Our Wives Under The Sea

Dieser Roman ist unheimlich, nischenhaft und erschreckend. Es geht um sapphische Liebe, Trauer und die Unheimlichkeit des unbekannten Ozeans. Die ganze Zeit über hatte ich das Gefühl, dass mir das Herz im Hals stecken bleibt und das Ende hat mich sehr berührt. Ich kann diese Geschichte nicht anders erklären als mit dem ersten Satz, den ich hier verwendet habe. ...weiterlesen

Be warned: This book is terribly slow paced and it will make you love every second of it. Our Wives under the Sea is divided into five parts, each named after a layer of the ocean in consecutive order, and is told from the perspective of Miri (the wife who stayed on land) in the present after the expedition and Lea (the wife who went under the sea) during the expedition. It's a story that often digresses from the main plot for flash backs or inner dialog. The main plot really takes a backseat to an intricate character study here. You should consider that before reading or you might be disappointed. Also I think the marketing for this book is off. It's marketed as a heartfelt romance and horror and yes, that isn't wrong but it isn't right either. You're watching a long relationship fall apart in front of you and are confronted with isolation and body horror, but putting this into these marketing brackets doesn't seem right. I loved this book more than I expected after the first few pages, but there's somethings I'd like to change about it. Minor spoilers from here on: Miri was a very difficult character for me at first. She is heavily implied to be neurodivers and confirmed to be "at least" hypochondriac. But what made her difficult is that she doesn't seem to do much or anything at all to better her situation with Lea. After I got used to that, I had a change of heart and loved that for her character, because it just really drives home the helplessness she feels. Instead of Miri, Lea turned out to be the difficult character. I thought her story under the sea would make her parts so much more interesting, but somehow it doesn't at all. Her part feels hollow and maybe that's genius in itself. I can't decide. In the end, I couldn't tell what kind of character she was. Although everything is about her, she stayed shallow and underdeveloped. My problem with this book is its ending though. MAYOR SPOILERS: I loved the conclusion to Miri's story. It's devastating, it's coherent, what more could you want? But the ending to Lea's story is plain unfulfilling and bad. You wait the entire time to see what happened down there to change her and then you basically get a very rushed, not fleshed out answer. It also leaves so much unfinished. Her last sentence is literally "I thought to myself Miri Miri Miri and I waited for the ocean to end". How did she go from that to how we first see her portrayed at the beginning of Miri's story? What happened to Matteo and why was he in the story at all? What's the Center's role in all of this? I'd be happy with any information about the Center to be honest, because there's no explanation. All of that made me give this 4 stars instead of 5. But if any of this resonated with you, please check out this book. It's very good. ...weiterlesen