Summary: Leah is changed. Months earlier, she left for a routine expedition, only this time her submarine sank to the sea floor. When she finally surfaces and returns home, her wife Miri knows that something is wrong. Barely eating and lost in her thoughts, Leah rotates between rooms in their apartment, running the taps morning and night.
As Miri searches for answers, desperate to understand what happened below the water, she must face the possibility that the woman she loves is slipping from her grasp. (Summary and pic from goodreads.com)
Ashley’s Review: I’m not going to lie, this was a somewhat strange and confusing book. The story is told in two viewpoints, those of the married couple Leah and Miri. We are told the story in pieces and short vignettes told by from each point of view. It is hard to piece the story together this way because Leah is obviously suffering mentally in many ways from the traumatic experience of being in a submarine that sank to the ocean floor. She’s also going through some physical changes, and those are somewhat confusing as well, and not exactly clear as to why they’re happening or how or to what end. Miri is trying to piece everything together with the little amount of information she has and what she can gain from talking to outside sources, and she is as confused as the reader is.
I thought the story in this book was really interesting and captivating. There is not a ton more information that is revealed outside of what is in the summary. We as the reader are kept in the dark pretty much the whole time. Even at the end I was confused and wished I had known more what was going on.
This is a fairly short book, and with that comes characters that are not as fully developed, and situations that are not as fleshed out. There really was a lot in this book I would have liked a lot more of. I would have liked more character development in general, and I would have liked some insight to what was going on.
Ultimately, I thought this book had a really interesting premise. The premise of a submarine on a mission that then sinks to the ocean floor but then is able to be rescued is super interesting. I would have liked a lot more information about this, and I would have liked this to be fleshed out a lot. As it were, I feel like the author had a really cool idea but then didn’t actually have an idea how to get herself out of the situation she created so she just avoided it. I’m sad about that. I would have liked to know more.
The writing in this book is interesting. It’s sparse in some ways and does a good job of bringing the reader along into the confusion of the situation. I felt like I could understand Miri’s confusion and desperation, and I appreciate the way that Armfield was able to use the sparseness of the story and the writing to move the story along.
I thought this book was interesting. It was a quick read and a really interesting story.
Rating: 3 Stars
For the sensitive reader: There was some language and also mild sexual situations. The main characters are married women.
