Julia Armfield Mantide Edito da Bompiani “Non parlammo più molto, però rise quando scherzai sul fatto che non avevo vestiti da darle per dormire. Al mattino scrissi alla donna che mi mandava messaggi sul sito di incontri che non potevo parlarle in quel momneto; stavo spazzando le ossa di una ragazza che avevo amato dal pavimento della cucina”. Questa raccolta di nove racconti, che nell’edizione italiana prende il titolo di uno di loro, Mantide, mi ha piacevolmente inquietato e mi ha dato nuove e (dis)orientanti prospettive sul passaggio all’età adulta, sulla queerness e sulla relazione uomo-donna. Con un’eco da fiaba antica calata nel contemporaneo, per certi versi la lettura mi è sembrata paragonabile al mordere un frutto dall’aspetto dolce, ma che lascia il retrogusto delle cose lasciate maturare troppo a lungo. Lo stile dell’autrice è stato definito new-gothic, è ricco di dettagli macabri e decadenti, che rendono vividamente weird situazioni all’apparenza quotidiane. Una giovane donna che affronta la perdita della sua fidanzata, tre dottorande che ordinano pizza a domicilio il venerdì sera e parlano di uomini, un’adolescente alle prese con bizzarri problemi alla pelle ereditati dalla nonna materna. Il bizzarro, lo sconcertante, arriva sempre, più o meno inaspettato, spiazza e costringe a non distogliere lo sguardo, permettendoci di riflettere sulla metamorfosi, sull’esperienza queer, sulle relazioni umane. A rendere per me irresistibile questa raccolta l’umorismo dark, le descrizioni brevi e fulminanti che ricorrono nel testo e i frequenti rimandi al cattolicesimo - che di bizzarro ha tanto da offrire. 🎶 Violence di Grimes 📺 Penny Dreadful #bookstagramitalia #mantide #juliaarmfield
who else is a chronic mood reader? i have so many books on my ever growing list, and many of them get pushed back because i’m in the mood for something else. it’s an actual problem! here’s my last, current and next read. and this time, i’m sticking to it (maybe). last read - our wives under the sea by julia armfield current read - vera wong’s unsolicited advice to murderers by jesse q. sutanto next read - darling girls by sally hepworth are you a mood reader? ________________________________________ #bookstagram #booksbooksbooks #bookworm #bookworms #currentreads #currentlyreading #lastread #nextread #moodreader #moodreaderproblems #bookstagrammer #flatlay #openbooks #ourwivesunderthesea #verawongsunsolicitedadviceformurderers #darlinggirls #juliaarmfield #jesseqsutanto #sallyhepworth #moodreaderprobs #booksandblanket #cozyreading #cozyreadingmoments #cozyreader
Our Wives under the Sea was one of the oddest and dreamiest books of last year - one definitely to be read in the bath (as suggested by @mizhenka ) so I was very fortunate to receive a proof copy of Julia Armfield’s second books in advance of publication on 11th June. With this one, we move into speculative fiction, into an end of days dystopia, an unnamed city in a world on the brink of ecological disaster with constant rain and the buildings slowly lapsing into the flooding water. Three sisters, Isla, Irene and Agnes have reluctantly come together following the death of their father, an acclaimed architect who has designed beautiful structures for the rich. The girls have grown up in one of these, the White Horse, a house not fit for children, with a critical, cruel and manipulative father. There is a claustrophobic, brooding feel to the book, echoing the heavy mist clouds hanging over the tall buildings, and the sense of creeping dissolution. People take their own lives, the flood waters claim victims, yet against this, they try to maintain their own small rituals and routines. There are some very tender moments of connections, as well as some physical urgency between the sisters and their partners. One of them finds herself unexpectedly in love. A story with three sisters at its heart always gives me the sense of a fairy tale, and adding a stern, unloving father immediately takes me to King Lear - a reference also made by one of the sisters, with Agnes later observing how one of the three witches in Macbeth is always a foil to the others. There is very much this interplay in their relationship, with each of the sisters taking turns to be the outsider within a hostile dynamic. These characters are individually not likeable, almost capturing dysfunctional aspects of a single personality, but together they feel real. As you would expect, the writing is simply beautiful, poetic and flowing with moments of dark wit and truth and some very visual images - I was with Agnes swimming in the rooftop pool, down in the basement club as the water laps at the windows. We end with a picture that is both breathtaking and chilling.
#REVIEW Salt Slow by Julia Armfield 🧂 ‘When I was twenty seven my sleep stepped out of me like a passenger from a train carriage, looked around my room for several seconds, then sat down in the chair beside my bed’. This is the delicious sort of weirdness you can expect from this short story collection. I liked the first book I read by Julia Armfield (Our Wives Under the Sea) but I really loved this. She was actually born to write. I read some pages twice, I enjoyed them so much. The stories - all with women at the centre - were so intriguing and beautifully woven together, blurring the gothic with the everyday. I don’t want to give too much away because I really enjoyed how unexpected the plot of each story was / was excited to see what came next. Stand out stories for me were: 🛌 The Great Awake 🐺 Formerly Ferel 💀 Cassandra After 🌊 Smack Really recommend, a five star read for me! #bookstagram #whatimreading #books #bookshelf #bookstagrammer #booklover #bookaholic #instabooks #bookstack #bookster #bookworm #readersofinstagram #bookathon #readingchallenge #readingtime #literaturelover #booknerd #booksbooksbooks #bookphotography #conveniencestorewoman #review #bookreview #bookreviews #juliaarmfield #saltslow #shortstory #shortstories #currentlyreading
“Lo sapevi che tutti abbiamo un po’ di oceano dentro di noi? Il sangue è composto essenzialmente di sodio, potassio, calcio.. grossomodo come l’acqua del mare, se ci rifletti. Tra l’altro le prime forme di vita sono arrivate dal mare, perciò ce ne sarà sempre una traccia in tutto, una piccola traccia di sale nelle ossa.” Cosa resta di noi dopo che un evento traumatico ci ha sconvolto l’esistenza?..della persona che eravamo?..siamo ancora quella persona?.. Un racconto sull’ansia, la paura,..che qualcosa ci sconvolga e che nulla possa tornare come prima..dentro di noi ma anche intorno a noi. #lenostremoglinegliabissi #juliaarmfield #bompiani
Julia Armfield’s prose >>>> Private Rites beautifully captures the slow, mundane apocalypse; one where the rich live in relative safety while everyone else (literally) sinks. How do we continue to go to work, pursue relationships, repair sibling rivalries, grieve family members while the world continues to fall apart around us? Nothing about that was particularly far fetched, as it’s only a little further along than the world we inhibit now. This is a queer, character-focused novel & while the ending didn’t particularly work for me it’s definitely worth reading for Julia’s writing alone. Out 11th June! Thank you @4thestatebooks for the review copy - - - #bookreview #juliaarmfield #privaterites #queerbooks #queerbookstagram #lgbtbooks #newbookrelease
REVIEW: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 Private Rites by Julia Armfield Swipe for the synopsis ➡️ “𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲, 𝘀𝗵𝗲 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀, 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗽𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻, 𝗮 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗱 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝘀𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿, 𝗼𝗰𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝘁 𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲.” I was so excited to receive an early proof copy of Julia’s new release, which is out next month - 11th June! I’ve read both her short story collection; Salt Slow and Our Wives under the sea and I just adore her writing. This book is set in a world where it never stops raining (sounds familiar!), where three sisters reunite after the death of their father. This is a slow paced, character focused story with dysfunctional sibling dynamics. Despite the slow moving plot it is so engaging, there’s a continual sense of dread throughout that something isn’t quite right. The sisters all have such individual personalities, they are all flawed but not unlikeable, they feel real and to witness the way they all process their grief is something I always enjoy reading about. I loved the prologue chapter and the world building really captured my attention instantly, plus the ending was so intense, I didn’t want it to end! I really love Julia’s writing style, it’s captivating, unusual, imaginative and haunting in equal measure. There’s just something very special and unique about her work. Highly recommend! AD/PR Product - Thank you to @4thestatebooks for this proof copy, I’m ever so grateful. Have you read this? what were your thoughts? . . . #PrivateRites #JuliaArmfield #bookreview #horror #literaryfiction #queerfiction #reviewersofinstagram #bookrecommendations #bookblogger #bookstagramuk #bookrecs #bookstagrammer #whatiread #whattoread #jesslovesreadingreviews
"A house, unlatched, is less a house and more a set of rooms through which one might be hunted." What an opening to a novel! I knew I loved this book from the first unnerving sentences and loved it all the way to the breathtaking end. My expectations were high for this novel and they were more than met - really, no one is doing it like Julia Armfield. This novel, out in June, is set in either an alternative reality or near future in which it has been raining for years, so long that young people don't really remember a time before water taxis and houses on stilts and endless damp. Three estranged adult daughters of a famous architect - Isla, Irene and Agnes - narrate this novel set in the time right after their father's death. A fourth narrator, The City, gives an eerie context for their grief, but the book is restrained in what it reveals about this world. As the three women muddle through the funeral and the time that follows, coming together and clashing again, they try to make sense of their lives in shadow of this great man, their different but troubling experiences of childhood, the haunting presence and absence of their fathers two wives. All that time, something lurks on the outside, something haunting and dangerous growing ever closer, circling the characters with intent, slowly and then all at once. It is a ghost story about ambition and desperation and the idea of a home, or the idea of a family. The book feels like King Lear meets Succession meets The Haunting of Hill House or The Fall of the House of Usher, but it's just quintessentially Julia Armfield too, and her at her best yet. #PrivateRites by Julia Armfield is out 11th June from @4thestatebooks - thank you @harpercollinsire for the copy. #juliaarmfield #books #reading #bookreview #booksbooksbooks #readwomen
I loved Julia Armfield's short story collection, Salt Slow so when Our Wives Under the Sea came out I could not wait to read it. Unfortunately I didn't love it, but I couldn't stop thinking about it so I decided I needed to reread it. I finished the audiobook this morning and I definitely enjoyed it much better this time. I think my first reading it just wasn't the book for me at that time and I was expecting something different. I cannot wait for Private Rites now! #booksbooksbooks #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #bookreview #audiobook #alwaysreading #nevernotreading #juliaarmfield #ourwivesunderthesea #bookrecommendations #lovedit #readingallday
BOOK REVIEW salt slow by Julia Armfield ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ It's been a, while since I've read a short story collection, but after recently finishing 'Our Wives Under the Sea' and being too impatient to wait for Armfield's upcoming release, I picked up 'salt slow'. Despite the ever growing of pile of books I need to read, this jumped immediately to the top of my Tbr, and I am so, so glad i read this straight away. While some short story collections can be a bit of a mixed bag, I adored all nine stories in this collection. Armfield's writing was hauntingly beautiful and horrifying all at once: everything I loved about 'Our Wives Under the Sea'. I was so gripped by Armfield's writing that I had to take the book to work to read during breaks, regularly gasping and talking about the stories to anyone who would listen. From wolfish siblings to omnipresent insomnia, desperate teens and haunting loved ones, every moment of 'salt slow' was si my stunning. Now I have to wait until June for 'Private Parts' to be released. #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #book #bookcover #amreading #reading #currentlyreading #bookreview #review #shortstories #saltslow #juliaarmfield
✨️ Book Post ✨️ I may currently be sporting the lazy girl guide to bookstagram as I move house and am trying to get over the post - Bank Holiday blues *but* Fourth Estate Books are smashing the book game with this terrific trio! [PR/AD Product] ✨️ Butcher by Joyce Carol Oates - May An extraordinary and arresting novel about a woman's asylum in the nineteenth century and a terrifying doctor who wants to change the world. ✨️ Private Rites by Julia Armfield - June There's no way to bury a body in earth that is flooded. It is a fact consigned to history along with almost everything else... ✨️ Gold Rush by Olivia Petter - July We give celebrities a power they don't deserve. Power they haven't earned. What happens when they exploit it? . . . #JoyceCarolOates #JuliaArmfield #Olivia Petter #Literary #Horror #LitFic #Fiction #Bookstagram #Thriller #PrivateRites #Butcher #GoldRush #AmReading #BookPost #ComingSoon #Reader
4/5 🌟 This was a very weird (good weird), uncomfortable but at the same time extremely interesting read. It falls under horror but personally for me it wasn't as scary. It's hard to describe how the book made me feel but I do think about it from time to time. #juliaarmfield #ourwivesunderthesea #recommendation #horror #horrorbooks #fictionbooks #gothic
April book haul 🦦 Oops.... I may have accumulated way too many books last month... after being so good all year too... I have zero regrets, I mean, look how pretty they all are 💃 I've already read and enjoyed Private Rites and Napalm in the Heart. Which one of these should I pick up next?! (AD-PR Products) Thank you to the tagged publishers for the gifted copies 🥰 #bookhaul #bookbuying #juliaarmfield #jeffvandermeer #scifibook #literaryhorror #literaryfiction
Den Sonntag mit meinen neuen Büchern ausklingen lassen = beste 😌💖 ______________________________________________ #JuliaArmfield #SaltSlow #GenevieveJagger #FragileAnimals #GavinDillinger #HorrorBooks #TbrPile #HorrorBücher #SpookyCurious #SpookyBooks #HorrorReader #HorrorBookstagram #TinaLiest #Tsundoku #AlwaysWithABook
up next to read! i’m very excited to read both of these and they have been on my to-read for awhile! ___ #reader #bibliophile #booksbooksbooks #bookworm #bookstagram #ourwivesunderthesea #juliaarmfield #smallthingslikethese #clairekeegan #springrreading
Finished an ARC of Private Rites by Julia Armfield Description: Isla, Irene and Agnes are three sisters whose architect dad has just died, and who don’t particularly get on. Set in a near-future where sea levels have risen and the rain is near never-ending. Liked: The atmosphere is so dense and oppressive: reading this on the tube on the way to work I was sure that I was going to exit into fog and rain - I got dragged into it immediately. The world is totally convincing, and depressing in its believability. The characters are spikey, deeply flawed, and totally lost, but ultimately feel relatable. Their relationships and complex and juicy. Disliked: The ending got a tad melodramatic and seemed to wrap up quickly. Would 100% recommend. Armfield’s best yet, IMO! Anything Else: This reminded me a lot of two books I’ve read (relatively) recently. Firstly, the dynamic between and focus on the sisters reminded me of Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors. Secondly, the sense of watery unease was very similar to The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by M John Harrison. With both of those books, I found myself a bit disappointed; the themes really appealed, but something about the execution felt lacking. With Private Rites, I feel like those itches have been thoroughly scratched. Also, I used the US cover (I think?) as my Kindle image, as I MUCH prefer it to the UK cover, which feels oddly flat to me (although perhaps slightly more iconic…). #privaterites #juliaarmfield #fiction #mjohnharrison #thesunkenlandbeginstoriseagain #cocomellor #bluesisters #books #bookstagram #novel #novels #review #bookreview #bookreviews #igreads #instabook #instabooks #booklover #bookishcommunity #favouritereads #favouritebooks #newrelease #arc #galley #netgalley
Piper’s Picks, Vol. 54 “The deep sea is a haunted house: a place in which things that ought not to exist move about in the darkness.” Half of Julia Armfield’s debut novel takes place in that darkness. As experienced by Leah, Jelka, and Matteo – researchers stranded for months at unimaginable depths in a submarine that suddenly stopped working – the sea is impenetrable, unknowable. But so too, Armfield tells us, is love, even when it exists in the light of day. Our Wives Under the Sea is a book about love and loss, about grief. About hanging on for as long as you can and then, as poet Mary Oliver tells us, “when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.” Because Leah comes back, you see. A research expedition that was supposed to take three weeks turns into six months trapped at the bottom of the ocean. But she comes back. And when Leah returns to her wife Miri, she is changed. She bleeds from the gums, the skin. She leaks water from the eyes. She spends increasingly more time in the bath, slowly becoming more and more dissociated from Miri. Something is broken – in Leah and between the two of them – but neither of them know exactly what it is or how to fix it. And it’s all the more heartbreaking for the way Armfield tells their story. Each chapter alternates between Miri and Leah’s point of view. From Leah we get the story of the submarine: the descent, the breakdown, and what happens to the three researchers who suddenly find themselves in stasis at the bottom of the ocean. These chapters are claustrophobic, suffocating, and in some ways they remind me of Nick Cutter’s The Deep, bending and twisting our understanding of what is real. The researchers smell burned meat. One of them hears strange noises outside the submarine that may or may not be speaking to her. A ring of glowsticks is a ward against the darkness of the ocean. Dreamlike and hallucinatory, Leah’s chapters are subtly terrifying. (review continued in comments)
📚 2024 Releases: 6th June 📚 The list of exciting books coming out on 6th June is insane!!! Just take a look 🫶 #bookreleases #newbooks #bookblog #booksbooksbooks #tbr #2024books #2024InBooks #bookstagrammer #lovebooks #bookpost #literaryfiction #contemporaryfiction #juliaarmfield #bookworm #bookish
April Wrap-up: Such a good reading month! I started stacking everything I've read recently next to one of my shelves and am loving watching the stack grow! 🎧📖 Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield 👍🏻 🎧📖 Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H 👍🏻 📖 All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir 👍🏻 📖 Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister 👍🏻 📖 I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman 👍🏻 🎧📖 Sociopath by Patric Gagne 👍🏻 📖 (Book One of) The Fellowship of the Ring 👍🏻 📖 Tar Baby by Toni Morrison 👍🏻 #toni2024 I still haven't picked up my Kindle at all. And just like last month, I'm still finishing up the last of Tar Baby and I've been loving it. I've been working long hours and so tired after work that I'm struggling to read more than a few pages per night. P.S. I'm just realizing I forgot to add Our Wives Under the Sea and Sociopath to the photo. And retaking the photo isn't an option since three books are already returned to their owner/on loan. 🙃 #aprilbookwrapup #bookwrap #saturdaystack #backlistbooks #bookstagrammer #bookworm #bookrecs #read #reading #readmorebooks #ourwivesunderthesea #juliaarmfield #hijabbutchblues #lamyah #allmyrage #sabaatahir #wrongplacewrongtime #gillianmcallister #iwhohaveneverknownmen #jaquelineharpman #sociopath #patricgagne #thefellowshipofthering #jrrtolkien #tarbaby #tonimorrison
Book review: Salt Slow by Julia Armfield Goodreads rating: 4/5 My rating: ⭐⭐⭐ & 1/2 ⭐ Salt Slow is a collection of short stories by Julia Armfield that explores themes of desire, transformation, and the uncanny. Each story offers a unique perspective on the complexities of human relationships and the hidden forces that shape our lives. From a girl who grows feathers to a woman haunted by a mysterious presence in her apartment, these tales blur the lines between the mundane and the supernatural. The stories are eerie and the latent surreal feeling they evoke stays with you till long after. A good read for anybody that likes spooky but not outright horror. #SaltSlowStories #DesireTransformed #UncannyEncounters #FeminineNarratives #SymbolicTales #EmotionalResonance #saltslow #juliaarmfield #weirdstories #eeriestories #shortstoriescollection #horrorbook #creepystories #creepybook #spookyreads #readwandergrow #bookgramindia #shortread #bookstoreadinonego #supernaturalbooks
Salt Slow By Julia Armfield Started: 03.14.2024 Finished: 03.17.2024 Does anyone else feel like Julia Armfield has an incredibly unique writing style? The short stories in "Salt Slow" feel like they fit in the same fantasy-horror universe as Armfield's longer form "Our Wives Under the Sea," with the same languid build of emotion and horror. "Salt Slow" brings a unique horror aspect to different phases of a girl/woman's life from: - a teenage girl experiencing puberty as her skin slowly tears and sloughs off - a young woman's job as a videographer for a band that brings a whole new definition to making their fans go absolutely feral - a pregnant woman and her partner are forced to navigate their flooded post-apocalyptic world by rowboat - a woman resisting the implosion of her marriage by hiding out in a beach house with giant jellyfish dying on the beach outside her door While, of course, some of the stories hit harder than others, I don't think I was disappointed by any of these stories. I think, also, that Julia Armfield is coming out with another short story collection in a few months and I am SO ready! . . . . . #saltslow #juliaarmfield #shortstorycollection #horror #bookreview #horrorbook #fictionbook #booksbooksbooks
Just started reading the acclaimed "Our Wives Under The Sea” by #JuliaArmfield and already loving it..... "I used to think there was such a thing as emptiness, that there were places in the world one could go and be alone. This, I think, is still true, but the error in my reasoning was to assume that alone was somewhere you could go, rather than somewhere you had to be left." 💪🖤 #ourwivesunderthesea
‘salt slow’ by julia armfield 🦷🧂 objectively, i feel like this isn’t a bad story collection but maybe because i read this after ‘our wives under the sea’ i couldn’t help feeling like it fell flat in comparison. the opening story, ‘mantis’ and the last two stories, ‘cassandra after’ and ‘salt slow’ were great but i felt a bit bored reading the middle stories (6 out of a total of 9). it felt like they never broke out of the bounds of an idea into a story and they all gave me the same feeling at the end (of being slightly disturbed but mostly indifferent). in comparison to bora chung’s ‘your utopia’, the last short story collection i read, where each story felt like it offered a different experience, this was a bit disappointing. there were some gorgeous lines for sure but i’m finding that that isn’t really enough for me. 🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️
Nuestras esposas bajo el mar (2022), de la escritora inglesa Julia Armfield 🏳️🌈 “Leah está ahí y la cama está empapada, y me lleva más tiempo del que debería, aún en la oscuridad, darme cuenta de que el agua viene de ella”. Me encantó esta novela, porque Julia Armfield escribe sobre el amor y la transformación de una relación en un contexto sobrenatural, narrado al ritmo de un suspenso escalofriante. Leah y Miri están casadas y enamoradas. Leah es científica y es parte de una investigación en la que se realiza una exploración al fondo del océano, en donde las cosas se complican y no pueden volver a la superficie. Después de mucho tiempo, Miri recibe una llamada que anuncia el regreso de su amada. Sin embargo, la persona que regresa ya no es la que conocía. Hay objetos que no se pueden reparar, lo mismo pasa con las relaciones entre personas. ¿Qué pasó allá abajo? ¿Cómo hace Miri para entender y convivir con la transformación de Leah? La novela tiene como transfondo la sospecha de que lo que sucedió no fue un accidente. Los capítulos son cortos y van y vienen, desde el fondo del mar hacia la superficie, desde lo vivido por Leah a lo vivido por Miri. Por momentos la lectura es lenta, pero vale la pena. A medida que avanza se pone mejor. ⭐⭐⭐⭐ #megustaleer #leoycomparto #leoyrecomiendo #instabook #instalibros #bookstagramers #booktagram #booklover #books #quéleer #lecturasrecomendadas #instagramer #leomujeres #leoautoras #nuestrasesposasbajoelmar #juliaarmfield
When I visited Cross & Crows for Amy Mattes’s book event, I picked up Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield. This has been on my wish list for a couple of months now, ever since it was recommended to me by my friend @allivail, but it’s been a little hard to get my hands on. Wouldn’t you know that the minute I stopped thinking about it, it appeared! “Miri thinks she has got her wife back, when Leah finally returns after a deep sea mission that ended in catastrophe. But It soon becomes clear that Leah may have come back wrong. Whatever happened in that vessel, whatever it was they were supposed to be studying before they were stranded on the ocean floor, Leah has carried part of it with her, onto dry land and into their home. Memories of what they had before – the jokes they shared, the films they watched, all the small things that made Leah hers – only remind Miri of what she stands to lose. Living in the same space but suddenly separate, Miri comes to realize that the life that they had might be gone.” I have no idea when I’m going to fit this one in, but I keep sneaking peeks at it on my side table so it wouldn’t surprise me if it happens soon. #ourwivesunderthesea #juliaarmfield #moodreader #bookrecommendations #newbooks #tbr #alwaysreading #bookstagram #canadianbookstagram #lovebooks #bookworm #noseinabook
As I see it, Julia Armfield is one of the most poetic authors in this genre, and she displays this time and time again in her collection of short stories and debut book, Salt Slow. Exploring themes of change, girlhood, isolation, grief, love, and how people can turn into something more than they ever thought possible, Salt Slow is a beautiful collection of tragedies. Formerly Feral stood out as my favourite story, but The Great Awake, Cassandra After, Mantis and salt slow were also standouts. This book was a beautiful piece of literature, and so devastatingly tragic too.
Books for the ✨unhinged✨ girls This is one of my favorite series of recommendations to make and I look forward to make more in the future♥️ #bookrecommendations #bookrecs #unhinged #unhingedwomen #unhingedwomenbooks #naturalbeauty #linglinghuang #myhusband #maudventura #thechange #kirstenmiller #cursedbread #sophiemackintosh #jowalton #lent #juliaarmfield #ourwivesunderthesea #book #bookworm #bookstagram
April 2024 reading Wrapup So many good reads again! 2024 is really treating me well. Wrath by Ellis James was by far a stand out this month, this book lived in my head for DAYS. #ourwivesunderthesea #wrath #thehousemaidssecret #murderinthefamily #obsession #pitstop #relentlessdevil #goodgame #nowayout #juliaarmfield #ellisjames #freidamcfadden #carahunter #harleighbeckauthor #ellismae #kyliekent #madisonfox #santanaknox
𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝔀𝓲𝓿𝓮𝓼 𝓾𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓮𝓪 𝓻𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓮𝔀 🌊🧡 𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐: 3.75 This was strange. I enjoyed this while also not knowing what I enjoyed about it. It had the element of weirdness that I wanted and expected from Natural Beauty but didn’t get, even though the two stories are vastly different. I kept trying to predict where this was going and what was happening, and I was never correct in what I thought. At some point I had to give up and relinquish into the unknown journey the rest of this book would take me on. I appreciate what it was and that in a sense it was a bit genre-defying or genre-bending in what it did. I liked the two perspectives and how they weaved two timelines together while also including snippets from the past. Each character was detailed just enough for me to be invested in them but just surface enough to remain somewhat mysterious. The ending touched me more than I was expecting it to; I guess really because I didn’t know what to expect. I also had this feeling right after finishing the book that compares to walking out of a movie theater (into real life) after being immersed in a particularly captivating or altered reality type of world and you feel a little bit different after consuming the story and that your life is somehow different but you don’t really know how... that’s the feeling this book made me feel. 🏷️ #ourwivesunderthesea #juliaarmfield #books #bookstagram #bookinstagram #bookshelves #tbr #bestbooks #reading #readingslump #booklover #bookworm #bookish #bookaddict #bibliophile #bookaholic #reader #instabooks #audiobooks #bookaesthetic #trendingbooks #booktok #popularbooks #readthisbook #trending #bookpost #bookcommunity #bookstagrammer #bookclub
We are one day away from opening night. Here is a little sneak peak into the world of The Great Awake. Tickets in bio. Don’t miss out. #theatre #londontheatre #thegreatawake #juliaarmfield #universityofgreenwich
April Wrap-up 🌷 Been a busy little month! We have been making the most of the rare sunny days and getting out with our Bruno 🐶🫶🏼 I read 6 books which is another fab month for me ✨️ 4.5⭐️ Our Wives Under The Sea, Julia Armfield (🎧) Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus 4⭐️ The Villa, Jess Ryder Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner (🎧) 3⭐️ Days at the Morisaki Bookshop, Satoshi Yagisawa Currently reading three books, two of which have the potential to be 5 star! I've only had two 5⭐️ books of the year so far so I'm excited 🫶🏼 Falling by T. J Newman is one I found in the library and loving, so tense! ✈️ and Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter is just *chefs kiss*. Hope you've all had a lovely April, how is it May already?? 🩷 #aprilwrapup #booksiveread #ripesarahroseetter #fallingtjnewman #juliaarmfield #lessonsinchemistry
I may have gone a little overboard at the used bookstore last weekend (heavy emphasis on may).
Books I read and loved in April. 1. I adored Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield so I was desperate to read this as soon as it was announced. She is a grand master of telling a huge story just below the surface of a really intimate story. Out in June and highly recommended. 2. Exquisite prose and a dreamscape of magical realism and adventure, A Short Walk Through A Wide World is a beautiful book that I’ll think of often. 3 and 4. Not the best Muriel Sparks, but the worst Muriel Sparks will still beat the rest of us into a bloody pulp any day of the week. I love her. Next month I’m looking to read more thrillers, especially ones that are beautifully written. Any suggestions?
“The deep sea is a haunted house: a place in which things that ought not to exist move about in the darkness.” ⭐️🌊💧⭐️ #ourwivesunderthesea #juliaarmfield #nails #bookstagram #bookcover #booklover #bookphotography #bookquote #booksofinstagram #ilovebooks
🪴 April Reads 🪴 April is all wrapped up now guys! 🙌🏻Hopefully that also means less rain, more sun too 😂☀️ I’ve had a really good reading month, I’ve read quite a few up and coming releases too, which have been great. I’m behind on my reviews though so I have a few grid post reviews to do, then the rest will be on stories as mini reviews. 👉🏻Swipe across for all the books I don’t own a copy of for audio & ebook. My favourite book of the month was, of course, We All Want Impossible Things and it’s a strong contender for my fave book of the year so far 😍🥹 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 What Happened to Nina? by Dervla McTiernan🎧 Funny Story by Emily Henry* Private Rites by Julia Armfield* ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Darling Girls by Sally Hepworth*🎧 Lonely Castle in the Mirror by Mizuki Tsujimara📱 The Tw*t Files by Dawn French🎧 ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 She’s Not Sorry by Mary Kubica🎧 ⭐️⭐️⭐️ So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan📱 Sociopath by Patric Gagne🎧* I Know Who You Are by Alice Feeney🎧 *AD/PR Products 💭Have you read any of these? What was your favourite book of the month? . . . #aprilwrapup #aprilreads #april2024reads #weallwantimpossiblethings #catherinenewman #privaterites #juliaarmfield #darlinggirls #sallyhepworth #funnystory #emilyhenry #booklover #readinglist #bookworm #bookshelf #bookstack #whatiread #bookobsessed #booksofinstagram #bookblog #bookcommunity #readersofinstagram #readinggoals #favouritebook bookstaexplore
🧂Salt Slow by Julia Armfield🧂 𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒔𝒐𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒕𝒚, 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒊𝒍𝒚, 𝒎𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒌𝒊𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒔𝒐𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝒐𝒃𝒔𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆. 𝑻𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒔, 𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒆, 𝒂 𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒏𝒊𝒂𝒄 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒑𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒖𝒑 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒏𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒐𝒍𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒆𝒂 𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒕𝒐𝒘𝒏𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒗𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒉𝒚𝒔𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍, 𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒑𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒇𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒊𝒏𝒉𝒂𝒃𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒔. 𝑩𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒄 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒄, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 – 𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚, 𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒏𝒆𝒘. This story collection was an impulse buy when I was shopping a few weeks ago, and I was happy to find that my friend @amandatacklestbr also had a copy. We read one a day, and I come away from the collection with mainly positive news. The stories are all beautifully written. Some were tougher than others but I think all of them provided Amanda and I with plenty to talk about. I loved the horror, the queer representation, the mythical elements and how the author could make the mundane pretty and fantastic. It's not a collection to binge. I enjoyed reading a story and taking time to consider it and talk it over. There are 9 stories in total. My favourites were Mantis, The Great Awake & Cassandra After. Thanks again to @amandatacklestbr for helping me understand some of these and for the chats 🙌 #saltslow #juliaarmfield #shortstories #buddyreads #bookstagram #books #lgbtqfiction
📚B O O K • R E V I E W📚 Private Rites by Julia Armfield 5/5⭐️ Ok, this is my first Julia Armfield read (yes I own other books but as always I buy them and leave them on the shelf 😃) but of course I had to read this straight away when it landed through my letterbox (thank u, thank u, thank u @4thestatebooks !!) and I can see why you all LOVE Julia’s writing – must pick up Our Wives Under the Sea asap! The sense of unease in this one 😮💨😮💨 I felt uncomfortable from the first few pages. I feel like we all know the world is going to shit? Climate change has been such a huge topic for so many years now and if you want a realistic view of what this means for the world as time goes on, Private Rites gives an extremely believable and terrifying portrayal of what that could look like. Not only is the world falling down around them, but the three sisters have their own conflicts and rage within them which creates an even trickier situation when they are all forced to reunite after their fathers death (not a spoiler). Julia Armfield has created such a realistic bond between these sisters, and the anger they feel towards each other jumps off the page. I felt conflicted, as some of the characters were very unlikeable BUT I felt sorry for them at the same time so 👏🏼👏🏼 to Armfield for this! I both loved the ending and was like 😫 at the same time – I NEED MORE (I can’t wait to see what you all make of it) !! Private Rites is publishing in June and I know it is a hugely anticipated release for 2024… I don’t think you are going to be disappointed 💚 #bookstagram #bookstagrammers #bookcommunity #bookblogger #bookblog #booksbooksbooks #booklover #booksofinstagram #booksof2024 #bookflatlay #2024bookreleases #junebookreleases #privaterites #juliaarmfield #anticipatedbook
April’s reading recs up on sbstack — link in bio!
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield Another book that I’ve been able to clear off my physical tbr! I went into this one not really knowing much about it other than that it’s a weird little horror, and I can confirm, it’s a weird little horror. The book was a lot more introspective than I anticipated and there is a lot to look at in the moments where things are unsaid or unseen. We follow two main protagonists and the perspectives jump between time and unravels the picture of their relationship nicely. One of the most interesting and main themes of the novels seems to be grief, particularly of when do we begin grieving and what does that look like. Our main character Miri must learn to grieve her mother who declines from dementia and her wife Leah, who has undergone an inexplicable change. Overall I thought this is a very interesting novel. It was much slower paced than I thought it was going to be, but it was also a pretty short book. It left me with many more questions than answers which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I will say I still feel like I maybe missed some of what the book was trying to do.
#2024reads #gossamerreads #juliaarmfield #saltslow #fictionreads #shortstories
What this week!! Hi friends! Happy Sunday! I learned how to use my library system’s inter library loan feature (shoutout to my dear pal @grimandgleeful for his assistance) and scooped up these goodies! First we’ve got “Unbecoming A Lady: The Forgotten Sl-ts and Shrew Who Shaped America.” This volume by author Therese Oneill is a collection of stories about those less-than well-behaved women history tried to forget. I can’t wait to dive into this one — I have Oneill’s previous release, Unmentionable, which is about Victorian womanhood and it was as entertaining as it was informative. In the center we have Julia Armfield’s debut, Our Wives Under the Sea. I’m not sure how I feel about this one. I want to like it but it’s not grabbing me. On the right we have Melissa Broder’s latest, Death Valley. I quite enjoyed Milk Fed so I have high hopes for this one. I’m excited to keep leveraging Maine’s, frankly, impressive reciprocal lending system. This is the kind of service I want my tax dollars to support. Just sayin. 👀
“Gli abissi sono case infestate: luoghi dove cose che non dovrebbero nemmeno esistere si aggirano nell’oscurità”. Quando ero bambina trascorrevo il mese di agosto ad Alicudi, la più piccola delle Isole Eolie, dove passavo buona parte del tempo in acqua, a inseguire pesci ed esplorare i fondali. Ero attratta e affascinata dalla profondità, sceglievo un punto e mi immergevo, là dove il mare si faceva più scuro e più freddo, e mi spingevo sempre di più verso il basso finché sentivo di avere ancora abbastanza aria per tornare su. Ricordo la voglia di scoperta e l’inquietudine di trovarmi, a un certo punto, sospesa nel vuoto, di nuotare quasi alla cieca. Con le dovute proporzioni – ero pur sempre una bambina e quello che allora mi sembrava l’abisso era solitamente il punto in cui si trovava la boa più lontana – leggere “Le nostre mogli negli abissi” mi ha trasmesso quella precisa sensazione. Quel nodo alla gola, quell’inquietudine da cui vorresti scappare, ma che è quasi una droga. “Le nostre mogli negli abissi” è una storia d’amore, un horror malinconico, un viaggio verso l’ignoto. Miri e Leah si amano e la loro vita procede senza eccessivi scossoni finché Leah, biologa marina, non torna profondamente cambiata da una misteriosa missione negli abissi, in “questo mare alchimista che tramuta le cose”. Alternando i punti di vista delle protagoniste, così diverse tra loro – la luna Miri, il sole Leah –, e i piani temporali, scopriamo qualcosa, solo qualcosa, di ciò che è accaduto, mentre Miri raccoglie i pezzi della loro storia. I fatti, però - cosa si nasconde negli abissi, cos’è successo a Leah - non sono poi così rilevanti quanto le loro conseguenze. L’intero romanzo appare quindi come una metafora per raccontare cosa succede quando la nostra vita, almeno per come la conosciamo, inizia a scivolarci via, l’angoscia e la paura di perdere il controllo, quel momento in cui tutto cambia e la nostra esistenza viene stravolta, il tentativo di rimettere insieme cocci ormai dispersi negli abissi. 📚📚📚📚 #bookstagram #books #libribelli #libri #igreads #bompiani #bookstagramitalia #juliaarmfield
Our Wives Under The Sea Julia Armfield (36) I loved this! It’s a really lovely, believable love story BUT ALSO a horror story. Leah is recently returned from a submarine mission that didn’t quite go to plan, and has been acting strangely since her return. Most of the story is told from Miri’s point of view as she navigates their new life together. I found the storytelling around their history as a couple really immersive and such a considered thoughtful depiction of the narrative of a relationship, while also having this sense of dread throughout as Leah’s behaviour gets weirder. It works on a metaphorical level but also just really spooky and atmospheric - very The Waters of Mars. Like I couldn’t wait to see how things unfolded on the submarine but at the same time I just wanted to close my eyes. All the stuff about the sea and what’s in the depths really tapped into something I think about a lot and the writing was beautiful. This book managed to do (at least!) two completely different things at the same time, and do them both well, and connect them seamlessly. It was only afterwards that I realised Armfield also wrote Salt Slow which I picked up from the library on a whim EXACTLY this time last year, and loved, so I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for anything else she writes in the future. What a debut. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #juliaarmfield #juliaarmfieldbooks #bookstagram #whatiread
Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield 🦑 🌟🌟🌟🌟✨ Pictured here with flowers from number one Armfield stan @abbyabridged 💖 ily 🦑 The plot: There is something wrong with Miri's wife Leah. Ever since she returned from a deep sea mission that lasted months longer than planned she's been acting unlike herself. As Miri tries to keep her life together, she must contend with the idea that Leah is no longer herself at all. Going into this much-lauded novel, I expected a creepy premise and beautiful prose, and I got both of those things. What I didn't anticipate was how chilling it would be - a deep sea chill, an ocean bed ache in the bones. I also didn't realise how much of a love story it would be, or that that would be the root of the creeping cold of this book. This is a story that hints at horror as a way of exploring the grief of losing the person you love to a degenerative illness. If someone asked me to mount a case in favour of quote-unquote "unlikeable" narrators, I would give them this book and challenge them to have any other response to Miri's spikiness than intensified sympathy. This is someone who does not necessarily love or let anyone in easily, and this informs the tragedy of her story and makes her recollections of her past happiness with Leah even more poignant. Her spikiness is the same thing as her tenderness and that makes this love story so real. 🦑 Read it if you love a literary mystery with a speculative edge and queer characters at the heart. Also a well observed dinner party scene!!! 🚫 Avoid if you're not in a place to read about grief for a spouse or if you're super scared of the ocean. This won't help you babe!! #ourwivesunderthesea #juliaarmfield #bookreviews #bookreview #bookreviewersofinstagram #booksofinstagram #bookstagrammers #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookish #bookishlove #book #books #booksbooksbooks
April book haul :: Buying books is also a hobby, right? I got myself quite a stack this month ☺️ that’s what spring does to me 📚 Here are all of the books I added to my shelf in April. Second hand: ➖Son of the Shadows, and ➖Child of the Prophecy, both by Juliet Marillier French/Quebec Lit ➖Ru by Kim Thúy ➖Rose à l’île by Michel Rabagliati Discounted books! ➖The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow ➖The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoudrels, and ➖The League of Gentlewomen Witches, both by India Holton ➖A Lady’s Guide to Fortune-Hunting by Sophie Irwin ➖Salt Slow by Julia Armfield ➖Ghosts by Dolly Alderton And then I visited an indie bookshop last weekend, so of course I was not going to leave empty-handed ➖Mom, Can I Do My Laundry at Your House? Poems from Your Adult Child by Olivia Roberts ➖Revenge of the Librarians by Tom Gauld Phew! 1- What do you think? Any title from this list you’re thinking YASS DO READ NOW? 2- What’s one book you acquired in April?
Le nostre mogli negli abissi - Julia Armfield - 2022 (Bompiani 2024). Traduzione di Chiara Manfrinato. "Gli abissi marini sono case infestate: luoghi dove cose che non dovrebbero nemmeno esistere si aggirano nell’oscurità." Julia Armfield al suo romanzo d'esordio -preceduto dalla raccolta di racconti"Mantide"- esplora le profondità marine e quelle dell'elaborazione del lutto a partire dalla paura stessa della perdita. "Il lutto è egoista" scrive Armfield. E ancora "Il processo del lutto ci permette di elaborare la perdita ma se è ammantato dall’ambiguità, dalla costante eventualità di un ribaltamento, nessuna elaborazione è possibile." La narrazione è affidata alle voci alternate di Leah, la moglie negli abissi, che dovrà affrontare una missione subacquea carica di incognite, e di Miri, la moglie sulla terraferma, che ne attende il ritorno, rievocando i momenti salienti della loro storia. Quando le due mogli si riuniranno si troveranno a fare i conti con la metamorfosi del loro rapporto (e non solo). La narrazione si muove agevolmente tra romanticismo e tensione, è credibile e fluida, soprattutto nelle parti dalle tinte più oscure. #lenostremoglinegliabissi #juliaarmfield #bompiani #libribelli #bookstagram #book #narrativacontemporanea
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️: Our Wives Under The Sea: Julia Armfield I panic bought this on Audible when my subscription was about to expire, and I’m glad I did! I was drawn in by the cover but stayed for the story. A horror with themes of love, accepting how to let go and putting yourself first. Definite recommend 💕 . . I’ve cancelled Audible since Spotify premium now offers audiobooks, so feel free to drop your recommendations in the comments!! 💐✨🎀 . . . #books #bookstagram #booksta #goodreads #readinggoal #bookbabesuk #galswhoread #booklover #booktok #bookbuyingban #audiobook #audible #ourwivesunderthesea #juliaarmfield #lgbtbook #lgbtrepresentation
THE 5️⃣ BOOK CHALLENGE 📚 Happy Thursday you lovely lot! Hope you’re having a good week so far. Here’s a fun little challenge I did last year so felt inspired to do it again. 1️⃣ A book I’m currently reading - Private Rites by Julia Armfield. This is a much anticipated read and I’m really enjoying it, her writing style is so unique and special. 2️⃣ My last 5⭐️ read was - We all want impossible things by Catherine Newman. Stunning, emotional yet very funny too. LOVED! 3️⃣ A book I keep putting off and I need you to nudge me to read - Get a Life Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert. This has been on my shelves forever, not a big romance reader so never think to pick it up and it’s part of a series. Give me reasons to pick it up, please?!! 4️⃣ A book that is super under appreciated on here - The Mothers by Brit Bennett. I read this last year and I still think about it now, wonderful writing and intriguing plot. 5️⃣ And finally, a book everyone needs to read - Still Life by Sarah Winman. Obviously I adore this book and I think the characters are what makes it so special. 💭Have you read and enjoyed any of these books? I’ve tagged a few of you to have a go. . . . #fivebookchallenge #bookstackchallenge #bookflatlay #bookstack #stilllife #sarahwinman #themothers #britbennett #getalifechloebrown #taliahibert #weallwantimpossiblethings #catherinenewman #privaterites #juliaarmfield #booktag #bookcommunity #bookstagramuk #bookblogger #booklover #bookrecommendations #bookecs #booklove #bibliophile #bookstagrammer #bookstaexplore
#coffeeandcurrentlyreading Thanks for the tag, Jodie! Agaat—I’ve been reading this one for two and a half weeks, and I’m halfway done. Think I can finish before April ends? I love it because the language is beautiful, but it’s definitely a slow down and pay attention type of book. Gods of Jade and Shadow—My current audiobook and I’m really into it. I’ve wanted to read another Sylvia Moreno-Garcia since I read and loved Mexican Gothic, so I’m excited for this one. That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon—a hilarious group read with @everyones_mad_he.re, @cauldronblesssed, and others. Salt Slow—A short story collection I’m buddy reading with @book.n.films. Our Wives Under the Sea is such an amazing book, so I had to scoop up these stories and so far they are excellent! What are you currently reading?
NEW ON THIS SHELF It's that time of the week again - hopefully you've all seen these on the bulletin too. 🎉📚 SPO - Patina, Jason Reynolds // Gordon's Game, Gordon D'Arcy ROM - One Day, David Nicholls // An Arrow to the Moon, Emily X R Pan HOR - Flesh and Blood, Simon Cheshire // Our Wives Under the Sea, Julia Armfield FAN - Frostheart, Jamie Littler // This Poison Heart, Kalynn Bayron #books #bookstagram #libraries #schoollibraries #homework #reading #review #bookreview #bookclub #patina #jasonreynolds @jasonreynolds83 #gordonsgame #gordondarcy @gordondarcy #oneday #davidnicholls @davidnichollswriter #anarrowtothemoon #emilyxrpan #fleshandblood #simoncheshire #ourwivesunderthesea #juliaarmfield #frostheart #jamielittler #thispoisonheart #kalynnbayron @kalynnbayron
> "Our Wives Under The Sea" - Julia Armfield 🌊🫧🛀 > Leah returns much later than expected from a deep sea mission and her wife Miri knows something is wrong. In flashbacks we learn about Leah's pov in the little submarine stranded on the ocean floor. Meanwhile we try to figure out from Miri's pov what is going wrong and how she experienced the time while her wife was missing. I've never read something like this but I was intrigued from page 1. I loved the quiet and calm writing style. I still have a few questions tho, I'm gonna keep thinking about this book for a while. > Leah kehrt von einer Tiefseemission viel später zurück als geplant und ihre Frau Miri spürt, dass etwas nicht stimmt. In Rückblenden erfährt man aus Leahs Sicht über die Zeit in dem auf dem Meeresboden gestrandeten U-Boot. Miri versucht währenddessen rauszufinden was nicht stimmt und man lernt wie sie versucht damit umzugehen, dass ihre Frau vermisst wurde. Ich habe noch nie so was in der Art gelesen, aber ich war von Anfang an fasziniert. Ich hab den ruhigen Schreibstil geliebt. Ich habe immer noch ein paar Fragen, das Buch wird mir noch eine Weile im Kopf bleiben. > 4.5 / 5 🌊🫧🛀 #ourwivesunderthesea #juliaarmfield #scifi #literary #lgbtq #ocean #deepsea #diving #submarine #grief #loss #books #bookstagram #reading #bookstagram #booklover
👯 Two For Tuesday 👯 A post showcasing some of my favourite authors, that I own two books of! Shown here are the following, with my first book by them on the bottom, and the second one I read on top: 💔 Hanya Yanagihara - A Little Life & The People In The Trees ❤️🔥 Akwaeke Emezi - The Death of Vivek Oji & You made a Fool of Death with your Beauty 🛸 Douglas Adams - The Hitchhikers's Guide to the Galaxy & Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency 🥀 Mariana Enriquez - The Dangers of Smoking in Bed & Things We Lost In The Fire 💖 Yaa Gyasi - Homegoing & Transcendent Kingdom 🌊 Julia Armfield - Our Wives Under The Sea & Salt Slow 🖤 Bret Easton Ellis - American Psycho & The Rules of Attraction I've actually still have to read Dirk Gently's, Salt Slow & The Rules of Attraction. Spot any favourites?
📖 The Last Book I... 📖 I was tagged by the pretty amazing @mandathemoodreader in this challenge last week, it was a fun one to mull over. Here we have... 🔴 The Last Book I Gave 5 Stars To - Skagboys by Irvine Welsh. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 🔴 The Last Book I Bought - Salt Slow by Julia Armfield, excited to start buddy reading this tomorrow with @amandatacklestbr 🤜🤛 🔴 The Last Book I Started - The Haar by David Sodergren. I'm cheating a bit here because it's actually the next book I'm starting and it's this month's choice for @terror_novella_book_club 🔴 The Last Book I Finished - Monarch of the Glen by Neil Gaiman. This was a little novella tucked away at the back of American Gods which is this month's read for the Neil Gaiman book club that's up and running. 🔴 The Last Book I DNF'd - The Catcher In The Rye by JD Salinger. I've actually started this book three times and never made it to the end. Someone sell it to me! 🔴 The Last Book I Recommended - The Green Mile by Stephen King. I've seen a few posts about lately from people looking where to start with Stephen King. This is a great one. 🔴 The Last Book I Was Gifted - Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks. Sent to me by the brilliant @whatcha.reading.kim and I can't wait to read it with a couple of excellent people 👌 🔴 The Last Book I Added To My Wishlist - Why I Write by George Orwell. I think this was also Kim's fault. If not, let's blame her anyway. I'm going to tag some friends, but if this is something you want to do, just say @book.n.films sent you 👋 QOTD - What's something you are excited for this week? Doesn't have to be a huge event, small wins matter. #bookstachallenge #skagboys #irvinewelsh #saltslow #juliaarmfield #thehaar #davidsodergren #monarchoftheglen #americangods #neilgaiman #catcherintherye #jdsalinger #thegreenmile #stephenking #hallucinations #oliversacks #whyiwrite #georgeorwell #qotd #constantreader
✨BOOK REVIEW✨ I had to take an evening after finishing this short story collection before writing my thoughts, because oh my goodness I had so many! Almost every single story in this book was near perfection 👌🏼 They were atmospheric, haunting and so beautifully crafted. Women are powerful and monstrous and ethereal. There were lots of gorgeous links to water and the ocean, and honestly I’m so excited for Private Rites this summer. Every word that Julia Armfield puts to paper is intentional, and the result is a lyrical masterpiece. Ugh. So good. Plus, some of the stories were sapphic, so that’s a win 🕺 There were a couple of stories that I didn’t quite enjoy as much as the others, but the overall effect was so flipping good that it had to be a 5 star from me ✨ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ { #saltslow #juliaarmfield #booklover #shortstories #bookreview #reviews #bookrecommendations #sapphicbookrecs #sapphicbook #sapphicbookstagram #emilycbookshelf}
Julia Armfield: „Our Wives Under The Sea“ (2022) Drei Wochen will die Meeresbiologin Leah auf eine Tiefseeexpedition gehen. Keine große Sache, es ist nicht ihr erster Trip, ihre Frau Miri macht sich also keine Gedanken. Bis der Anruf kommt, dass sich die Rückkehr verzögere. Und weiter verzögere. Genauere Informationen gibt es keine, die Anrufe werden immer seltener und hören schließlich auf. Miri bleibt allein mit der Ungewissheit, irgendwo zwischen Hoffen und Aufgeben. Sechs Monate lang. Dann bekommt sie Leah plötzlich wieder zurück und erkennt die Frau, die sie doch eigentlich liebt, kaum wieder. Sowohl Miri als auch Leah durchleben Albtraumszenarien, die abwechselnd aus der Ich-Perspektive erzählt werden, wobei Miris Horror ein beinahe alltäglicher ist. Sie versucht, nach der langen Zeit der Angst um Leah wieder in die Normalität hineinzufinden, aber Leah ist nicht mehr die alte und auf die Fragen, die Miri seit Monaten treiben, gibt es keine Antworten. Manches ist noch, wie es immer war: Bei den Nachbar:innen läuft ständig laut der Fernseher und Freund:innen versuchen, weiterhin an Miris bzw. am Leben des Paares teilzuhaben. Aber Miri isoliert sich, in der gemeinsamen Wohnung und im Zusammenleben ist alles anders geworden. Die Frauen schlafen getrennt, Leah verbringt große Teile des Tages mit ihrer Soundmaschine in der Badewanne, spricht kaum, wirkt abwesend. Auch auf ihrem Körper scheint das Meer Spuren hinterlassen zu haben. “I sit where I am and don’t look at her. She is wearing a tank top that shows the strange silvered places in her underarms and around the base of her neck and I no longer feel much compelled to comment on this. I find that if I squint at the television hard enough, it’s easier to think about things other than how much I miss my wife.” Das neue Element, das Struktur in Miris Alltag bringt, sind verzweifelte Versuche, bei dem Zentrum, das Leahs Expedition organisiert hat, jemanden ans Telefon zu bekommen – sie wird von einer Computerstimme zur nächsten durchgestellt, hängt ewig in Warteschleifen. (Weiter in den Kommentaren)
Belated Q1 wrap up. I read 14 books. Here are some highlights. If yallve read any of these I’d love to hear your thoughts! #whitesmoke #tiffanydjackson #whatbigteeth #ourwivesunderthesea #juliaarmfield #thedepths #nicolelesperance #horrid #katrinaleno #imaginaryfriend #stephenchbosky #thegirlinred #christinahenry #booktok #booksta #booksofinstagram
It’s been a hot minute since I’ve posted and since then I have been gaining speed in the consumption of literature. So, I should update: 1. Our Wives Under the Sea- ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2 It’s a slow moving plot but the writing all but makes up for it and I’d be interested in hearing others thoughts about it, too. 2. Alebrijes- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I read this because I loved The Last Cuentista. This story was interesting and I was invested. I still love the Last Cuentista more but I loved the epilogue that ties the two stories to each other. 3. A Rover’s Story - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I extra starred this one and it wasn’t an accident. I am definitely gifting this to an elementary school teacher. It had a lot of heart and a lot space information and Sophia’s letter’s to Resilience that make me teary-eyed. 4. The Book that No one Wanted to Read- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A real pick me up for anyone who just wants a pep talk for writing their own novel. I adore Richard Ayoade’s dry humor and the very quick audiobook has “the book” as himself. Accompanied picture of Apollo cat for attention! Its’s almost like he reads the book with me since he spends the majority of my reading time snuggled on my lap! Happy Reading! #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookworm #richardayoade #donnabarbrahiguera #jasminewarga #juliaarmfield #fantasybooks #scifibooks #reading #literature
‘The deep sea is a haunted house: a place in which things that ought not to exist move about in the darkness.’ 🐙🌊⚓️ Our Wives Under The Sea - Julia Armfield The reason it’s taken so long for me to post a review for this is because I needed time to recover (cried so much that my gf texted me to check I was ok😭). That being said this is genuinely one of the most beautifully written books I’ve read in such a long time, if not ever! A sapphic literary horror that is equal parts of emotional and chilling. It’s told across two separate timelines by our narrators Lead and Miri while they navigate their relationship through a life-altering deep-sea tragedy. Leah, submerged underwater, surrounded by darkness so impenetrable it seeps through the submarine walls and into her soul, leaving her no choice but to bring it back up to the surface with her. Miri, drowning similarly in the absence of her wife and the soul-crushing introspection and reflections she fills the gap with, then attempting to care for Leah and revive their relationship following her return. Despite the separation between them in both space and time, the two narrators unknowingly address ponderings or questions brought up by the other, a really bittersweet display of their deep and impenetrable love for one another. I could write an entire essay on the imagery alone (but I’ll try not to), but just know that it’s completely unmatched! The way that seemingly unrelated metaphors that extend throughout the book are tied seamlessly together by the end in a way that perfectly encapsulates the nuances of the characters’ experiences into concrete entities. I can see how this isn’t for everyone due to the slow plot, ambiguous ending and gradual build up of horror elements, but for me it was perfect. I still haven’t stopped thinking about this book yet and am very eager to read more of Julia Armfield’s work! ••• #ourwivesunderthesea #juliaarmfield #bookreview #recentread #bookstagram #sapphicbooks #queerlit #bookrec #litfic #literaryhorror #horrorbooks #queerbookstagram #cozyreads #readerlife #smallbookstagrammer #bookishthoughts #bookreviewersofinstagram #booktok #booktokbooks #quickreads #2024reads
I’ve read “Our Wives Under the Sea” for my Book Club’s meeting some good 8 months ago, and episodes of thinking about it still hit me like waves (which is probably a fitting metaphor, given the book’s contents). The novel uses alternating chapters to follow the narratives of Miri and Leah – two women whose marriage suffers a crisis after Leah’s return from a deep-sea research mission. Leah behaves in an uncanny manner (to say the least), and Miri, in the meantime, tries to make sense of what happened to the woman she loves (loved?) and cope with loneliness of being physically together, but apart emotionally, while coming to terms with change, loss, and some unknowns she will eventually need to accept to live on. Thoughts: 🌊 Florence Welch named Julia Armfield one of her favourite writers which makes perfect sense – this book felt like a Florence & The Machine’s song: poetic, sad, spooky and moany, a bit like a sea shanty; 🌊 Armfield’s writing is as unpleasant as it is stunning. It gets under your skin (just like salt and sand), makes you feel itchy, at times even annoyed. Atmosphere-building was masterful and addictive, combining poetry and horror/sci-fi elements and making me feel uneasy, yet wanting more; 🌊 It was one of these books I’d prefer to be either a short story or a much longer piece. It’s short for a novel, but too long not to feel like a drag sometimes, and too short for the reader to form a deep bond with its characters, including secondary characters that, to me, lacked space to gain any real importance for the plot; 🌊 My main issue with it was that it lacked what many people may, indeed, lack in failing relationships: a climax. It started off strong but then seemed to lose the momentum, and left me with more questions than I like to have when finishing a book; 🌊 What I loved was that Leah’s and Miri’s queerness did not constitute their entire personalities (which is something I despite in LGBTQ-themed books) while, obviously, serving as an important part of the story; 🌊 Not my all-time favourite in the end but left me excited to read more of Julia Armfield’s works! Do you like atmospheric books? Have you read this one?
𝘐𝘵’𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘧, one woman posted, 𝘪𝘵’𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘩𝘢𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨. This specific quote feels like the right one to sum up the atmosphere of Our Wives Under the Sea, a book dealing with the complexity of grieving someone who is still there, but someone you are slowly losing. Remembering what was, comparing it to what is. All the while having to cope with uncertainty, dread, and the complete lack of answers as to how you got to this new and strange place. Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield is told in alternating chapters between Miri and Leah. We follow Miri in the present as she deals with the aftermath of Leah’s return from a deep-sea mission gone horribly wrong. Being trapped in the darkness of the ocean for months has changed Leah, leaving Miri with the task of putting the pieces of their marriage back together. In Leah’s chapters, we experience what it was like for her in the submarine, the confusion about how and why things went wrong, the horror of their reality, and the unshakeable feeling that something is out there in the dark. I love how Armfield’s prose is filled with creative metaphors and imagery so specific that it makes perfect sense. Alongside these beautiful lines are very well-researched facts about the ocean and the creatures that inhabit it written in Leah’s voice and added so seamlessly to the story that it allows us to understand her fascination with the deep. The ocean is a big part of the story, so much so that the book is divided into five parts named after the layers of the ocean. Instead of following the more well-known stages of grief, the story uses the ocean as a narrative framework. Each layer is darker and colder than the previous one, the pressure increasing the deeper you go. Each layer reflects Leah’s physical state, Miri’s emotional state, and the state of their marriage as the story progresses. * CONTINUED IN THE COMMENTS * #bookreview #ourwivesunderthesea #juliaarmfield #sapphichorror #literaryfiction
NEW EVENT! We are absolutely over the moon to announce that Julia Armfield, author of Our Wives Under the Sea, will be joining us on Tuesday 18th June to celebrate the publication of her new book, Private Rites! We are huge fans of Julia’s work and we can’t wait to welcome her to the shop! Here’s a little taste of the new book to whet your appetite: There's no way to bury a body in earth which is flooded It is a fact consigned to history along with almost everything else It's been raining for a long time now, for so long that the lands have reshaped themselves. Old places have been lost. Arcane rituals and religions have crept back into practice. Sisters Isla, Irene and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their estranged father dies. A famous architect revered for making the new world navigable, he had long cut himself off from public life. They find themselves uncertain of how to grieve his passing when everything around them seems to be ending anyway. As the sisters come together to clear the grand glass house that is the pinnacle of his legacy, they begin to sense that the magnetic influence of their father lives on through it. Something sinister seems to be unfolding, something related to their mother's long-ago disappearance and the strangers who have always been unusually interested in their lives. Soon, it becomes clear that the sisters have been chosen for a very particular purpose, one with shattering implications for their family and their imperilled world. Event Info: Start Time: 6:30pm – 8:00pm Date: Tuesday 18th June Location: Stanfords, 29 Corn Street, Bristol BS1 1HT Standard Ticket: £6 Book and Ticket: £16.99 (includes a copy of Private Rites to be collected at the event) Both ticket options includes a glass of wine or soft drink and 15% off any purchases made on the evening. As always, tickets can be purchased through the link in our bio. We’ll see you there! #stanfordsbristol #bristol #bristolevents #bristol247 #bookstagram #cornstreet #indiebookshop #juliaarmfield #4thestate #fiction #ourwivesunderthesea