Told in a very clear voice and alternating between the narration in second person and brief diary entries, this was an excellent choice of story-telling. The world-building was solid for a novel of this length and the spirituality and gods especially were interesting to me, I would have loved to learn more about them. Very plot-focused there's intriguing science fiction elements, a focus on political scheming and well set-up plot points. At times the characters suffered a little from the length of the novel as they felt rather under-developed and there was little room for me to become overly attached to them.

This is one of those books where I knew this was going to be a five star read from the very first pages. The summer setting in Denmark was so athmospheric and reading this during a heatwave definitely made it more immersive. The plot is just five friends catching up in a summer cabin. The characters are deliciously flambuoyant, dramatic & eccentric and all character dynamics are messy and layered. Don't get me wrong, most of these characters are meant to be so pretentious they're insufferable but they're self-aware and it was so much fun reading from their perspectives. I could deeply relate with some characters while others gave me precious insights into things I haven't thought about in this way before. The way this story was told was phenomenal, loved the writing style so much and it dealt with many themes like the growing pains of adulthood and finding your identity, grappling with your conflicting and confusing emotions, friendship, desire, parenthood, polyamory, and a deeply reflective and introspective manner.

The three Carmichael sisters feel like they're drowing in their dysfunctional family structures, weighted down by the weight of the future... and so is the world around them. No one writes literary aquatic horror quite like Armfield does. This time the horror elements stem from something entirely too tangible; the all too present effects of the climate crisis with portions of the city are eternally sunken under water, torrential rains come crashing down in a way that leaves the reader suffocated and clammy alike. For most part of the novel nothing much actually happens, there's a whole lot of exposition, the characters and story are being laid out in front of our eyes until it all comes crashing down at the very end.

While I struggled a little with the pacing at times, the writing was ever so gripping and I quickly fell in love with the three sisters at the centre of it all. All three of them felt very complex and layered, quite flawed but in a way that's so interesting to read about. We learn so much about them through changing POVs. Even more, the city gets its own narrative voice which was executed so well, I would have loved to see even more of that.

A messy and intense read!! The three characters at the core of this book felt so realistic, I loved following them and their intertwined and individual journeys as they navigate coming of age, dealing with insecurities and dreams, as they tackle their relationships with family and dates and careers and work out the complexities between the past, present and future. I immediately fell in love with Silvia but overall loved how wonderfully complex the three of them are together.