This was a profoundly mixed but beautiful bag, but I think I'm still very obsessed with it?? The ending made up for the draggy, baggy middle, and the writing was consistently exquisite (as you'd expect from anything Armfield). I can't believe I've found a climate fiction novel that I 'like'?

I had read and was disappointed with Our Wives Under the Sea earlier this year, but I really wanted to like Armfield's sapphic litfic. I wish, however, that this book was not so slowly paced because I found myself growing incredibly bored until the very end. It was a drag—admittedly a well written one—and I feel that perhaps Armfield's litfic does not work for me as I had hoped.

Lesbian retelling of King Lear in a climate change dystopia should have been an instant sell for me but why do interesting books have to be so SLOW! I guess I was expecting something plot driven but this is an old-fashioned character study, focusing on a trio of queer sisters whose lives are unraveling in different ways in the aftermath of their father's death. I find that the novella format of "Our Wives Under The Sea" was able to highlight Armfield's elegant prose while building a sense of sticky, uncanny tension. The tension in this story is less supernatural: the oppressive atmosphere of the prose a clear metaphor for the rising waters and heating air. There is a sense of restless energy emendating both from the story and the characters, scenes of half-finished arguments interspersed with omniscient musings from the perspective of the city itself. Still, it's hard to buy into a novel in which both the characters and the author seem to lack motivation to make it to the end. If the big reveal had come sooner than the last 20 pages, and if it had been more successfully foreshadowed throughout the story, perhaps the previous ~250 pages would have felt less like a slog.

Three sisters attempt to navigate their complicated relationships to each other in a world that is beset by an endless deluge of rain, When their neglectful father dies, Isla. Agnes, and Irene come together to try and put to rest his affairs and re-establish communication between themselves while coping with grief, anger, and lingering resentments. All may not be as it seems, however, as hidden behind the riveting family drama sinister forces may be watching the family with malign interest, waiting for the opportune moment to set their own agenda into motion.

I felt that Private Rites came together a little slowly, but once everything clicked I found myself fully engrossed with the minute to minute details of the lives of the three sisters and their struggles coping with the very complicated relationship they had with their father and between themselves. The backdrop is astonishingly captivating, a world that is literally drowning, infrastructure falling apart, greed and con artists sapping funds for ill-advised solutions, and so much more is effortlessly brought into being via Julia Armfield's deft writing. Allowing the perspective to shift from sister to sister as the norm was a clever move, especially when the usual pattern is broken up by unexpected points of view like the sister's partners or even the top-down view of the unnamed city itself as it succumbs to the downpour. My only issue is that the ending seems to come about very abruptly, the menace that had been building didn't seem to resolve itself in a way that I found as satisfying as I had hoped, though all the great character work and worldbuilding allowed me to easily move past it.

A very good read, one I can heartily recommend.

A King Lear retelling set in a world where it's rained for so long that society's changing. Three sisters estranged falling back together.

I really liked the vision of this. I always like a Shakespeare retelling and the idea of a world shaped by the never ending rain intrigued me. But I was disappointed that the world and rain didn't play a larger role. I was so intrigued by that all and thought it was a really unique idea but I felt that it was actually quite minor.

The plot started to feel repetitive to me by the end. The end was underwhelming. I didn't feel super connected to the siblings, nor did I care about what happened to them.

Private Rites is to sisterhood what Our Wives Under the Sea is to grief and loss. There is definitely a watery horror underpinning this story - no one writes water horror quite like Armfield. The mental strain, the varied physicality of it, the neverending, almost monotonous dripping. But, at its core, this story is focused on 3 sisters and their twisted relationship. The prose is gorgeous, almost meandering in it's languid fluidity.

I think I would read anything Armfield writes. This is an easy 5 stars for me. Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

"The three of them, trying to be less isolated and frequently failing, trying to be less conclusively the product of their past."

The city is slowly sinking under the weight of the endless rain, like its the end of days. And it is for the carmichael family-three daughters who grew up with inconsistency and neglect under the care of their manipulative and cold father. Upon learning of his death, the complicated relationships Isla, Irene, and Agnes share have them feeling high strung and isolated. When the sisters finally reunite to discuss the future of their father's home, malevolent outside forces descend to bring it all (the world, the family, the house itself) crashing down.

Thanks, netgalley and flatiron, for giving me this ARC to review! There were twists in this book that i in no way anticipated. Armfield really invoked a sense of drowning in foreboding in this book thay sometimes made it difficult for me to read, maybe because it was too skillful and may have made me feeling so anxious about the future of the real world, where i don't have a floating house. Enviromental horror! The scariest kind!

I liked how the sisters had their own chapters and allowed you to feel their own fears and hopes, even in the end. The area where agnes discovers she in love hit me so deep in the gut- i know that feeling. And i feel like each sister made me feel both their deep grudges and desires for connection with each other. I have to say that the twist in the end made...a little confused. I didnt expect a happy ending, but i also didnt expect a hereditary movie where mom set up this ending from beyond! and i wanted a resolution for the sisters more than i wanted the explanation for why so many people were just staring unsettlingly at agnes. I enjoyed this read but it was NOT GREAT for my anxiety.

Julia Armfield is brilliant at writing living grief. Mourning something that has not quite come to pass.

Private Rites takes place in an apocalyptic world. Climate change has transformed earth into vast wetlands and sinking cities. Constant rain that seeps into your bones, a dampness eating away at the walls. As civilization becomes threatened by encroaching water, a sense of finality plagues everyday life. How people react to this nearing end is the main backdrop to our story. These manifestations of grief in our slow decline into obsolescence. And the old rituals and religions that burst forth as people clamber for control and peace of mind.

Amongst it all, our three sisters Isla, Irene, and Agnes are dealing with the death of their cruel and revered father. And the haunting glass house of their childhood he left behind. Each are frankly numb to the world ending outside, left floating in the vacuum left behind. Alongside grief, this book depicts a sense of yearning. Yearning for the way life used to be, yearning for who you could have been, yearning to fix what has been damaged. It’s feeling completely off kilter, like the floor is slanted just slightly to screw up your balance but still trick you into thinking everything is level. Our sisters yearn to fit together like they should, but their pieces were broken long ago. Haunted by the sneering judgment of a father that no longer holds power over them.

It’s strange how despite their dysfunctional dynamic, I still envied their sisterhood. I’ve always wanted a sister, and this book made that ache even more acute. As a fellow middle child, I felt the most connected to Irene. The infinite anger, prickly disposition, and contrarian nature of her teens being fossilized by her siblings and now forever how she is perceived. No matter how she grows as an adult. Her academic obsession with Christianity despite not being religious. Each of our sisters are at different stages in life, each highly informed by their birth order. Isla is currently facing divorce. She has a compulsive need for authority and organization. Irene is settled in a long-term relationship but straining at the seams. Agnes is solitary before she begins embarking on a new romance. As Irene states: “Sisterhood, she thinks, is a trap. You all get stuck in certain roles forever.”

But in addition to this tale about human connection and grief, there is a creeping horror to this story as well. The wayward stares and mutterings of strangers, the mysterious carvings in wood and errant notes, the unsettling memories bursting through dreams. Paired with offhanded accounts of people flocking to unsavory organizations, performing ancient rituals, you feel a pit in your stomach the whole book. A taut cord ready to snap. With how carefully placed these mentions are spaced out; you are lulled into a false sense of security. “This is the wrong genre,” Agnes thinks just as the other shoe drops. You are viciously reminded that this is a horror novel, and all those human elements were not so much a distraction, but a tone shift. Truly masterfully done. The sickness I felt was so jarring.

I fear that I may have lost some nuance because I am not familiar with King Lear. I now have this desperate pressing desire to pick it up because I want to be in the know. I want to reread this and investigate every nook and cranny, pick up on that extra layer filled with foreshadowing and references. It may just be in my future.

I read the prologue and said "what the heck did I just read". At the end of the book, I'm still kind of saying that BUT it is clear what Armfield is doing here is brilliant. I can't exactly name it, but this washed over me, entranced me, and I'll be thinking about it for a long time. While not for everyone, it is worth exploring.

What did I just read? Genuinely I have no idea.

It was a world ending book which is what drew me in. I adore that genre. And honestly I did love the slow burn world build dread.

However I thought it was leading up to some big finish and the finish... It was exactly as I predicted and also answered nothing.

I wanted to love this so much and though many times I got tempted to DNF because nothing was happening, I also had to know what happened. Honestly wish I hadn't.

Thank you Flatiron for my free ARC of Private Rites by Julia Armfield — available now!

» READ IF YOU «
👯‍♀️ have sisters, because you’ll get it
👀 live for that ‘unsettling’ vibe in a story
🐙 enjoyed Our Wives Under the Sea

» SYNOPSIS «
Sisters Isla, Irene, and Agnes could not be more different—at least in the most obvious ways. Deep down, they share more than they think, especially when it comes to the rocky relationship each had with their recently-deceased father. When his will is read, tempers flare, but the sisters will have to come back together to combat the strange, unsettling feeling that someone is watching them…

» REVIEW «
Our Wives was one of my favorite reads of the year, so of course I simply HAD to get my hands on a copy of Private Rites! I’m happy to say I enjoyed it and that the eerie vibes were very similar to those of Our Wives, though they didn’t really “kick in” until the last third of the book or so. Fortunately, I was engrossed in reading about the sisters and their lives so I wasn’t pining for the creep-factor—it just became an added bonus.

Definitely check this one out if you love dark, brooding literary fiction with a sprinkle of speculative “wtf”…

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Private Rites was one of my most anticipated releases of 2024 and it did not disappoint! After seeing several King Lear references, I brushed up on that storyline and found it beneficial to the overall reading experience. This is a stunning and atmospheric tale that will pull you in and pique your interest until the last page.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a gorgeous book. More literary dystopian sci-fi/horror like this, please!
The dystopian/apocalyptic part of this book was masterfully done. The slow collapse of society and people still going to work amidst catastrophic flooding and weather events was chilling and honestly, a bit too real.
Loved how queer this book was, as well. The casual inclusion of a major nonbinary character, plus all the sisters being sapphic, was incredible.
King Lear is one of my least favorite Shakespeare plays, so the fact that I liked this retelling really shows how great an author Armfield is.
Armfield's prose is gorgeous and honestly unmatched. She is a master at water-based horror.

Julia Armfield writes so beautifully. However, I was never fully sure what was going on in this book. Definitely more plotless and just vibes. I enjoyed this book but it didn't capture me like her previous book did.

Thanks to NetGalley and Flatiron for a copy of this ARC.

This book couldn't seem to decide what it wanted to be. Essentially all of the "horror" takes place in the last 10 pages. Everything before then is build up which can be good but in this case it felt like most of the book was an entirely different genre from the ending.

The writing swung between being very loose on the details of the important things and often more specific than necessary on tiny details that didn't truly mean anything. This was certainly a conscious stylistic choice, and one that may have worked if I enjoyed the story more but it really just led to the book feeling even more disjointed.

This is certainly a book some people will love, but it is also certainly not a book for me.

Julia Armfield’s writing is yet again hauntingly beautiful. I went into this one blind per usual and had no idea what to expect. Set in a world that has flooded and the rain never seems to cease, we encounter the Carmichael sisters. Their famed architect father has died bringing the sisters together again.

To say this is a slow burn is putting it mildly. Despite their circumstances all three of the sisters are so steeped in apathy and simply accept the world for how it has become. Armfield writes waterlogged London in vivid detail and it’s absolutely fascinating and horrific to see how people are forced to cope with a flooded city.

Most of the book is focused on the mundane which contrasts strikingly with the apocalyptic conditions that face our characters. The last bit of the book gradually dials up the WTF element culminating in a strange yet appropriate ending. I didn’t fully understand all of the elements and recognize this book will be incredibly polarizing due to its literary structure. I enjoyed this one and definitely look forward to more weird horror from Armfield in the future.

Armfield has a talent for pinpointing very real emotions and feelings, then giving them to characters that are empathetic but not loveable people. Ilsa, Irene, and Agnes are three sisters with the same dad, who live in the same drowning city, and copes with their upbringing in very different ways. "Private Rites" explores their grief and rage at his passing as well as their hopeless climate, where rain never stops and you're always a bit damp.

A re-telling of the Shakespeare play "King Lear", the novel stands on it's own and can be appreciated without the reader having read the play. The writing is detailed and there is enough going on between the 3 sisters that I was engaged. Narrative-wise it is slow and is much more character driven. It took a while after finishing that I could fully appreciate everything that happened. I plan on going back to King Lear before I revisit.

My only critique is that I wish the final conflict had been longer and the build up a tad shorter. The prose is so deep and rich that tiny anxious details take a back seat in order to build up on 3 different character studies.

Julia Armfield does it again!

This is such a beautifully written story following the complicated relationship between three sisters navigating life after their father passes away. Not only are they trying to process their feelings on family memories and trauma, they’re trying to assimilate to a world where it’s been raining nonstop for years, which has completely changed every day life.

Armfield has a way of crafting slow, melancholic, and mysterious atmospheres while perfectly portraying the complicities of relationships. Each sister was written with such depth, and I felt like I truly understood each of their intentions and perceptions of their family dynamics, which ultimately tugged at my heart strings by the end.

Gorgeous family literary fiction set in a dark, depressing setting… would definitely recommend!

Thank you to Flatiron Books and Netgalley for the ARC :)

Every time I finish a book by Julia Armfield, I'm left screaming, "WHAT DID I JUST READ AND HOW DO I GET MORE OF IT?!?!?"

Isla, Irene and Agnes are estranged sisters whose father, a renowned architect and all around asshole, has just died leaving them to sort out their isolated and neglected childhoods, their feeling for each other, and a complicated inheritance. But wait, there's more. It's been raining for years, literally, and the world around them has finally reached a tipping point. The center cannot hold. While society tries harder and harder to deny it's own collapse, Irene, Isla and Ages find they may be both the key and source of change necessary to walk into the future.

Armfield is an author I adore, but who is difficult to recommend. This book did things to me. It's absolutely gorgeously written; I can think of nothing else remotely like it. But It's also challenging, strange and quite terribly bleak. I loved it, but be sure It's for you before picking it up.

As we move into the last month of the year for reading, I am so happy that I am finding such solid books. Private Rites is an absolutely beautiful climate fiction story wrapped in family dynamics and generational trauma. All of this is soggy, soggy, soggy from the never-ending rain in this not-so-far away world.

Atmospheric and perfect for dreary weather, I ended up devouring this via audio. The narrator absolutely crushed it and I felt so drawn into this story during my commute last week. Private Rites cast an eerie and otherworldly rain cloud over my life during the time I was with it.

Following three sisters, this story explores the pain that tears us apart but also bonds us. I loved the ending of this one and the buildup was absolutely perfect. Check this one out if you like mysteries, climate fiction, and enchanting writing! I can’t wait to finally get to this author’s book, Our Wives Under The Sea, after loving this one.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for the eARC of this one and to Macmillan Audio for the ALC!**