Now comes the spoiler filled part so look away: Leah comes back from the sea and by the end of the book we still don’t know what went on. However I’d probably read another Julia Armfield book, should one arise more to my taste profile. Overall I’m glad people enjoy it, I wish it was my cup of tea as they say but sadly it wasn’t. The writer made both characters say they were similar at the start and she isn’t wrong they both sound so similar in voice that sometimes I forgot who’s part is was. Especially the end, I expected a different vibe there than I received. It felt like anytime there was promise to the story it wanted. So desperately I wanted to love this book. I’d give this 1 stars but frankly I can recognise when a book might not be for me but instead is for other people who read this kind of book and want more. I guess me and her don’t share book taste. So this book caught my eye aswell as THE Florence and the machine recommending it. I’m usually a fan of mysteries thrillers romance and fantasy. I finished this book with the thought of why did it end like that? But not in the omg I need a sequel kind of way, instead in the why did I go through all that only to still not understand what happened at the end. It has some gorgeous quotable language but it reads almost like someone that’s trying to hard to insert descriptions of things just for the sake of a good quote, not to advance the story or particularly make you feel anything. For me it was a middle of the road situation.

However I didn’t enjoy this book, and I have to be honest about that. I hesitate to write reviews because I write too and I don’t want to upset the author but you have to be honest.

Living in the same space but suddenly separate, Miri comes to realise that the life that they had might be gone. 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. To have the woman she loves back should mean a return to normal life, but Miri can feel Leah slipping from her grasp. 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. It soon becomes clear, though, that Leah may have come back wrong. Miri thinks she has got her wife back when Leah finally returns after a deep sea mission that ended in catastrophe. It’s a story of falling in love, loss, grief and what life there is in the deep, deep sea. Our Wives Under the Sea is the debut novel from the critically acclaimed author of salt slow. Named as a book to look out for in 2022 by Guardian, i-D, Autostraddle, Bustle, Good Housekeeping, Stylist and DAZED.

The wives under the sea