This is the most atmospheric book I've read in a long time and I read it with the deepest sense of foreboding and impending doom. It's set in a near future city amid constant rain and rising waters where we meet three sisters who are grappling with their father's legacy, their personal lives and their past. Initially I came for the apocalyptic vibes but it was the family drama that I liked most about this story - the complex dynamics, the shared history, the past hurts under current pressures, the conflicting personalities. It was all captured perfectly and made for an excellent read. I loved the writing. I also loved the ending which was dramatic and wholly unexpected.

I really enjoyed reading this and was truly sad when it was over. Expertly written, just as with Armfield's short story collection SALT SLOW, the author does not waste a single word.

Private Rites by Julia Armfield
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 stars
This title was published on 11 June 2024
Thank you to 4th Estate and NetGalley for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

It’s been raining for a long time now, for so long that the lands have reshaped themselves and the cities have retreated to higher storeys. As old places have disappeared, arcane rituals have crept back into practice. Sisters Isla, Irene and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their estranged father dies.

Julia Armfield's writing really does it for me; her lyrical prose hits all the right spots.
This is high on vibes, low on plot, but I found it so compelling, atmospheric and bordering on claustrophobic.
I felt that the ending was a little unhinged and rushed, but I loved the dysfunctional sisterly dynamics, the glimpses of manipulative and narcissistic parents, the queer relationships and the climate change dystopian near future.
It was bleak, damp and uncomfortable, sometimes creepy with a looming sense of unease, and despite being a slow burn of a book, it kept me engaged throughout. I am a fan, and I'll read anything Julia Armfield writes.

Fittingly bleak for the torrential British summer.

The relationship between sisters Isla, Irene and Agnes is distant, at best, and tested further when their estranged father, a famous architect, dies. The novel is about grief for the world, for their father, and for what could have been. Armfield explores the complexities of legacy and family in a doomed world through the POVs of each sister. What does it mean to make liveable homes for the rich at the end of the world? Who can afford to be comfortable? What do you do with your days when there is death, suffering and displacement all around? Can we still love? Really interesting premise and enjoyable, interesting world building.

I found the pacing a little uneven, with the end being weirdly quick and action filled compared to the rest of the book - perhaps that's how the end will be? Slowly, slowly, then all at once. Interesting to consider but less fun to read. I also found the constant bickering between the sisters sometimes sucked the momentum out of the story. Little things that won't stop me picking up Armfield's books in future, but worth considering when deciding if this story is for you.

Still, lots to like here and I would recommend it. With it gloom, tension and sardonic humor, I would be more inclined to pick this up going into the autumn.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my free digital ARC of Private Rites! I’m a huge fan of Julia Armfield’s work, and while I did really enjoy Private Rites, it didn’t pack the same punch for me as salt slow and Our Wives Under the Sea both did. I absolutely love that Armfield is obsessed with water and its destructive power though. Private Rites shows us a Britain that is slowly drowning, incessant rains, rising sea levels, houses flooded, everything sodden and soaking. Save this one for a (non-metaphorical) rainy day and the eerie vibes will be ramped up even more. I loved how she showed the way humans will adapt to basically anything - for better or worse.

The book moves between the POVs of three sisters after the death of their father, a famous architect known for his water-resistant designs only the rich could afford. The climate disaster is not the main focus of the book; rather, the sisters’ lives play out against this backdrop of imminent disaster. All three are queer which I loved, obviously. At one point a minor character says ‘And all three of you are… y’know?’ And one sister replies, ‘Yes, you know in rare cases people have multiple children who are all straight, can you imagine?’ Love it.

I think that’s the main reason I didn’t fall head over heels with this one - the constant fighting of the sisters slowed down the pace too much. Especially in comparison to the frenetic ending, which I adored. It made the book feel uneven, with all the action packed in at the end.

That said, I still devoured it, loved Armfield’s prose as usual, and loved the eerie atmosphere that felt very much in the realm of possibility. Intrigued to see if her next work will be watery themed too!

A much-anticipated follow-up to Our Wives Under the Sea, Private Rites is a novel about three sisters living in a flooded future world, brought into closer proximity than they would each like by the recent death of their famous architect of a father. The book is gorgeously written, with light-touch world-building that feels immersive and fully believable, suffused with a growing sense of unease and dark tension. I did feel that the build of this tension wasn't as propulsive as I wanted it to be, but the climactic pay-off at the end was still very well done.

A rainy flood warning summer day in Dublin seems to be the opportune time to write my review for Private Rites, a climatic apocalypse novel set in a world where the rain hasn't let up for years..
Armfield is fast becoming a go-to author for queer gothic horror which thematically water, both her previous books Our Wives Under the Sea and "Salt Slow ", from the collection of the same name, also centre on water but Private Rites explores a more mundane apocalypse where it has rained incessantly for years, and the world is submerged but life goes on, people are still going to work, visiting coffee shops but the way she masterfully weaves the theme of climate disaster demonstrates how normalised it has become.
Against this backdrop we follow three sisters Isla, Irene, and Agnes as they reunite to mourn the death of their tyrannical father—a renowned architect who has built majestic properties that can withstand the impact of constant rain. Each of the sister’s is given her own distinct voice and we follow them as they navigate their day-to-day lives and the increasingly strained and tenacious relationships with their sisters as they each mourn their father’s death. At the centre is their father’s grand glass house, build to withstand the weather and holding so many hidden secrets from their childhoods.
Private Rites is a brilliant read and a book that will haunt you long after you finish the last page. If you enjoyed her previous books, make sure to pick this up!
? Do you like Gothic horror novels?

As a huge fan of Our Wives Under The Sea I couldn’t wait to read Private Rites, and it lived up to all my expectations. It is a quieter and more subtle book than OWUTS, which is saying something, as that is also a very subtle understated and masterful exploration of the horror genre! But Private Rites felt even more like an even slower unfurling of the plot, fully immersing the reader in the world before we get progress with the story. Some readers may find the speed frustrating, but for me it gives you all the more time and reason to admire Armfield’s intricate turns of phrase and beautiful prose. The plot itself comes to its own thunderous conclusion, and had me at the edge of my seat, but to be honest that’s not why you read a book such as this; you read it for all the in between bits as well, the uneasy feeling of being sunken deeper than you can escape. A beautiful book that will stay with me a long time.

Our Wives Under the Sea was a surprise smash hit with my students last year and I know they will be just as excited for this new beautifully relatable story.

After reading Armfield’s novel ‘Our Wives Under The Sea’, I felt my life changed, and upon hearing of this as the next release I had very high hopes! Armfield yet again depicted a story that eloquent and purposeful, and heart wrenchingly relatable. It isn’t a fast paced book by any means but after the establishing pages the book find its rhythm, and once I was going I didn’t want it to end until I found myself at the last 60ish pages and had to brace myself for the finish and having to out the book down! Julia Armfield has yet again asserted herself on my list of authors I will read anything from due to how incredible their writing is, and Private Rites did not disappoint me or my very high hopes!

I raced through this sitting in our campervan in Sweden in the pouring rain, and it almost felt as if I was living in Armfield’s end of the world realm. Like in ‘Our Wives under the Sea’ there’s loads of water here; high water, floods and endless rain, caused by climate change. There’s queer love here again as well. And some dystopian horror elements that give the book once again just a bit of extra thrill. A frightful book about sisterhood and love set in an apocalyptic world.
Thank you Fourth Estate and Netgalley UK for the ARC.

I was a big fan of Armfield’s short story collection, and though less enamoured with ‘Our Wives Under the Sea’, still enjoyed it. This, however, was a highly anticipated novel for me, and one I’m disappointed to say fell short of my expectations. It felt longer than its short length, and suffered from pacing issues - a slow burn until the last 10% or so, which hurtled at breakneck speed to a conclusion that felt crowbarred in, both predictable and like a hurried twist despite previous breadcrumbs dropped. I’m a fan of ‘unlikeable’ characters but even I baulked at at the beginning here; the three sister are so at odds with each other, spiky and dealing with trauma, which worked the further I got into the book, when we see more of them outside of their sisterly relationships, which bring out the worst in them, and glimpse their soft underbellies, but their first few interactions were so caustic and off-putting I could see this turning a different reader off. Armfield writes romantic relationships and love beautifully, but it felt to the detriment of several other elements in this novel - the setting, end-of-the-world cults, and even the sisters grief - which should have been a huge driving force- felt left by the wayside for the focus on Irene and Agnes’s romances. Had this been the sole focus of the book I’d have felt less disappointed, but there was a lot crammed in here that it jarred when some elements were only just touched upon. The ‘city’ portions of the book were brilliant, and I’d have loved a lot more focus on this - it feels like Armfield has missed a trick by leaving this vivid, rain-flooded London (or a similar city) in the background. There were also one or two instances of characters 'forgetting umbrellas' - which did stretch my belief if near permanent rain is their day to day reality. I’m also not quite sure the split POV’s work as successfully as they could've - as with ‘Our Wives Under the Sea’ the characters feel a little too similar in voice, and there are one off POV’s for two of the sisters' love interests that felt shoehorned in as a solution to a tricky perspective moment. Armfield’s prose is always gorgeous, but it often felt intrusive here, and there are multiple instances of dropped articles and slightly overcrowded metaphors that feel like a hangover from her short story days. I will say that I’ll still read whatever Armfield produces next, as her concepts are always fascinating and her prose is lovely, but having read two of her novels now, I can’t help but hope it’s a return to short stories, which, for me, is where her real strength lies.

Another brilliant read from Armfield who is fast becoming a go-to author for queer gothic horror. She deftly juggles the story of a dysfunctional family, set against the rising tides of climate disaster and our will to look away from that might endanger us most. A brilliant novel - I can't wait to read what she writes next.

Julia Armfield's Private Rites is a haunting and lyrical exploration of family dynamics, queer love, and faith set against the backdrop of an apocalyptic world. The novel follows sisters Isla, Irene, and Agnes as they reunite to mourn their estranged father's death—a man renowned for his architectural feats in a world reshaped by incessant rain and flooding.

Armfield masterfully weaves themes of climate catastrophe into the narrative, though they remain subtle and understated, allowing the story's focus to remain on the intricate and often strained relationships between the sisters. The atmospheric prose beautifully captures the bleakness of their reality, as well as the eerie and magnetic pull of their father's grand glass house, a symbol of both his legacy and the mysterious circumstances surrounding their mother's disappearance.

As the sisters delve deeper into their past and the enigmatic strangers who have always shadowed their lives, they uncover a purpose with profound implications for their family and the world at large. Private Rites is a worthwhile read, delivering a melancholic yet compelling meditation on grief, connection, and the haunting remnants of a world on the brink of collapse.

A very involving and absorbing novel about three sisters living their lives in a near future where water is threatening to subsume their city. The sisters are under the shadows of what happened to their mothers and the legacy of what their father has left behind after his recent death.

There is very sinister tone about the current environment, about society and about living their own lives in a disintegrating world. Events of the past catch up with the sisters and set them on a frightening path towards acceptance and forgiveness, with some jarring moments along the way.

Fascinating, revealing and thought-provoking from Armfield as ever.

I was so engrossed in the story of Private Rites that I read it in under 24 hours, barely pausing for breaks. I adored every single aspect of this book, and it pretty much immediately became a new favourite as soon as I finished! Although it is set against the backdrop of a climate catastrophe signalling the end of the world, the apocalyptic setting is diminished, becoming a mundane triviality rather than a disaster of utmost urgency, which I found to be a highly intriguing and unique twist on the dystopian and speculative genres. Instead, the conflict between the characters, three sisters navigating the death of their father amid a slow burning crisis, takes centre stage, and I utterly adored the explorations of grief, as well as the themes of queerness and desire that are interwoven throughout the narrative in such a detailed and nuanced way. Armfield excels at creating a melancholic tone through her vivid descriptions of the endless rain seeping through and pervading every aspect of life, conjuring an atmosphere of quiet but unsettling tragedy. Furthermore, I found her depictions of everyday life fascinating as, with the central three characters dealing with relationships colleagues, flatmates and family at work and home, she presents a world that, despite the vastly different situations, is not so different from our own.

I would highly recommend this book, and I would be very keen to read anything Julia Armfield writes in the future.

So brilliant! Moving and strange, weaving together the stories of three sisters in the aftermath of their father’s death, with the wider environmental collapse surrounding them.

'Any horror story could be said to work in two pieces: the fear of being wholly alone and of realising that one has company.'

Julia Armfield’s debut novel, Our Wives Under The Sea, was one of my top ten books of 2022, so it’s not surprising that I found her second, Private Rites, a bit disappointing in comparison. Private Rites follows three queer sisters, Isla, Irene and Agnes, as they face the slow dissolving of their world in the face of climate chaos. Rain is almost constant and floods are increasingly common, but like the Canadians in Fort McMurray who dropped off their dry-cleaning as a catastrophic wildfire was approaching, the sisters continue living their everyday lives, working at coffee shops, offering therapy sessions and negotiating romantic relationships. The event that ruptures their world is not a tsunami nor a maelstrom but the death of their distant architect father and their revisiting of the house he designed himself, which is ‘both transparent and impenetrable’. ‘It was built to rise above water… strung with ribbon windows that run to fifty feet on either side, it streams from north to south as a single linear form… Its legs are mechanical, extending as necessary to match the rising water levels… Easy to watch the water lap against the bottom of the windows and miss the fact that the house is rising higher to account for this encroachment’. Honestly, it sounds a bit like Halley VI.

The house the sisters inherit is a tremendous metaphor for the world they live in, and Armfield’s writing is as brilliant as ever. She is so good at writing both emotion and description, at making us feel many different kinds of rain. For me, though, Private Rites felt too diffuse. It obviously lacks the taut plot-thread that led us through Our Wives, but that in itself wouldn’t have been a problem for me; I think writing a great plot is much harder than we’re led to believe, but I’ve also enjoyed many a plotless book. What I struggled with was the way we dance between the sisters’ points of view and even once, into the heads of two of their partners. Irene was the only sister who really comes into full focus, as Isla and Agnes fail to move beyond the stock roles they are forced to play (Isla->older sister->emotionally closed->needs to be in control; Agnes->younger sister->free spirit->scared of commitment->frustrates her older sisters with her scattiness). And even Irene felt hard to grasp hold of because we are constantly being whisked away from her as soon as we connect with her. I would have loved Armfield to have trapped the sisters in the house, together, earlier on in the book. Although Private Rites is a much better novel, the scattering of its cast reminded me a little of Coco Mellor’s Blue Sisters, which only really worked for me when all the living sisters were in the same room.

Private Rites has been framed as more ambitious than Our Wives Under The Sea, even if it’s not totally successful, but while I’d agree that this is an ambitious novel, I think that assessment underplays just how good Our Wives is. As I wrote at the time, it’s so, so difficult to achieve that kind of crossover between literary and speculative fiction, and to write an ending as powerful as the ending of Our Wives, which brings both strands together. It looks simple because it tells an old story about strange monsters in the deep, but its straightforwardness hides its accomplishment. Private Rites, in contrast, is not a horror novel, and not meant to be. It aims for the same kind of emotional-speculative intertwining in its climax, but it felt too sudden, and fell short. Having said that, though, I’m still a huge Armfield fan. This book was worth reading for the line I quoted at the start of this review alone, but it’s also, despite its unevenness, the best account of everyday apocalypse I’ve ever encountered. 3.5 stars.

I think this book should become a modern classic. The way Armfield depicts dystopian London is astonishing. The city is rendered so cleary and eerily, so ominously realistic. The addition of the city’s perspective really upped the sense of foreboding. I loved the way that the weather mirrors the changes and escalation in the sisters’ lives. That ending too!

Julia Armfield is unquestionably a great writer. Unfortunately, this book didn't grip me and the longer I stuck with it, the more I started finding the characters irritating and the story uninteresting. Super disappointed as I heard such great things about Armfield's debut (and still plan to give it a chance) but this follow up simply isn't for me.