By Sahana C.

There are books that belong in discussion, that beg to be read in community. Then there are books like this, that I don’t know if I’ll really be able to talk about in a meaningful way. But you deserve to know about it, so I’ll try my best.  

I’ll tell you first that I read this in one sitting. Each turned page made it evident that this book was heart-wrenchingly, desperately, tenderly romantic, and just as tragic. I was reminded of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier in a lot of ways – the story of the protagonist, Miri, starts in the middle of an existing tragedy, with fog and haze over the order of events in such a way that everything feels like a dream. The classic gothic element where the setting acts as a main character is incredibly present as well – the sea takes its due, from Miri and from her partner Leah, and it is greedy with what it has. The home is a center, as in most gothic tales, and the sea takes the place of home for both Miri and Leah. Armfield writes, “To know the ocean, I have always felt, is to recognize the teeth it keeps half-hidden.”  

Miri thinks something is not quite right about her marine biologist wife, Leah, who has just returned from six months on a deep sea mission that did not end well. Despite Miri’s best efforts, Leah cannot seem to return to life as normal. Miri does what she can, but she can’t escape the fact that she feels she is losing Leah to the sea, somehow, inexplicably. There is a real sense of the liminal throughout the book, but especially in the first chapters as Miri begins to tell the story. Armfield herself says it perfectly, writing about loss but inadvertently summarizing the themes of the novel: “It’s not grief…it’s more like haunting.”  

This idea of haunting is compounded by the ways we learn about Miri and Leah’s relationship throughout the story, in fleeting moments and flashbacks, woven together with this real sense of longing for a time that cannot return, with desperation mounting, and mounting, and mounting, as we need to know what has happened, what will happen, what’s next.  

At some points, this book had a similar energy to one I’ve written about before, Emily Austin’s Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead, with a smattering of “anxious” fiction interspersed among the more gothic notes. The characters are so unfortunately lovable, too, in their desire for one another, and that’s the real tragedy in the novel – Armfield wonders aloud “what happens when love isn’t enough?” The readers are left begging her to stop asking the question.

This book deserves to be read. I read a lot of books; I’m surrounded by them all day, and I can tell you, with full assurance, that this book will make you feel. You’ll bear witness to the love that was there, that was lost, that had something unbelievable change it, and instead of that love living on the paper, in the book, it will belong to you instead.  

Our Wives Under the Sea is available from HCLS in print and as an e-book.

Sahana is an Instructor and Research Specialist at HCLS Savage Branch. They enjoy adding books to their “want to read” list despite having a mountain of books waiting for them already.