I was excited about reading Julia Armfield’s new novel after reading Our Wives Under the Sea. The prose in Private Rites was difficult for me, as was the doomed drowning.
How did humans ever emerge from the sea and will we go back into it? The whales did. They were in the water, came onto land, walked, then went back in. The planet is 71% water but most of it is seawater. There are aquifers though and circulating water. Billions of years ago the “earth” was all water. Hard to believe.
This book like “Wives” is about water. The water takes over. This is not a spoiler— you know in the beginning!
The three lesbian daughters of a King Lear father duke it out after his death. The story is about them, their “wives” and the legacy of their father. Their characters and relationship with each other seep out and the drowning city accompanies them.
In the end does the legacy matter in the face of a drowning world?
I appreciated the drawings of the sisters and their partners. The nonbinary Jude, partner of Irene, was great to follow as was the use of they/them. But there were times I didn’t know what I was reading. I got lost. Was it me or was Armfield being opaque? I guess it’s not a bad thing. I still felt compelled to read Private Rites after I found it hard to get into. The struggle around the father among the sisters was fascinating. The water is really fascinating.

I was ecstatic to get my hands on this early after dipping my toe in Julia Armfield’s writing with Our Wives Under the Sea and thoroughly enjoying it. Two months after starting, I found that I couldn’t connect to the characters and had to choose self-love over subjecting myself to something I wasn’t enjoying. I made the difficult decision to DNF 14% in.

I realized I didn’t care to read about these sisters when one of them admits to the reader she hated her little sister for just being born and had no actual justification for being an adult and still harboring these asanine feelings. I don’t care to be in the head of someone so catty, petty, and juvenile. I’m also the baby of my family so perhaps that chaffed more given that. The sisters themselves felt quite drab as characters despite page time being devoted to describing their lives and personalities, so that wasn’t melding for me either. Plot, character, and setting all had a melancholy air but not in a poetic or profound way like Our Wives Under the Sea, making it all feel rather dull and pointless. I desire some level of distinguishable hope, driving action, humor, and/or a theme early on with melancholy books or you will lose me as a reader.

Unfortunately, if I DNF a book, I automatically consider it a 1 star read, which pains me to do to an author who I recently rated 5 stars. Thank you to Flatiron Books and NetGalley for providing me with a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for granting me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest rating.

4.5

i want to preface this review by saying that i’ve never read king lear nor did i know anything about the plot until i read this book and decided to google it for context. i’m happy to report that julia armfield has put me on to the super niche, underground, underrated writer william shakespeare.

i LOVED this book. i’ve learned that my favorite stories are more focused on family dynamics than any other relationship, so a book following three distinctly different sisters after the death of their father was immediately intriguing to me.

to put it simply: this novel follows isla (35?), irene (34?), and agnes (24) after the death of their father. i have a 9 year age gap with my sister so seeing that dynamic represented was really interesting. isla and irene have such a unique relationship with agnes as they basically raised her due to their father’s unreliability.

i loved the entire journey of this novel but the ending truly sealed it for me. what the fuck even happened? i have no idea. but i honestly don’t need to know. it was cool as hell and completely absurd. i don’t want to say anything more about it other than that it was magnificent.

tl;dr: julia armfield back at it again writing about lesbians and water that acts a little weird

(thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the digital arc in exchange for an honest review!)

In this slow burn from the author of Our Wives Under the Sea, we follow three sisters and their loved ones as they navigate the loss of their father amidst a climate catastrophe in which the whole world is drowning. Julia Armfield's writing is gorgeous -- I don't think I've ever highlighted so many sentences in an e-book before, just because I was blown away by her turns of phrase

I read this book very slowly. The tone and depictions of a world underwater felt foreboding and claustrophobic. But the writing kept pulling me back. Fans of queer horror, climate fiction, and Armfield's previous work will love this King Lear inspired tale.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Julia Armfeild returns with another novel of watery horror. But whereas Our Wives Under the Sea was one woman"s struggle with the depths of the ocean, in Private Rites, the world is slowly drowning.

This book follows three estranged sisters, Isla, Irene and Agnes, during a time of climate crisis, and a more intimate time of crisis as their father has died and they must reckon with his legend. He was revered as an ingenious architect, but as a father was cold and abusive, pitting his daughters against each other.

This book is at times a story of sibling relationships, and at times the story of how people deal with living in a world that is collapsing. Each sister represents a tone that is easy to relate to, one of a desperate need for control, one of anger and one of rebellious apathy.

The imagery of the weather is so dooming and omnipresent, Armfeild does such a good job of creating a sense of foreboding. The tension slowly builds and by the end of the book, it's crashing over you like waves.

I adored this book, and feel that anyone who enjoyed her early work would also. Fans of surrealist stories, climate fiction and queer horror will enjoy this book.
4.5 stars - thanks to Netgalley and Flatiron books

A beautifully written story about three sisters navigating love, grief and familial relationships in a world wrecked by climate change.
The dystopia Armfield imagines here feels familiar and entirely possible, making it all the more scary.
The majority of the 'horror' in this book is in the bleakness of the world it's set in, but does get dialed up quite a bit in the last 30 pages or so.
Definitely a slow burn that will stick with you.

so, everything about this book is perfect. three sisters who care about each other so much they're practically strangers, loving someone so much you either push them away or reel them in closer and drowning in a false sense of grief. a city that's (literally) drowning, rain as its own character and writing that's so unsettling i had to stare at the wall multiple times. i could go on forever about all the things i loved about this book it was that good!

no one does horror quite like miss julia armfield

in private rites we follow the lives of three sisters — isla, irene and agnes who’s relationship with each other is estranged at best, their personal experiences with their childhood and a father who was distant and mean, meant that they grew apart. when their father passes away the sisters are now forced back into each other’s lives as they navigate the tricky landscape of grief.

i love a deep exploration of sisterhood and complicated family dynamics, like that’s my bread and butter, my kryptonite.

another thing that really worked for me was the setting of the novel, the world in which the three sisters inhabit is one that is rapidly growing underwater due to a rain that is never ending. cities are full of skyscrapers in order to escape the rising waters, there’s constant power outages and seeing the sun is a rare occurrence.

i’ve seen the words “mundane apocalypse” used to describe private rites and it couldn’t ring more true, there’s a darkness and dampness to the text and you can even find some nihilism — as one of the characters in the novel ponder at how despite it feeling like the end of the world, society still finds a way to make sure everyone could get to work.

i love how transporting julia armfield’s writing is, she’s a master at beautiful, aching and melancholic writing that will leave you in awe.

This author has been a fave of mine since our wives under the sea
This was a intriguing gripping read page turning
As Julia does !!!

An introspective story of three queer sisters navigating the loss of their father, the drowning of planet earth, and something possible much more sinister and terrifying. While I did enjoy this story very much, I kept wondering when we would get more information regarding the disappearance of the mother/step mother and what the sisters supposedly saw and heard in their youth. I was expecting something a little more creepy, rather than just bleak. However I can appreciate the thought put into this— specifically in creating a drowned world and how living would be possible in such a world. Overall this was very captivating and well done! I can’t wait to read what Armfield writes next.

This book took me by surprise. I read the first few pages and thought ‘Interesting, but probably a bit too literary for me’. However, I found myself not wanting to put the book down. I kept picking it up throughout the day. I’m typically a morning reader, so any book that has me reading late into the evening has its hooks in deep.

The setting was fascinating and I loved how its introduction was woven into the story. You were drip fed information about the world and the history of the world that made it eerie and perfectly set the atmosphere and the backdrop for the story that was being told. As the characters were slowly realizing information about their own history, the reader was slowly realizing information about the world. Plus, the parallels! You could write an entire essay about the parallels between elements of the setting and elements of the narrative plot and character development.

I loved the relationship between the three sisters. It felt incredibly genuine in how it captured a sibling relationship. Flawed and often turbulent on the surface, but very deep. I also enjoyed reading about their individual relationships with their partners and how those relationships were used as a mirror to reflect the individual sisters’ growth and complexity.

I’m still unsure about the ending, but I think that may be the point.

I truly don’t know how to feel about this book. After hearing friends rave about Armfield, this was my first time reading her and I’m wondering if I’m just not the target audience for her writing or if it’s just this book. The writing was lovely and poetic but dry at the same time. I loved the contrast of the sisters and found myself, as a younger sister, relating so deeply to Irene and felt so seen in the description of her complicated relationship with Isla. I wanted to go deeper into that relationship and the characters and it felt like we stayed more at the surface, as if the point of the book was to stay at arms length and watch what’s happening from afar rather than diving into it. Some parts were a struggle to get through and I found myself having to force myself to finish. The ending felt like such a drastic shift in tone, going from dragging on to a sudden explosion of chaos- I couldn’t decide if that was the point or if I was just too stupid to understand. I would have absolutely loved this if we kept going into the relationships the sisters had with each other or if the entire book was the crazy/weird vibes of the end. I feel like both would have worked for me separately but mixing the slow examination of a complicated family relationship with the intensity of the last section just wasn’t something I enjoyed.

Thank you NetGalley and 4th Estate for an ebook of "Private Rites" by Julia Armfield in exchange for an honest review. I would do anything to read this again for the first time. My goodness, I was absolutely deep into the pages from start to finish. I could not stop! I am an absolute fan of Julia Armfield and will recommend anything she writes. Her work continues to grow, and I cannot get enough. Queer, dystopian, and contemporary, with the perfect mix of horror and sci-fi, I would recommend this to anyone. It was one of my most anticipated reads of 2024 and did not disappoint. So much mystery. A lot of spooky speculation. Love this book!

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!!