I liked the general premise, but for being in an apocalyptic setting with three dynamic main characters, it was SO slow. I also felt like Jude and Stephanie were too good to be true, especially based on Irene’s and Agnes’ behavior. I liked the ending, but I wish there had been more time devoted to it instead of the build up.

im struggling to say whether i enjoyed this novel or not. i could chalk it up to two things: the third person distant POV, and my unfamiliarity with the original king lear.

the POV choice was fine, i think it was even the best choice because this is shown from the perspective of 3 different sisters, their lovers, and the city they're living in. the distance from the audience was sustained, so the effect made for just the right amount of suspense. the prose was economical and specific, but opened itself up to lengthy and interesting description whenever the story called for it.
however, a few more chapters in and the distance and the suspense held steady. the pace felt rather like listening to a radio dj announcing the morning news in a monotonous voice. at a certain point, the story will require a good amount of curious engagement, as in if you were not already interested in where the story was taking you, you'd be bored out of your wits.
thankfully i already liked the characters enough to want to get to know them even better. i mean, come on, im definitely the best audience to hook into a story about lesbian daughters of a successful (in the objective sense of the word) man.

i also thought it appropriate to familiarize myself with the original story of king lear, the story upon which this novel was based. i was sure this would allow me to appreciate the story better. i think at some point i would slowly make my way through it, which might be much better than simply Wikipedia-ing the thing. all that to say, if youre already familiar with the og king lear you wouldn't have any problem sifting through and finding wonders in the themes of this novel.

another fun thing to think about is how the worldbuilding was done. this is set in a post-apocalyptic world submerged in water, but we don't exactly get thrown to sink and swim right off the bat--we're introduced first and foremost to the extreme religious cult(s) that formed in the context of this setting. it's a good narrative decision i think, i was hooked thanks to this hahah

<spoiler>i loved how agnes realized she is in love with stephanie. it's different reading it in isolation vs. reading in at 7 in the morning, waiting for the sun which is yet to rise. something tender about reading about a love so fierce it's scary in juxtaposition to the scene out the window, blue and vast and endless. yep. i recommend reading this not when youre trying to stay awake in liminal outdoor spaces but in the privacy of your own company during the wee hours of dawn when the sun hasnt risen. if not the entire book, then at least chapter 5 in Agnes' POV. </spoiler>

ok yeah who am i kidding, i definitely enjoyed this novel. if you feel as if youre <i>the</i> target audience here you should definitely give it a shot.

thank you NetGalley and Flatiron Books for the eARC.

I would like to thank Net Galley and Flatiron books for the opportunity to read this as an ARC. I really did not like this book. It is hard to read and hard to understand. The narrative floats between the three sisters, and all of it reads like a puzzle, with no clues to solving it. Maybe that is what the author is aiming for, to make you think and look deeper. To me, it was just annoying. It was described as a speculative re imagining of King Lear. Now, I have read a number of current books, which reimagine characters or plots from other books, but this one was just too odd for me.

Private Rites by Julia Armfield was a book that I was very excited to read and I'm so grateful to Flatiron Books and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read an advanced copy! Julia Armfield's writing was so beautifully well done and I couldn't get enough of it. It was lyrical and enriching. I don't mind the slow pace but I did find it a little difficult to understand at times. I really had to focus on what I was reading and I feel like it took a lot to grasp what was happening. I'm okay with that, though. Overall, I loved it but I can see why some people would have issues with it.

This is a re-imagining of King Lear, or as one character put it, the story of "King Lear and his three dyke daughters". But if you either never read King Lear, or, like me, have only the vaguest recollection of it, don't let that hold you back! This is really about complicated families-- three sisters who are largely estranged from each other and their father, and coping with the aftermath of their father's death. All of this takes place with the backdrop of a climate crisis and unrelenting rain starting to wash away parts of the city.
*
I have somewhat mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, the writing is absolutely exquisite. While I was reading it, it was so easy to be immersed. Each of the characters--you get the POVs of each sister as well as some respective significant others--is complex and flawed and fascinating.
*
That said, it was not easy to read, and I didn't find myself compelled to pick it back up again. It takes a lot of concentration to get through (at one point "hagiography" is just casually thrown into a sentence), and if I wasn't completely focused, I missed things. I had to re-read the ending because it went off the rails (in a good way!) and I realized I had absolutely no idea what was going on, things escalated so quickly.
*
Would I recommend? Yes, but caveated, only best if you're really able to pay close attention and are not looking for a light read.

Unfortunately I didn't connect with this one, the slow pace didn't help either. Regardless of that, the writing and craft of this novel is stellar and continues the quality of Armfield's previous work.

This was a difficult book to read. I loved her first book, Our Wives Under the Sea, it was slow and mysterious and magical, it drew me in and sucked me under in the most delicious way. This book is slow and angry and stand-offish, it holds me at a distance with a stiff watery arm, and threatens to slap me; it doesn’t let me in.

There may be a powerful story here that I am personally incapable of experiencing because the writing style kept me at such a remove. Reading this began to feel like a chore, primarily because everything was so miserable: the rain (the constant rain), the crumbling city, the hopeless people, the nasty, catty sisters…. All that was compounded by reading it during an irl rainy season, with hurricanes on the news. I finally started forcing myself to sit with it for a minimum of ten minutes each day (setting the timer on my phone), hoping it would finally “click” and I’d become invested in the story and/or the miserable characters. It never clicked. Nothing really happened for most of the book, it's not until the final chapter that things start to coalesce. And what happened was so unexpected that it felt like it belonged to another book entirely. I'm left thinking: I don't understand I don't understand I don't understand

ymmv and I hope other readers have a more positive reading experience than I did.


My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the e-book.

I realllllly liked Our Wives Under the Sea so I was excited for Julia Armfield's newest book! It started off a little slow for me, but really picked up the pace with the ending. Apparently Private Rites is a retelling of King Lear, but I honestly hate Shakespeare so I think that part was lost on me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for sending me this book!

This is going to be one of the must reads of the winter, calling it now. That this is a retelling of King Lear feels like window dressing for the real story, which actually looks at the grief of all the daughters and their dynamics with each other in the wake of their father's death, and also a thread with everything slowly falling into the sea because of climate change. I think some people are going to be thrown off by the suddenness of the ending but I like it, personally. Hell of a follow up to her first novel.

This was a weird, tense, slow burn of a book that won't be for everyone but boy did I love it!!!!

Julia Armfield's writing is so beautiful, and the ways setting and the family dynamics played against each other was so engaging and felt so tangible. I thought this would just be an exploration of grief and familial relationships (and I was enjoying it enough as that!), but the ending takes a pivot that left be reeling and heightened the stakes.

This book cements Armfield firmly in my See Her Name By The Book Ask Questions Later™️ category. Thanks for the ARC, Netgalley!

So I wasn't a fan of "Our Wives Under the Sea", and I felt like a very bad lesbian for that, but I had hopes that I'd connect with the Lear-inspired "Private Rites". It was not to be - this will be the last Armfield that I request, because I just can't find her writing style as anything but tedious and pretentious. Top it off with shaky worldbuilding and a lot of navel-gazing, this just isn't for me - but hopefully it will find its audience, just as "Wives" did.

It is not a secret that after Our Wives Under the Sea and saltslow, I became obsessed with her writing and Private Rites was my most anticipated book of 2024. It did not disappoint.

Set in a climate catastrophized world literally drowning, three melancholic sisters drowning in their relationships; with their father, their partners, their mothers, and with each other. Each turn of the page brings just a little more dread as Isla, Irene, and Agnes navigate their complicated relationships, their grief, and their trauma, compounding the sense of doom illustrated through every section of the City narrative.

Private Rites is bleak and brilliant. I can’t wait to see what she gives us next.

Thank you to Flatiron Books, NetGalley, and Julia Armfield for a copy of Private Rites for review.

This author does a phenomenal job of making her characters immediately feel like real, flawed human beings. I loved her previous novel for this reason and this one does the same from page one. Each of the sisters is sometimes insufferable, sometimes heroic, but always understandable and real.

I love how the story explores grief, the parallel between the sisters’ loss and the worldwide loss of normalcy due to flooding and environmental destruction that had shifted life as they knew it. The writing is beautiful, leaning literary and character-driven but still with those trademark hints of horror.

Wow, this was an extremely difficult and beautiful book to read. I don’t know if my words can do it justice. But I’ll try.

Some context: my father passed away just under 2 years ago. Our main characters Isla, Irene, and Agnes are in the depths of their father’s very recent death. My father was a complicated man and could be very cruel and I see so much similarity of our main characters’ experiences with mine in the processing of a shitty father’s death. Also, I have just survived the capitalism disaster known as Hurricane Helene. Our main characters and everyone in their world is experiencing an absolute collapse. I read this as my world was flooding. There is so much truth and grief hidden (and blatant) in all the corners of this book.

I could feel the tension continue to rise as did the water. The sisters struggle through relating, having countless seemingly meaningless spats about how one should handle anything and everything. Their perspectives melting into each other from similar traumatic experiences.

Julia Armfield somehow managed to create characters that are extremely unlikeable and extremely likeable at the same time. Their thoughts at times annoying and frustrating, leaving so much unsaid, so much left in silence, as they battled their thoughts side by side.

The writing was haunting and I felt the water rising in my bones. I will be thinking about this book for a long time.

This book also plays with memory and how they can warp over time and yet there’s truth there in the deterioration. Even as the world deteriorates there is still signs left of something living, of past lives.

The ending very quickly became unhinged and I’m still sifting through my feelings on it. A part of me feels like the ending needed to be different, something that stole the show that didn’t need to be there. But what do I know, confusion and becoming unhinged is all a part of collapse, right?

Thank you NetGalley and Flatiron Books for providing me a digital ARC! I recommend it and everything else Julia Armfield has written.

Having previously read Our Wives Under the Sea, I went into this novel with high expectations, and Julia Armfield did not disappoint! Armfield is a masterful writer, and I enjoyed her version of a family drama against the backdrop of a climate disaster.

In Private Rites we are transported to a water-logged city where it never stops raining. Of all the climate fiction I have read, this book is by far the best portrayal of the devastating effects of rising sea levels. We follow the lives and relationships of three sisters in the aftermath of their father’s death. The characters are very realistic and as a result, very unlikable. Nonetheless, it is easy to develop an investment in the plot. In many ways, you want to see how the environmental catastrophe ends for the sisters as it offers glimpse into how our shared climate crisis resolves itself. We know the ending won’t be good – but we can’t manage to look away.

I thought Armfield’s take on several social issues was very well done, including her commentary on wealth and privilege. I enjoyed seeing Jude, a social worker, trying to make progress in their job when all the odds are against them. This is then juxtaposed against characters like Agnes, a chicory-wood barista, and Stephanie, and office temp, who are merely trying to survive. While we don’t often think of the role a barista will have in such a dramatic landscape, Armfield paints an effective picture of what we demand and value as a society.

Perhaps the greatest point of tension and mystery in the novel is the repeated reference to the rise of arcane rituals and cults during the “end-times.” I honestly could have done with more of this, as I found this idea really creative. This plot line is very in keeping with Armfield’s style in her previous novel, where she gives us a peek of horror, only to leave much of the ending up to our imagination.

I look forward to reading more from Armfield in the future. Thank you to Flatiron Books and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. Private Rites will be published in the US on December 3rd.

3.75 stars!

After reading Our Wives Under the Sea, I was super intrigued to dive into another Julia Armfield novel. While I didn’t love ‘OWUTS,’ I thought the writing was great. I also felt like the characters were a bit unlikeable at times, but I really enjoyed the way their characters were written, nontheless. It felt very realistic, and it was easy to connect to them.

‘Private Rites’ was no different. I actually prefer this to ‘Our Wives Under the Sea,’ if I’m being honest. The writing was incredible. Every sentence felt purposeful, and there were a lot of topics discussed, even in passing, that hit really hard for me. It took me a bit longer to read this book than another would have the same length because I wanted to understand each and every part of the character’s reflection stemming from the passing of their father. In my opinion, the character depth that we get in Armfield’s writing is so deep and complex. I also love how her characters have really blunt thoughts.

That being said, I was a little disappointed in the lack of the apocalyptic plot that was stated in the description. While I should’ve expected that, following my reading of Our Wives Under the Sea, I thought this book would focus on it a bit more. Objectively, it did at the end; however, the rest of the book was mainly character-driven. I feel I am coming to grasp that is simply a large part of Armfield’s writing style.

While I did really appreciate her writing and character development, I did find myself wishing the plot was developed a little quicker and more fleshed out.

Private Rites is one of those books that didn't always keep my attention...until all of a sudden it did. Julia Armfield's writing is so unlike any author in my memory, with a lush intelligence that's hard to articulate. It feels scientific and philosophical, distilled into lyrical, emotive prose without being overly fraught. Set in a drowning world, the story follows three sisters dealing with their emotionally distant father's recent death. Irene's relationship is straining at the seams, Isla is grappling with her own personal complications, and the cynical Agnes is falling in love for the first time. As they sort through their father's legacy in his famous glass house, their fragile bond is tested by revelations in his will and a mysterious purpose they've been chosen for. Armfield's unique voice and the gradual unfolding of the sisters' stories eventually drew me in. Private Rites is an atmospheric read with its beautifully distinctive prose, tumultuous family dynamics, and the nerve-wracking enigma of its watery apocalypse.

This stunning book plunges readers into a world where relentless rain has reshaped both the landscape and the lives of its inhabitants. At the heart of the story are three estranged sisters—Isla, Irene, and Agnes—whose fragile bond is tested by the death of their domineering, abusive father. In the grand glass house he designed, the sisters must confront not only the physical remnants of his legacy but also the emotional scars he left behind. As they sort through old memories and the secrets buried in his will, the tension between them begins to unravel, revealing long-standing resentments and unresolved grief.

The novel excels at weaving together personal and environmental crises. The never-ending rain that submerges the city mirrors the emotional drowning each sister faces—Isla’s unresolved feelings for her ex-wife, Irene’s strained relationship with her nonbinary partner, and Agnes’s unexpected encounter with love for the first time. As the water rises, so does the sense of impending doom, not just for their world but for their tenuous connection to one another. Armfield masterfully blends themes of family dysfunction, queer identity, and the looming threat of climate disaster, crafting a story that is as much about personal survival as it is about the collapsing world around them.

The atmosphere in "Private Rites" is palpable, with Armfield’s prose creating a sense of foreboding that builds slowly but relentlessly. The constant rain becomes a character in itself, shaping not only the setting but also the sisters’ state of mind, trapping them in a suffocating loop of time where past traumas and present challenges blur together. The narrative’s nonlinear structure enhances this disorientation, giving readers a feeling of being unmoored, much like the characters who are struggling to find solid ground in both their relationships and their sense of self.

What sets Private Rites apart is its quiet, unsettling intensity. The novel doesn’t rely on traditional horror but instead taps into a more existential fear—the fear of losing control, of being unable to change one’s fate, and of drowning in both a literal and metaphorical sense. Armfield’s exploration of sisterhood is both tender and raw, depicting the complexities of familial love and the ways in which it can both bind and suffocate. The novel’s climax offers a twist that is both surprising and inevitable, driving home the idea that in a world collapsing under the weight of its own decay, the only thing left to salvage is the truth of who we are and what we mean to each other.

Though the pacing can feel uneven at times, with some sections meandering before accelerating to a rapid conclusion, Private Rites delivers a powerful meditation on family, identity, and the environmental crisis. Fans of Armfield’s previous work, as well as readers who appreciate speculative fiction with a strong emotional core, will find themselves absorbed in this dark, atmospheric tale. Armfield’s ability to blend the surreal with the intimate ensures that Private Rites will linger with readers long after they’ve turned the final page.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for sharing this stunning book's digital reviewer copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

I adored Julia’s “Our Wives Under the Sea,” so I was extremely jazzed to dive (pun intended) into this one. It (for the most part) didn’t disappoint. A queer retelling of King Lear with a healthy amount of climate catastrophe and eerie melancholy. I personally love Shakespeare retellings, so that was a high selling point for me. Julia writes so beautifully, whether she’s building a setting - a mildly futuristic, waterlogged city on the brink of ruin due to never-ending rain - or speaking through her characters - three sisters, all unhappy in their own ways, with extremely fractured relationships to one another. The story is told through the perspectives of each of the sisters (and occasionally the crumbling city in which they reside), which I did like, although I occasionally found the sisters’ inner thoughts to be overwritten and a bit frustrating. I felt uneasy reading this; Julia is so talented at atmospheric fiction. I know her novels are frequently categorized as horror and this book certainly has horrifying elements (the frequent mentions of political unrest, the damage wrought by familial trauma, the ceaseless damp), but this doesn’t feel like overt horror. It’s fiction that makes you feel trapped with these characters and ill at ease and fearful for a future given over to climate damage.

THE WRITING WAS SO GOOOOD. I was in love and hated all three of the sisters. They are cruel and cunning and need some serious therapy, but I grew such a connection to them and their flaws. Their everyday lives in this apocalyptic, yet eerily realistic future, was such an interesting aspect of the novel. The city existing in water and the rain never stopping was a perfect background to the uncertainty of these women trying to figure out their relationships to each other and to life outside of their father. I want more books set in this world! Also, the ending is WILD.