Our Wives Under the Sea

A short and sweet novel that is beautifully written and haunting. I saw this toted as ‘Annihilation but gay' which, while it made me laugh, isn't entirely off the mark. Plus, Annihilation is one of my favourite horror novels so anything that can be compared to it is a bonus in my eyes.

Like Annihilation, it begins with a partner returning to a wife after a long absence due to a mission gone wrong, and their behaviour is erratic and changed afterward. Plot wise, (from what I remember of Annihilation - it's been a few years) ‘Our Wives Under the Sea' is different after the initial concept. We get point of view sections alternating between Miri and Leah (the wife under the sea). We get the before, the during, and the after. Yet tonally it remains similar, with a familiar sense of eerie creeping dread. This is so short, I don't want to say more because of spoilers, but Julia Armfield really succeeds in packing an emotional wallop.

What I will say though, is that this is ultimately a novel about grief and love, and how those two things are intrinsically linked. It is less interested in explaining how, or why, than using horror and the ocean to explore such themes in a way that manages to be both profoundly tender and unsettling.