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afittingdistraction's reviews
174 reviews
Private Rites by Julia Armfield
5.0
Private Rites is a story about three sisters who have to come together to sort through the aftermath of their estranged father's death, set in a not so distant future where humanity have had to adapt to drastically risen water levels.
I loved Our Wives Under The Sea. It was my favourite read of 2022, so I had high hopes for this one and it didn't disappoint!
If you're not new here you'll know I love a story where the worse has already happened and it's like well, now what? I love reading about characters in nihilistic settings where they have to keep going because the only way out is through.
Like Our Wives, Private Rites is a haunting. The haunting grief of could've would've should've—if they were nicer to each other, if either mother was still alive, if their father wasn't a piece of shit—would the absence or addition of any of these things mean they would be a close family unit rather than the current cold estrangement they live with.
And the most interesting thing is...I don't think they would.
All three sisters just don't like each other. None of them are particularly nice, agreeable people that others would want to spend time around.
That's also why I liked the inclusion of The City's POV because it lets you get outside these people's brains for a while. It was like a little breather to offset that claustrophobia and to say oh yeah and remember while they're arguing over the petty minutiae, the world still continues no matter how hard people do or don't try to get along. Everything just keeps on turning for better or worse.
It's not really so much a post-apocalyptic book since everything continues going on, just differently and that realism is what makes it so intriguing to me. It seems these days like the world is constantly ending.
It's like an apocalypse where your boss texts you to say "yeah I saw the world ended but that's no excuse, you're still pencilled in for 8 tomorrow so I'll be seeing you then"
Which I think ties so well into the reoccurring theme in the book of cycles. It's as much (if not even more so imo) a story of the cyclical nature of abuse as it is about grief. How you were raised, good or bad haunts all your actions when you're grown and the way the effects of abuse trickle down through generations into every nook and cranny of your life.
Thanks to @4thestatebooks & @netgalley for the review copy. All opinions are my own.
I loved Our Wives Under The Sea. It was my favourite read of 2022, so I had high hopes for this one and it didn't disappoint!
If you're not new here you'll know I love a story where the worse has already happened and it's like well, now what? I love reading about characters in nihilistic settings where they have to keep going because the only way out is through.
Like Our Wives, Private Rites is a haunting. The haunting grief of could've would've should've—if they were nicer to each other, if either mother was still alive, if their father wasn't a piece of shit—would the absence or addition of any of these things mean they would be a close family unit rather than the current cold estrangement they live with.
And the most interesting thing is...I don't think they would.
All three sisters just don't like each other. None of them are particularly nice, agreeable people that others would want to spend time around.
That's also why I liked the inclusion of The City's POV because it lets you get outside these people's brains for a while. It was like a little breather to offset that claustrophobia and to say oh yeah and remember while they're arguing over the petty minutiae, the world still continues no matter how hard people do or don't try to get along. Everything just keeps on turning for better or worse.
It's not really so much a post-apocalyptic book since everything continues going on, just differently and that realism is what makes it so intriguing to me. It seems these days like the world is constantly ending.
It's like an apocalypse where your boss texts you to say "yeah I saw the world ended but that's no excuse, you're still pencilled in for 8 tomorrow so I'll be seeing you then"
Which I think ties so well into the reoccurring theme in the book of cycles. It's as much (if not even more so imo) a story of the cyclical nature of abuse as it is about grief. How you were raised, good or bad haunts all your actions when you're grown and the way the effects of abuse trickle down through generations into every nook and cranny of your life.
Thanks to @4thestatebooks & @netgalley for the review copy. All opinions are my own.