thank you to netgalley for the eARC.

i’ve heard good things about this author and wanted to check something out of theirs and started with this book. i was let down.

i didn’t enjoy this book at all. i feel like not much of substance was talked about for a majority of the book. i debated whether i should dnf it several times. i wasn’t interested in the story until the 51% mark and it didn’t hold my attention for long at that point. when chaos ensued at the 95% (!!) mark, i didn’t care much for it and just wanted it to be over.

there were its weird moments which i liked, but i didn’t like much outside of that. the characters and their relationships sucked and the writing style was off considering what type of story it was. i really tried to overlook the first half of the book, but it was just so boring to me that three stars seems like a reach.

Let me start by saying I am still firmly in the Julia Armfield fan club. I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed nor would I say I don’t get the love for ‘private rites’. It just wasn’t for me. It had the same watery foreboding feeling as ‘our wives’, I just lacked the same connection.

Armfield’s prose is beautiful and she has the ability to articulate complex feelings. I think that perhaps I read this book at the wrong time, because it was difficult to inhabit her drowning world when reality is currently so bleak. I normally don’t like when narratives shift perspectives often, but I think that the choice to continue to write in the third-person made it easy to shift between characters.

Private Rites by Julia Armfield is a haunting, speculative reimagining of King Lear that follows three estranged sisters—Isla, Irene, and Agnes—brought together by their father’s death in a world reshaped by endless rain. In their childhood home, a glass-walled relic of their father’s controlling legacy, the sisters uncover buried secrets that revive old wounds and complicate their fragile reunion. As they navigate queer love, loss, and a sinister mystery tied to their mother’s disappearance, Armfield’s lyrical prose creates an atmospheric tension that builds toward a shattering climax. Blending myth, family drama, and an eerie sense of fate, Private Rites is a resonant story of resilience and inheritance in a world slipping beneath the waves.

Three sisters come together after their architect father's passing. While they reckon with their childhoods and romantic relationships, the world is flooding.

Private Rites is a VERY slow read for the the first 80% or so, and then it kicks into an ending that makes you almost want to revisit the whole story. It's beautifully written, but the many of the clues to that ending were far too subtle for me to pick up. The ending would be more satisfying if it were fronted by a different story. Will be great for those who enjoy reading about complicated families.

Gorgeous as always, Julia Armfield continues to write wonderful haunting spooky little tales. Incredibly atmospheric and frequently unsettling, I’m not always crazy about it reimaginings but this one just worked..

Very sad to say that I did not enjoy my time with this one 😭

Private Rites follows three sisters, Isla, Agnes, and Irene, as they reconnect over the death of their father. All the while, the condition of the world is continuing to deteriorate as the never-ending rain and constantly rising water levels threaten those who cannot afford to live above the flood. Of course, this had all the makings to be something I really enjoyed: a dystopian end of the world scenario, dealings with grief, familial relationships, and from an author I have enjoyed before.

Unfortunately, I was incredibly bored throughout the entire story. I did not feel connected to the three main sisters, and the side characters felt dull & flat to me. Nothing really happens until the last 5% of the book where a million things come flying at you out of nowhere. If you know me, you know this is something I absolutely cannot stand when books do.

I did enjoy the world this takes place in and the way everything is collapsing around our characters and everyone else, yet society has learned to adapt and somewhat ignore the inevitable demise that lurks all around them. Constant rising water means people are forced to continually move upwards, whole parts of the city are shut off, and alternate modes of transportation have become commonplace. There is also conversation around wealth & social class as the author looks at how such an event would affect different populations. Obviously, with money at their disposal, wealthy people can just keep moving into bigger and better homes that sit higher above the water level, while the poorer classes are jampacked into crumbling apartment buildings and told to get over it. The city itself becomes a character within the story, and we get chapters from the city's POV which I appreciated.

Other than that, I had a hard time enjoying anything else. I wish there was more build up and tension leading to the end scene to keep me invested throughout.

I would recommend this to readers who enjoy any of the themes I mentioned above, also those for whom queer representation is an important element, those who can appreciate lyrical & dreamy writing and don't mind a slow burn.

<i>First, a thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an eARC of this book.</i>

I have to say, I am a little disappointed. I *really* loved [book:Our Wives Under the Sea|58659343], so I was really looking forward to this one.

It was interesting how the city was treated like a character, getting its own chapters and getting to be part of the story.

Overall, I think my disconnect with this book was just that I didn’t like and didn’t really care for any of the three sisters, which is maybe how we are supposed to feel. But I found myself having a hard time caring about them and wishing I got to know more about the world and the state of things than the drama going on between them.

I still want to read [book:Salt Slow|42870948], and I will probably continue to read Armfield’s work, but this one just wasn’t for me.

Private Rites by Julia Armfield
It’s like if your deepest, darkest secrets got together for a girls’ night out. Julia Armfield spins a tale where the line between reality and the supernatural is blurrier than a Monday morning hangover. Equal parts creepy and oddly relatable, it’s a story that’ll have you side-eyeing your own reflection… just in case.. loved this one.

2.5⭐️
Julia Armfield is an incredible writer. Her prose is unmatched and I found myself highlighting several lines throughout the novel, which is saying something because I don’t usually highlight or annotate when reading.

I LOVED Our Wives and was so excited to read this, but unfortunately Private Rites just didn’t land for me (no pun intended). I found the pacing to be slow and a bit inconsistent, and while she did a masterful job of describing the complex dynamics between 3 sisters, I just wasn’t interested in learning more about them. The last 50 pages did pick up, but I also have to be honest in that I have no idea what happened in the end and I read the last 2 chapters twice.

My book club will be reading this in January and I’m eager to read it again and see what the group thinks. I have a feeling it will be a lively discussion.

All in all, I love Julia Armfield’s writing and will always give her novels a try. Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron for providing an ARC of this novel for my honest review.

After loving Our Wives Under the Sea, I was delighted to read Julia Armfield's new book. Her writing is absolutely phenomenal. She has this wonderful way of making a story quietly unnerving that I really enjoy.
This book also caught my attention because it was being described as a queer King Lear set in an apocalyptical place where the incessant rain is actually washing away the foundations of society. The book lived up the hype in all these regards. It is a kind of slow burn story, but I couldn't put it down. I'm excited to recommend it to readers who enjoy literary fiction!

*thank you to the publisher for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review*
Julia Armfield does a wonderful job writing about three queer sisters moving through life after the loss of their father. Her ability to write distinct, full characters draws you in immediately. I found them to be relatable, either because I personally identified with them or I had experienced people or relationships similar to them. And to have this amongst the rain, the continuous tension and intensity she masterfully creates and sustains throughout the book, and her language and writing, which I always find to be gorgeously subtle and powerful, is well done and makes for an excellent read.

This is different than Salt Slow and Our Wives Under the Sea, which I enjoyed more. Salt Slow is my favorite work of hers. Private Rites moves slower, and there were times the pacing felt different and slowed me down a bit. And, I am always impressed when a writer shows exploration and development throughout her work, and this is a mark of that.

4 stars.

Julia Armfield writes an incredible book and has very quickly become a must-read author for me. I absolutely loved this, and if you enjoyed Salt Slow and/or Our Wives Under the Sea you will love Private Rites too. She is a master at creating this unsettling, uneasy background with wonderfully real characters. In Private Rites we follow three sisters that don't like each other very much, but are all dealing with the loss of their father, navigating their relationship with one another in the aftermath of his death, and just surviving a collapsing (literally) society. Just like Our Wives, this is more of a slow burn litfic horror, but the last chapter was wild. Highly recommend this and all of her books! Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for the e-ARC.

when it's the end of the world but you can't stop being a bitch to your sister...

thanks to netgalley and flatiron books for the arc!

this book was a quiet, eerie & unsettling book. we follow three sisters after their father has died and the world is slowly ending. armfield could have taken this premise on so many dramatic and wide swings, but instead kept it introspective and silent. we follow these three sisters as they grapple with impending doom, with their feelings of regret, with their grief, with the inability to sever ties that no longer serve them, with their love.

much like "our wives under the sea" this is not a traditional horror, but one that instead latches inside your brain and fills you with a feeling of dread and almost sadness (lol). her books are both not about the physical horrors of the world - the things we can see and touch, but instead of these horrific mundane trials of being a human being. (albeit, the stakes are slightly higher here with the dystopian setting).

it was quite slow-paced, to the point that about half way through the book, I almost took a break because it was getting a little hard to keep powering through. I think the pacing in the last 50 or so pages was much better and I wish the rest of the book was picked up, just slightly. Or perhaps I just wanted more of the climax. It was such a harsh pivot from the pacing of the rest of the book that I kind of wanted to sit in it more.

my only other critique of the book was that i had such a hard time remembering which sister was which (with irene and isla - i really struggled with the names LOL)

If you enjoyed "Our Wives Under the Sea", or are a fan of quiet, literary novels of dread with hints of horror, then I think you'll like this book.

I fear words cannot do this masterpiece justice. Armfield mastered a narrative that feels like drowning in rising water. Drowning in your life, your job, your family, in that particular type of near-toxic love. A flawless illustration of sisterhood, complicated family structures, and queerness all in a layer of light horror.

Armfield has quickly secured their spot as an auto-read author for me. Everyone wishes they had what Armfield has with water.

This story is a reimagining of King Lear, centered around three sisters navigating a whole lot of fragile family dynamics and finding their true selves. The sisters’ sort of spiral out of control in the wake of their father's death. Many disturbing revelations come to light and further throw things off balance, in addition to a constant rain that seems to be reshaping the land and has more profound implications as the story progresses. Thank you so much to Flatiron Books & NetGalley for this ARC. This book will publish via Flatiron Books December 03, 2024.

I am sure Private Rites will appeal to readers of Julia Armfield’s previous book and even readers of King Lear as the book is described as a speculative reimagining of King Lear.
Unfortunately I could not really get into it even though the writing is strong and the sisters are compelling characters.

I loved the eerie setting of this story. Armfield is so gifted at atmosphere! The pacing here was rather slow and I found as interested as I was in the world around these sisters, I didn't care much about what was happening to them.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Flatiron Books for a free digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I'm disappointed to say that I just don't think Julia Armfield's writing is for me. I wanted to like Our Wives Under the Sea, and I didn't really, but I thought I would still give Private Rites a chance. This book was incredibly slow, and I felt like I was slowly sloshing through most of it, hence why it took me over a month to finish it. The world building was admittedly super cool--the water rising higher and higher throughout the novel as the rain almost never stops its endless pouring; the feeling of hopelessness so present in this society where the wealthy are able to climb higher in buildings tall enough to withstand flooding, while the poor experience flooding similar to that scene in Parasite. Compared to the slow pacing of the whole book, the ending was way too fast, events happening so quickly in the final 5-10% of the book that I couldn't even tell what was transpiring. Cults? Sinking? I couldn't tell you. It kind of reminded me of the ending of Night in the Woods, but more confusing. My favorite part of the book by far was the troubled relationship between the sisters as they halfheartedly try to get along with each other, but ultimately just get on each others nerves at every turn, or perhaps don't like each other that much. It reminded me a lot of my brothers and I, and I related heavily to Irene as the sibling who feels stuck in the anger of my childhood, which is how my family will always view me. If you like reading about messy sister dynamics, this is for you.

This is a really great read for anyone looking for a sad, spooky, slowburn horror novel featuring an all-queer cast of characters. Set in an ambiguously-distant future where London is slowly drowning, the novel follows three sisters and their significant others in the wake of their father's death. The writing is lush but also restrained, making for a sensuously subdued atmosphere. The ending felt a tad rushed, but I might revise my opinion on a reread. All in all, an excellent second novel following on the heels of 2022's Our Wives Under the Sea.