportunity to read this e-arc.

Although I devoured this in only a few days (which is pretty fast for me), I’m not really sure what I just read or how I feel about it. The premise of this story was interesting; Leah’s gets stranded on the bottom of the ocean in a submarine that was supposed to be on an exploration of the deep sea. When she comes back she is only a shell of the person she once was. I liked the dual POVs, Miri in present day (after Leah came back) and Leah during her time under the sea. I kept reading because I wanted to know what had happened down there. When we found out, I was kind of like huh, that’s it? Leah and her crew mates question their whole expedition, if it was truly for scientific research about the ocean depths or if it was more about researching THEM as humans in a confined space with no connection to the world above. I wanted more on this! The ending kind of just ended and I felt like I still had so many questions. Overall a very interesting read with dark twists and themes on grief and what I can only imagine is PTSD-like behavior.

Beautifully written, Our Wives Under the Sea takes readers through a journey of love, grief and loss. Miri's marine biologist wife, Leah, is at last returning home after six months at sea. A submariner exploratory mission that should have only taken weeks ends in a mysterious disaster, leaving Miri with many unanswered questions.

Upon her return, Miri and Leah seem to be leading separate lives, with Leah not eating, locking herself in the bathroom and slowly fading away. Miri starts to come to terms with what happened and what reality is.