review: private rites
Title: Private Rites
Series: N/A
Author: Julia Armfield
Genres: Literary, Dystopian
Publishing Date: 11 June 2024
Original Language: English
Pages: ~327
CW: Death of parent, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Grief, Self harm, Death, Homophobia, Infidelity, Child abuse
My Rating: 4.5 / 5
Read if you’re looking for:
A queer retelling of King Lear at the end of the world
Gorgeous & emotional writing that leaves you feeling unsettled
Complicated & relatable family interactions between sisters
Uncanny, apocalyptic Ballard-ian vibes
A house that feels alive, that also has an eerie past
This was one of my most anticipated books of 2024 and it didn’t disappoint! We’re following three sisters during a slow apocalypse, shortly after their father has passed away. It’s a very loose retelling of King Lear. Our main characters live in a near-future England where it constantly rains and the land is flooded. In this climate disaster, everyone goes about their daily business, commuting by boat or elevated train, grinding along as the world goes to pieces.
This story has the exact feeling that I look for: a strangely uncanny and uncomfortable feeling. I think the best word to describe this book is haunting. Paul Tremblay described it as “Ballard-ian,” and I would also agree with that assertion. While the book is set during the backdrop of a climate disaster, it is really about family relationships. All three sisters had a difficult relationship with their emotionally unavailable father, and also have very complicated relationships with each other. The story is told from all three sisters’ POV’s, and a fourth POV from the city itself. Interestingly, their childhood home also seems like another character in the story. Their father was a famous architect who designed the home to be able to adapt to the coming disaster. The house can automatically raise itself on stilts to respond to rising flood waters, lending an ominous sense of life to it as it creaks and moves.
The sisters also have a mysterious past, with their mothers disappearance still looming, and strange half-memories of dark occurrences in the house. The interplay of relationships between the sisters was very relatable and realistic, with a combination of love, insecurity, annoyance, and even disgust with each other at times. There is also great queer representation, and some interesting relationships with the sisters and their partners. As the story unfolds, sisters must come together at their father’s house to face their unmoored and confusing sense of grief for a man that they couldn’t fully know.
Like Armfield’s previous novel, this book is a slow, delectable burn. It’s heavy on vibes and snippets of vignettes. While there is a plot, I would say that it is much heavier on feelings and symbolism. I enjoyed this one even more than Our Wives Under the Sea, and I kept thinking about it after I finished it. I highly recommend this for anyone who enjoys slightly unsettling literary fiction that has a slower pace.