Private Rites

Private Rites

Softcover
3.821

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Description

'Brilliantly audacious'GUARDIAN'Stunning'DAZED'Her prose sparkles' ELIZA CLARK'Hauntingly good'iNEWS'A must read'GLAMOUR'One of my favourite novels' JEFF VANDERMEERFrom the bestselling author of Our Wives Under the Sea, a haunting, heart wrenching novel of three sisters navigating queer love and faith at the end of the world.There's no way to bury a body in earth which is floodedIt's been raining for a long time now, for so long that the lands have reshaped themselves. Old places have been lost. Arcane rituals and religions have crept back into practice.Sisters Isla, Irene and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their estranged father dies. A famous architect revered for making the new world navigable, he had long cut himself off from public life. They find themselves uncertain of how to grieve his passing when everything around them seems to be ending anyway.As the sisters come together to clear the grand glass house that is the pinnacle of his legacy, they begin to sense that the magnetic influence of their father lives on through it. Something sinister seems to be unfolding, something related to their mother's long-ago disappearance and the strangers who have always been unusually interested in their lives. Soon, it becomes clear that the sisters have been chosen for a very particular purpose, one with shattering implications for their family and their imperilled world.A Book of the Year in the Guardian and Dazed'Armfield writes so gracefully'THE TIMES'Evocative yet grounded'OBSERVER'A chilling vision of a future capital that I've found impossible to shake'INEWS'Ballard-ian in apocalyptic scope ... Deeply, passionately, messily human'PAUL TREMBLAY'A signature cocktail of deadpan wit and staggering beauty'ALICE SLATER'Every page guillotines you with its wisdom'TOM BENNLonglisted for the 2024 Climate Fiction Prize

Book Information

Main Genre
Novels
Sub Genre
Contemporary
Format
Softcover
Pages
327
Price
17.50 €

Posts

4
All
4.5

Loved it, not as much as Our Wives Under The Sea, but it definitely was equally as haunting. I adore her writing style, period. She's so clever and confident in her prose. I admit it was a bit slow at times, and 3 POVs + even "city's", Jude's and Stephanie's POVs at times were a bit too much for me, although it flowed really well. I adored the sense of impending doom hahaha. It wasn't a nice book, it was never meant to be. Loved all the character's faults, their selfish thoughts, their traumas. Not a fan of the ending per se, feel like less would have been more in some way. But for now I'm just glad that it doesn't rain 24/7 and hope humanity gets its shit together.

3.5

Mehr erwartet

Ich komme nicht umhin zu mögen, wie Armfield schreibt. Den zwischenmenschlichen Horror beschreibt sie mit so viel Geschick, dass ich jedesmal verschlungen werde, aber schlussendlich einfach mehr erwarte! Noch 20 Seiten übrig und dann ein Knall-auf-Fall-Ende?! Auch der Schreibstil am Ende wirkte plötzlich fahrig, als hätte sie eine Deadline treffen müssen. Dass die Autorin offensichtlich besessen ist von Wasser macht sie nur kreativer, bin gespannt was ihr als nächstes einfällt. Aber, dass alle unbedingt lesbisch sein müssen wirkt nur noch plump, gestellt, nimmt der Dynamik zwischen den Schwestern und ihren Partnern die Natürlichkeit, dem Familientrauma die Naturgewalt.

5

“Private Rites” by Julia Armfield is a seamless blend of: - A very nuanced family drama highlighting how the personalities of people sharing trauma can clash despite their good (or at least not malignant) intentions - A hypothetical exploration of climate change and its consequences on society, architecture, social rules, religion, and much more - And how mental health adapts or tries to cope with “the end times”. How do you live knowing it will just keep getting worse? How do you focus on relationships and a job knowing it is most likely all for nothing? How do you live knowing you have it bad but countless others have it even worse? And this blend works so very well, the book had me gripped from beginning to end. The rising paranoia throughout the novel is palpable. I also loved the prose.

2

No plots, just vibes aber nicht auf die gute Art.

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