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Our Wives Under the Sea
Julia Armfield
2022 · 240 pages · Literary fiction
How it reads
Our Wives Under the Sea is literary fiction (literary horror, specifically), and its dominant mood is melancholy. It's quietly sad, wistful and reflective. It's a slow burn: character-driven, with a payoff that comes from accumulation rather than twists. It rewards attention and suits unhurried reading more than five-minute gaps.
It's set in the wilderness or at sea, in the present day, told in the first person by a single narrator. Its central concerns are loss and grief, love and identity. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is left open, for you to argue about. At 240 pages it's a quick read. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something melancholy
- you have time to settle in
- you want something to chew on
Maybe not if…
- you need something funny or hopeful
- you're reading in five-minute gaps
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- literary fiction
- Author gender
- female
- Author experience
- early career
- Setting: place
- wilderness or sea
- Setting: time
- contemporary
- Mood / feeling
- melancholy
- Pace
- slow burn
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- short
- Narrative style
- first person, one narrator
- Publication era
- recent
- Popularity
- well known
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Themes
- loss and grief, love, identity
- Ending style
- ambiguous
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
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Light Can Be Both Wave and ParticleEllen GilchristShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
HausfrauJill Alexander EssbaumShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn- ImpermanenceDaniel FrisanoShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
- SolenoidMircea CărtărescuShares: literary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
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