JAN 2025
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This book was hard for me to get into, I personally found the writing style to be not that immersive and eve offputting at times. However, by the second chapter I was actually finding it very interesting.
I loved the heart behind each story and how they all built together in the end, though the climax was fairly predictable.
My favourite of the 4 stories was the husband and wife, and I found it incredibly sweet and moving. Overall, It was a bit of a slow read for me and wasn't my style but had sweet moments and a strong core. 5/10.
DEC 2024
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These short stories were so fun to read. I loved the spooky elements, though some stories didnt quite grab my attention as others.
My favourite was definetly 'Formerly Feral'.
NOV 2024
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Usually I write my reviews immediately after finishing, but this review is a couple days late, however I think that gave me more time to digest this book, because there was alot to take in.
Plot wise, this book is pretty straight forward, with Miri's wife coming back from a deep sea mission gone wrong. A lot is left ambiguous or up to the readers interpretation, which I love, but it's obvious the book was a big metaphor for grief, loss and change. I loved how the horror aspect lied more within the bigger ideas, rather than just some spooky sea creature.
It was interesting to see how Miri dealt with the 'loss' of her wife, and how subtle but realistic her grief felt. I found myself relating to her more often than I expected, and even some of the more random things she does I found understandable. You see her love for Leah in so many small ways, which I loved so much, and which aslo helped paint a great picture of the change in their relationship.
I found it weird that the author decided to include Leah's perspective, as I expected her side of the story to be more of a mystery, but seh does a great job of showing us her side and how she is as a character (which otherwise we'd only learn from Miri) as well as pacing her side of the story in a way that doesnt ruin the mystery.
I did find the pacing to be a bit slow, and the ending felt a bit more rushed, but I think it worked well for the ideas it wanted to convey. I'd love to read more of Armfield's books, I love her writing style and how she explored themes in this. (HARELYYY please lend me more of ur books pleeasee)
Overall, while the pacing was slow it was such a beautiful story, 8/10
SEP 2024
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This book was AMAZING. I absolutely LOVED how it was written, it was so beautifully done and felt so realistic. I loved how the author portayed the complexity of emotions to do with the different relationships Lucy the main character had, with Susannah, her mother and her best friend.
I think the guilt and fear she struggled with resonated alot with me, and the choices she made felt very real and understandable, despite their hurtful nature. I loved the ending, it felt hopefull and felt like the book came to that end very naturally.
I think the love between Susannah and Lucy was written in such a raw and beautiful way, as well as her relationship with her family and it was crazy to see how much of the book put my own feelings into words.
definetly one of the best books ive read (thank u harley for the recomendation :3) 10/10
AUG 2024
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This was a really interesting story! I found it a little hard to read/visualise sometimes as the world building wasnt really a focus, but I enjoyed that as I prefered to read about the characters.
I loved seeing the relationship between the main two characters build, and the twist at the end made everything come together perfectly. Seeing the main two characters learn about eachother and share parts of one another until later in the book they literally shared parts of eachother was really cool.
I liked the contrast the two sides had, of nature and technology, and I think it was a cliche but good way to show their differences. It was a really sweet book, and beautifully written, and the letters between the two characters were really sweet. 7/10
JUL 2024
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This book was a really nice read, I didnt find it too hard to keep up with it as i do with most books. I think it was slow at times, but the way the stories were told kept them interesting. It was nice to see the main characters life across multiple years, and helped to build a bigger picture of her relationship with her mother.
I really liked how her relationship with religion and God was depicted too, as it resonated with me, as well as bringing more perspective. It was interesting also to see the relationship she had with the individual townsfolk, and those of which carried through her life, and in what ways.
I am sure there were metaphors that i didnt catch onto, but i believe a second read through would be interesting for me. 8/10