Private Rites: A Drowning in Two Parts

In Julia Armfield’s upcoming sophomore novel we are introduced to a retelling of King Lear, with added modernity that comes from vibrant social commentary, queer exploration, and the end of the world. However, do not mistake this novel’s shoreline for the total depths of its body: Armfield continuous her streak of creating works so profound and visceral that they defy categorization. Attempting to pigeonhole such a rich piece of work only serves to disadvantage everyone involved.

Just beyond the haunting epigraph from Tony Kushner’s Angels In America, the curtains are pulled back to introduce the Carmichael sisters: Isla (the eldest), Irene (the middle), and Agnes (the youngest half-sister). We enter their lives like a car crash, the taut airbag of information slamming into our skulls: their father has died, their respective mothers are either deceased or missing, both their romantic and familial relationships are fraught, and the world is ending. In an attempt to sort out the family’s affairs, the sisters embark on introspective journeys that at once diverge and unite the way a three headed cow might, six eyes with one heart, all while coming to terms with their city slowly submerging underwater and the mysterious figures that approach them in the wake of their grief. Above all else, however, this is a story about sisters, and the portrayal of their relationships are both bitingly honest and stunningly accurate.

While this novel maintains a steady rhythm of mystery and suspense, there are far greater attributes at the forefront that Armfield both promises and delivers. Much like Our Wives Under the Sea, published in 2022, there is a certain ubiquitous quality to the queer stories that are told. There is no explanation for this, as existing a certain way does not require an explanation; it just is. Something admirable about Armfield’s voice in queer spaces is her ability to make queer readers feel more at ease by writing a world in which queer voices are at the forefront and there is no brutal ‘coming out’ to be had. While queerness is a focal point of this novel, with all three sisters identifying as such, it is not a story about being queer, and this in itself is a breath of fresh air.

Further, Armfield continues to prove her outstanding skill at not only weaving beautiful stories, but at creating atmosphere. The end of the world comes in a constant assault of rain that seems to never have an end. All of the days are the same, blending into each other and becoming an indiscernible stretch of time. It is dark during the day, overcast at night, flooding basements and toppling power lines and grounding planes. Though it takes time, we witness the steady downfall of society as it succumbs to the rain, almost like watching sand fall through an hourglass, and things only get worse as each page gets turned. While there is something to be said about the climate change discussion—and the printed foretelling of our eventual environmental cataclysm—attaching itself alongside this novel, it is perhaps just a small remora clinging to the underside of a great white. What I found more interesting was the way in which Armfield presented this existence of never ending time. A certain sense of dread lodges into the soft spot between your ribs about a quarter of the way through when you begin to realize that time becomes nonlinear when every day looks the same. Confusion (though positive) and disorientation take over the reader the same way it takes over the sisters. Memories appear in sudden fragments and dissolve just as quickly as they arrived. Past tense and present tense are manipulated. There are only nine mentions of ‘tomorrow’ and eleven ‘yesterdays’ throughout this 226 page novel that spans over the course of many weeks/months. Why would you need to know about what happens tomorrow when every day is the same? Why would you need to know whether something happened three minutes ago or three weeks ago when there is no sun? Armfield is a master at her craft, building an intense feeling of disquiet out of very little. With the low, steady thrum of a measured growl that extends throughout, Armfield shows that the bite will come to those who wait.

Private Rites is a phenomenal sophomore novel that asks for nothing and gives everything. The characters are full and rich and the stories are complex and feel original despite the inspired source material. The way Armfield writes makes you feel as though you are drowning, making you the fourth person just barely keeping their head above water. This work is currently for sale in Europe and is available for preorder in the United States. Thank you to NetGalley for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. Just wow. This is the third book by Julia Armfield that I've read, and it's easily my favorite. Armfield has a remarkable talent for blending subtle atmospheric horror with the haunting beauty of the ocean reclaiming the earth. I finished the book while taking a bath with a rainstorm raging outside, and it felt like the perfect setting to conclude this reading experience.

Although this book is pitched as a queer retelling of *King Lear*, and I haven’t read Shakespeare since high school, it has made me want to revisit his plays. The story focuses on three sisters following their father's death, in a world that’s slowly sinking beneath the ocean. Imagine a post-apocalyptic version of *Succession*. The mundane tasks of daily life, like FaceTiming clients and making lattes, continue despite the crumbling world. I often dream of similar worlds, so it was easy for me to visualize every scene. The ending left me slightly confused, but in an intriguing way. Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy. I’m looking forward to discussing this with friends once it’s released. Also, this book would make an incredible movie.

The world is literally drowning - sea levels are rising and it hardly stops raining. Within this near-future dystopian setting, three estranged sisters are forced together to settle their father’s estate. The beautifully written, haunting novel is light on plot with an amazing claustrophobic atmosphere in relaying ordinary daily routine. While I wanted a deeper character study, there’s no doubt that Armfield crafted them purposefully as they are distinct yet elusive, which only added to the discomforting situation.

Netgalley and the publisher provided this book for review consideration, but all opinions are my own.

This was definitely a book that was mostly vibes and not much plot until the last couple of pages. I loved the author's writing very much though, very poetic.

The writing is nice. I just couldn’t get through it. It felt like there was no substance. I didn’t find myself wanting to read it, and when I did pick it up, it felt like it was dragging. A couple of parts kept my attention better than others but overall I didn’t love it and I wish I did!

First, thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc!!

Private Rites tells the story of three sisters navigating grief, faith, and love all while facing the end of the world. Told through Armfield’s beautiful and haunting writing, the store boils to a horrifying head at the end.

What I love so much about this story, and everything else Julia Armfield has written, is the slow descent into madness. We’re reading about the end of the world, it’s raining constantly, and yet the story continues at a creeping pace. Her writing feels like you’re treading through water while just waiting for the shark to finally attack.

As someone who reads a lot of horror lit fic, Julia Armfield is the queen! Her writing is so beautiful and aching.

I think my only complaint (and it’s not really even a complaint) is that I think some of the middle of the story could have been cut out. If about 50 pages were cut out, this would be a knock out of the park. BUT, with that being said, this is still a fantastic read!!

Private Rites by Julia Armfield 5/5✨

“What, she wondered, was grief without a clear departure to regret?”

This book was incredible! I had only heard positive things and it lived up to the hype for me. I was fascinated by the sibling relationships and the impact of grief and how everyone navigated it. I found the setting of a future UK dealing with constant rain and flooding somewhat too real, and the underlying tones of religion to be really well done and interesting.

I really enjoyed how unlikeable the sisters were at times and how well the author wrote each of them!

Lastly, I didn’t see the end coming and thought that the build up was interwoven into the plot perfectly and made me question what was real and what wasn’t (just as the characters did!)

(I will come back to add my Instagram post closer to publication!)

#privateritesjuliaarmfield #privaterites #booksbooksbooks #indieeditions #lgbtqfiction

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ thank you netgalley and flatiron books for this arc!

have you ever felt guilty for being upset right now, considering everything going on in the world? have you ever felt bad for being so affected by past traumas when it could have been so much worse? do you feel insane going to work when it feels like the earth is falling apart around us? that’s what this book feels like.

julia armfield is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. armfield has demonstrated a mastery of writing love, loss and grief. private rites addresses all of the aforementioned, but set within the absurd mundanity of a world slowly ending.

the prologue of this book hooked me so deeply i had to read it four times before i felt prepared to continue. the beginning, middle, and end of this novel felt much like the apocalypse itself. the beginning: anxiety inducing, visceral, framed as a fleeting and uncertain memory. the significant details are hazy yet we remember the unimportant- a nightlight, doll on the stairs; the middle: a forced sense of normality- therapy, work, sex, money, familial trauma, love, repressed anxieties; the end: confusing, sudden and still uncertain. we felt it coming. we saw all the signs and yet we were completely unprepared.

or something like that. i could go on and on dissecting this novel but i don’t think a review can truly do it justice.

This is pitched as a queer King Lear, but it strikes me more as a reboot of J.G. Ballard. The Drowned World, but anxious 21st-century lesbians instead of debonair mid-20th-century straight men. Both novels drown the world not to see it drowned, but rather to throw into relief their characters’ inner consciousness; metaphor, but also psychological experiment. Neither novel has much at all to do with global warming—which is frankly, in both cases, a huge relief.

Private Rites is a swampy, steamy, damp novel, that feels not unlike having sex while crying. It is overwritten, especially early on—always two or three images where one would suffice, extra clauses in service of extra adjectives. But as in Armfield’s equally watery first novel, Our Wives Under the Sea, stylistic excess serves the book’s conceit; the prose, like the world, waterlogged and dripping. The novel is badly guilty of one of contemporary storytelling’s worst habits: the substitution of childhood trauma for genuine inner life. And yet, Armfield evades the trap even as she steps in it. She refuses to let trauma explain; is uninterested (as Ballard, and for that matter Shakespeare, were uninterested) in any kind of easy psychological legibility. Is up to something more interesting.

“Any horror story could be said to work in two pieces: the fear of being wholly alone and of realizing that one has company.”

Private Rites is far better than Our Wives Under the Sea, and Our Wives Under the Sea was quite good. Everything about Armfield’s second novel is richer and more specific than in her first—the characters, the worldbuilding, the symbolism. The novel’s shifts in timeline and point-of-view are beautifully done. Armfield has little interest in giving her three sisters distinct voices; rather, she lets each sisters' perspective glance off the others, so that the novel seems almost to spin or swirl in place. Sentences unspool in flurries of commas, too artful for their own good—except that as they whirl and pool like rainwater, prose that should be ponderous shows itself light, flexible, even funny, the pleasurable excess of it all in delicious tension with the novel’s endless gray rain.

Sometimes, even my five-star reviews can read a little ambiguously. So I will be clear: this is one of my favorite books I’ve read this year. I recommend it without reservation.

I loved Armfield's first novel, so was really looking forward to this one. I thoroughly enjoyed this. The three sisters were very unique and finely-drawn characters that I found very compelling.

I will say I did not much appreciate the twist in the end; I didn't see any indication of something like that coming and that was a little jarring. Still - a slow-burn intriguing rad.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the Kindle ARC. I absolutely loved Jula Armfield's book, Our Wives Under the Sea. I hadn't quite read anything like it before. I had high hopes for Private Rites but it didn't quite hold my interest as much as Our Wives. Maybe its because this book is more apocalyptic whereas Our Wives was very personal and tragic in its own way. Julia Armfield is still an author whose work I will seek out.

Private Rites by Julia Armfield is a masterful blend of the surreal and the profound. The story lingers in my mind like a half-remembered dream. We follow three sisters navigating their feelings (or lack thereof) in the time of their father’s death and observe their rocky relationships with one another. One of my favorite parts of this book is how Armfield crafts such distinct, yet intrinsically connected characters- each sister is a world unto herself, yet the threads of shared history and the effects on their psyche from said history are unmistakable.
Reading this felt like stepping into a vivid dreamscape, where the bizarre and the deeply human coexist. The atmosphere coincides with the emotions of the book so well, with the ceaseless rain serving as both a backdrop and a metaphor for the constant melancholy. The rare moments of sunshine, relating with brief glimpses of happiness, are an effective touch.
The conclusion of this book completely caught me off guard somehow. It’s an ending that shocks, yet feels inevitable with the feeling of impending doom throughout the book. It left me wanting more while still being satisfied. I would definitely recommend this book if you’re looking for a different and yet thought provoking book!

It took me a little bit of time to get into the story. Most of the book was really slow and near the end it picked up speed. I had a hard time connecting to the story and the characters. I really liked the writing, but I just couldn't get into the story. This is perfect for people who like books that have no plot.

Fascinating, with gorgeous prose, and slow, seeping, seemingly inevitable rising tides overtaking the world we once knew. This novel follows three estranged sisters over a series of months as they react and respond to their ill, wealthy, abusive father’s death after years of decline.

The story digs into each sister’s relationships with each other, perceptions of self, relationships with their deceased parents, and how it all impacts their relationships romantically now as well. We see the ways they fell into certain roles and narratives growing up within the family system and to cope with dysfunction, and the results of it decades later.
We see the best and worst of it all as they grapple with complex grief for a man who harmed them emotionally and at times physically, someone who is no longer there to seek closure.

At the same time we have a slowly worsening never ending flood of rain and rising tides, making housing and resources like food less accessible while everyone resignedly tries to get to work and pay the bills and survive while the world goes to shit around them.
Exhaustion, despair, futility, resignation, and hope war as our characters are confronted not only with their personal lives going to pieces, but the world around them doing the same, and the relentless exhaustion of surviving daily life during the process of a tragedy.

Gorgeously written, I had to take some breaks when reading because it was unrelenting in its honest flawed struggle. As a drama on family and grief, it may be a slower pace than appeals to some, and I didn’t like it as much as “Our Wives Under the Sea,” but it was fascinating and well worth the read.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and this is my honest review. I’m a fan of Julia Armfield’s previous work so I was thrilled to be approved for this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!

The premise of this story was so intriguing, so promising that I think I got my expectations too high.

The writing was very nice, even though the pacing was so so slow. The three sisters were pretty flat. I did like the multiple POVs! I thought adding the city in was a fantastic choice.

Pretty early on I realized that I just might not be the target audience for this story or this genre. There are most definitely people that would love this book. Unfortunately, I’m just not one of them.

I loved Our Wives Under the Sea and I so wanted to love this one too. Unfortunately, Private Rites fell flat for me.

Though I enjoyed the concept of three not-so-close sisters navigating the death of their complicated and problematic father, ultimately I felt bored while reading this. I usually love introspective, character-driven stories, but for whatever reason, I don’t feel that the characterization of the sisters worked. The writing lagged and though I also liked the concept of this being set against a dystopian, flooded world, that setting also felt half-fleshed out and confused.

For such a slow, uncertain book, the surprising boom of an ending is what really solidified that this didn’t work for me. Still, I know a lot of people loved this, and I wish I were one of them!

Readers follow three estranged and incredibly hostile adult sisters who have grown up and in to their own separate lives, coming back home and back together—after many years away—when they receive news that their father has died.

In this oddly dystopian world, time is separated into a Then and a Now; Then being before all the rain began. For many years, the rain has come non-stop making usual rituals—like burying the dead, for example—impossible.

Haunting and foreboding in its deliver but at 30% in, I’m still waiting for it to click for me. I think that I could connect so much better with this in audio format so I may try that in the future but as a physical copy, it feels like too much description with no pay-off to slog through.

Thank you Flatiron Books and NetGalley for the digital copy in exchange for an honest review! Available 12/03/2024.

I found it hard to connect with the story and its characters, but others may have a better experience with it.

When their estranged father dies, Agnes, Isla, and Irene reunite to confront his legacy in the glass house of their childhood. Uncovering hidden secrets and memories, their delicate bond is disrupted by the discovery of the contents of his will. They soon realize their father's death might be connected to their mother's disappearance and the mysterious strangers who have always watched them. The sisters discover they have been selected for a crucial role with profound consequences for their family and the world.

Private Rites is an enthralling and unsettling novel that delves into the intricacies of identity, grief, and the supernatural. Julia Armfield's evocative writing and skillful storytelling make it a compelling read for enthusiasts of literary horror and psychological fiction.

While Julia Armfield's writing in "Private Rites" is undeniably skillful and atmospheric, it may not be to everyone's taste. Personally, I found the novel to be rather dry and slow-paced. The tone and style did not resonate with me as much as I had hoped.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for this advanced copy of Private Rites!!

I LOVED this book. I have it rated as 4 stars but if I could be more precise I'd give it a 4.5 or even 4.75 stars. It is that close to perfect for me!!! I went into this reading experience a little nervous because I was not as big of a fan of "Our Wives..." when I read it last year (gave it 3 stars) and was worried this one would fall a little flat as well. Thankfully I was proven so wrong! I loved it!

I found the characters in this novel to be painstakingly relatable. Isla, Irene, and Agnes all feel like different versions of myself and the women I love which made me put a stake in their lives instantly. The dynamic between the three of them in adulthood due to their father and their upbringing was crafted so sharply and intelligently that I felt like I was part of their family (and I'm an only child!) Their relationships with themselves and one another were so interesting and wonderfully done by Armfield and the language she employed.

The exploration of romantic and familial love in this novel was also incredibly heartwarming at times when I did not expect it to be. I found Irene and Agnes' sections discussing love and relationships with their partners to be tender and soft in ways that made me forget all about the other plotlines running through this story. There was a simpleness to Irene and Jude's life that made queer domesticity seem like a normal, yet unimportant, way to live. The love in this book, though not felt immediately between the sisters, was the prevailing theme I took from the story. It was not what I was expecting, but better and more raw than I could have hoped for.

The only qualm I have with this novel is that the "dystopian" or "horror" theme did not seem to be as big of a concern to mention in the progression of the plot until about the last third of the book, however, I say this because I wanted more details and more "city" perspectives throughout the book. With that being said, though, I love the author's use of water in all of her novels and it worked most successfully for me as a storytelling device in this particular one.

I am a huge fan of this book and have already recommended it to multiple people. I might even try and get my hands on a physical copy once it comes out in December! I'm glad I gave Julia Armfield's writing another shot because I think this is her best work yet as it is beautifully written while exploring grief, familial relationships, and falling apart in a sinking world.

4.5/5