Gaige’s fourth novel places the protagonists’ relationship in the ultimate pressure cooker: a small sailboat where they will live and travel with their two young children – Sybil, 7, and George, 2 – for one year. Michael and Juliet Partlow’s marriage was in trouble even before they set off for Panama in the yacht Juliet. The voyage seems equal parts second chance and doomed swan song.

Narration alternates between the spouses, as Juliet in the present day sits in a closet reading excerpts from Michael’s ship’s logbook. The latter are in bold font and right-aligned to distinguish them, though his voice would be enough to do so: Juliet is a cynical poet and failed PhD candidate, while Michael is a commonsense financier. Issues of money and politics have come between them. But Juliet’s trauma from childhood sexual abuse and subsequent estrangement from her mother, who disbelieved her, is the greater problem.

Gaige has rendered these two voices very effectively, and maintains tension about what will happen when the Partlows leave Colombia for Jamaica and storms brew. Early on, Michael is warned that changing a boat’s name is bad luck, and it doesn’t take long to confirm that maritime superstition. Michael may think he’s doing it as a sweet tribute to his wife, but you have to wonder if he’s actually replacing her, or admitting that he’s lost her in real life.

Enhancing the epistolary nature, Gaige includes transcripts from an interview and some of Sybil’s therapy sessions (in which she sounds too young; would a seven-year-old seriously say “loveded” as a past participle?), fragments of Juliet’s unfinished dissertation on Anne Sexton, and so on. I think I would have omitted the final section of documents, though. Still, this was a darn good read: literary but suspenseful, and fitting the Literary Wives brief perfectly for its claustrophobic focus on a marriage.

This book is an emotional read and deals with a lot of themes.
It had emotion and tension throughout.
A great book

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

I was not sure what to expect from this book. It was a surprise. The plot was unusual and an interesting idea of leaving the normal humdrum of daily life to spend time travelling with young children on a boat in the Caribbean. The book was interesting how the story went from the present day back to the past and I liked that some of the story was conveyed through the boat's daily log. There is an element of tragedy (spoiler alert).

Narration in the form of the ship captain's log and Juliet retelling her version of the events is interesting and effective. I was surprised by the resolution.

As a sometime sailor myself, I really enjoyed this. The descriptions of life during the family’s months long adventure at sea were believable and compelling. The dual viewpoints if sthe skipper and his wife throughout really showed the tensions that are often there in sailing families - typically with husband far more up for the way of life than the wife. The tragedy which is hinted at throughout, but only revealed late on, kept me turning the pages of what could otherwise be a fairly formless narrative.

Seawife by Amity Gage is the story of Michael and Juliet, who take their two children to sea on a sailboat, and the slow unravelling of their marriage. The novel has the quickening pace of a classic thriller, but is simultaneously emotionally gripping as Gage gives us the thoughts of both key characters. The story plays out primarily from Juliet’s point of view interwoven with Michael’s log from the voyage. As a consequence, we understand their relationship from both sides. The political and personal divisions between the develop and emerge slowly, with a large and dramatic event hinted at throughout, continuously growing the tension for the reader.

Overall, this is an engaging and thoughtful novel - a classic summer read with a little more edge as it explores the divisions between men and women in a unique setting. The only slight flaw is the conclusion - the ending feels anticlimatic and is glossed over after all the tension. But well worth reading regardless!

This novel was #gifted in return for my honest review.

This book is definitely something different for me, I usually prefer thrillers or crime novels. However, it was billed as being ‘taut as a thriller’ so I thought I would try it.

Michael is working constantly and doesn’t spend much time with his family. His wife suffers from depression and feels overwhelmed looking after their two young children. Michael decides he wants to sail around Panama and persuades Juliet it’s a good idea for the family to go.

The story is told from Juliet’s point of view and from Michael’s point of view via the Captain’s log. Straight away you notice the difference between them. Juliet talks a lot about feelings and Michael’s account is much more practical and factual. He seems to love the boat more than his wife! It’s almost like he’s substituted his wife for the boat.

I thought there would be a lot of description of the views and atmosphere at sea but apart from a few nice descriptions there’s a lot of sailing jargon which went over my head and bored me.
Juliet and Michael’s marriage seems very strained and they don’t communicate that well, even at sea. This improves slightly but there’s still a disconnect between them.

I found the pace quite slow and just didn’t really get into this story. I didn’t care much for the characters and found them a bit flat. The story was bleak and I found it a bit of a slog to get through. I personally didn’t feel any tension or suspense and think more could have been made of this story, at times it seemed a bit pointless.

The end of the book seemed like a bit of a mishmash and then just stopped suddenly.

Unfortunately, this book wasn’t really for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Little Brown Book Group UK for a copy of this book for review.

Despite the clearly talented writing I never really engaged with this fully .. the authorial techniques are spot on .. the log telling the beleaguered husband's side and we learn of her troubles.. great devices.. it was downbeat and I guess I knew where it was all going to end up. Perhaps just not my thing .. very interesting premise, however.

A great premise, to pull the anchor and leave your old life behind and head out to see. I can understand the character of Michael and Juliet. Leaving behind a great job that has become a grind and a marriage that is moving nowhere fast. Through into the mix depression and traumatic pasts.

It took me a little bit of effort to get into the book, but it was worth it , but I have to say it was not by any means a slog in doing that. The characters are well developed, with Michaels's view coming from the Captin log. ( A great idea). The important question, did I enjoy the journey. Yes. Would I do something similar? No, but that is what this book is for.

Amity Gaige's novel is different in structual and approach from the norm, thus making it a quite difficult book to catogrise under a defined pre-set heading.

In many ways the plot resembles an ill planed journey, for the reader is never quite sure where the story is heading. There were times when I thought this would be turning into a seafaring survival story, then perhaps a psychological thriller, but infact it is neither of these.

Perhaps in reality it is a reflection on a number of diverse themes, including how events in childhood will effect later life and the changing complexities and dynamics of long term relationships. I'm sure the reader will have their own interpretations.

The story principally comprises of a first person narrartion of Juliet, a woman suffering from depresion and trumatised by a childhood incident and secondly a ship's log (more of a diary) written by her husband, Michael.

Leaving their Connecticut home with their two children, the family rent a yacht (renamed Juliet) and head for the waters of Central America. The reasons of this adventure are complex and as the story unfolds we learn of the strained marital relationship and the deep underlying reasons behind this.

A deceptively insightful read that conveys a surprising amount of depth.

Not exactly a thriller but nevertheless a gripping narrative regarding a family's escape from US suburbia to a life on a sailing yacht. The story is told from two viewpoints - the wife's narrative and the entries in the captains log written by the husband. The wife's story includes flashbacks and the significance of her postpartum depression in relation to the marriage and her children. Well written and with plenty of surprises.

I was absolutely mesmerised by Sea Wife, it had that special something in a novel that drew you in not only to the story but more importantly the characters.

Gaige had that wonderful ability to truly understand her characters, as she dug deeper and deeper into their inner thoughts and feelings.

I truly felt I knew Juliet as her musings, analysis tumbled out on to the page as she looked back on their sailing adventure one she was reluctant to take .

The dual narrative of Juliet interspersed with husband Michael’s captain’s log were utterly revealing as it laid bare all of their innermost thoughts. They told of their successes, their failures, Juliet tormented by something that lay dormant, only unveiled in the latter parts of the novel. You felt empathy as she struggled with depression, of not being a good enough mother and wife, of having no love left for Michael.

Michael was the caged animal, fed up with his life, the hamster wheel that was a 9 to 5 job and the drudgery of family life. You watched as he told of his need for escape, as it became an obsession, as he forced his wife and children on their sailing adventure.

Gaige was unflinching in her narrative of their marriage, like they were treading water, balanced on the edge, ready to plunge into the depths of disrepair.

The boat trip was that opportunity to test, to see if they could salvage their marriage, if indeed they still loved each other.

I loved Gaige’s narrative as she described their voyage, the vastness of the ocean that represented the chasm between Juliet and Michael, the loneliness they both felt.

The problems they encountered tested their ability to communicate, to tolerate each other it was like watching a tug of war as the balance tipped back and forth. You couldn’t getaway from the beauty of what lay around them, the coastal landscape, the people they met as they slowly worked through their emotions. It brought them joy and wonder, before Gaige hit them with the ultimate test. She heightened their emotions, as the novel became tense, almost like a thriller, the reader swept along wondering where the author would take them.

You may get the impression that Sea Wife was quite gloomy, depressing and in many aspects it was, but Gaige brilliantly counterbalanced those feelings with hope, with new exciting experiences, of reconciliation and recovery. It was a wonderful blend of human endeavour thrown onto the mercy of a challenging environment that fascinated and completed and in my opinion just wonderful.

The story is told by cleverly intertwining the events from two different perspectives. Although I’m not a sailor myself I have friends who have sailed on similar adventures and this made me think about their journeys and how illuminating this kind of life experience can be.

I've wanted to read this book ever since hearing about it on the All The Books podcast at the end of last year. And it did not disappoint! This is the story of Michael and Juliet, after Juliet somewhat reluctantly agrees to Michael's plan of buying a boat and taking a year out to live life at sea with their two young children. We know going in that a tragedy has occurred, and the story is told through Juliet's narration of the trip and its aftermath, as well as Michael's log book (which becomes more of a journal as the trip progresses). Juliet struggles with depression and a sense of personal failure, whilst the marriage is already in rough waters before they set sail, and this book is a real deep dive into that backdrop as well as the journey itself.

Much like some marriages, what starts of as a dream filled with hope becomes an effort and eventually a nightmare, and we get to live that sharp drop through the wonderful writing that this book is crafted with. I've sailed once before but remember very little of what I learned, and even with that lack of knowledge I could still imagine the complexities and the fear a novice like Juliet was having to grapple with whilst her husband lived out his boyhood memories of sailing with his father. The storm scene had me wracked with tension, not to mention the situation Juliet finds herself in as tragedy looms.

This book is utterly compelling and deals with a lot of themes. It's an emotional read, with a good strong kick of adventure. I really enjoyed it.

This had so many ingredients of a great book but it just didn’t quite work for me.

A husband and wife decide to take their two young children along on a year long sailing trip, however from the very beginning of the book we know it ended in disaster.

Told from two perspectives, the wife in the present recalling her memories and the husbands past entries into his log book, the story slowly unfolds. I enjoyed this set up and was eager to find out more about what happened on their voyage but was left disappointed. This isn’t a book full of twists and unexpected revelations, and that’s might have worked except it felt so often that it might go that way that it felt it under delivered on what was promised. In this particular case, I think this book would have worked better if the suspense was amped up and there was more of an element of the unexpected.

Instead, this book is really about providing a window into a troubled marriage. Several serious topics are covered including depression, grief and sexual assault, all of which were handled delicately but none were given enough space to really be explored. They also felt slightly overshadowed by the promise of big narrative twists to come, which never truly materialised.

Before reading, I was most excited about the setting. I love anything involving the sea! There are a couple of really lovely passages that do a good job of immersing you into their life at sea but again I felt this unique setting was never fully taken advantage of. It seemed the author preferred to rely heavily on technical sailing jargon and describing the process of sailing, this had the opposite effect of bringing me out of the story. This book was at its best when focusing on what the characters were feeling before, during and after their trip.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a mixed bag for me; I really enjoyed the writing style but I found some of the content a little clunky.

We are following the story of Michael and Juliet, and their two young children. Dissatisfied with his job, Michael is convinced to buy a boat and persuades Juliet to leave their life and go sailing for a year. It’s clear from the outset that something ominous has happened and there is a strong tension which runs throughout the story as we build up to discovering what exactly has gone on. It’s also clear that both Michael and Juliet are struggling; in their personal lives and in their marriage. Both appear to have lost sight of who they are which in turn affects how they feel towards one another.

I enjoyed the unique style of this book; we are reading the first person perspective of Juliet mixed with entries from Michael in his captain’s logbook. I connected with Juliet as a character in particular and really felt for her throughout the story. However, as I said I did find some of the content to be overly clunky. There were some sections which veered heavily into ‘sailing speech’ which baffled me. A lot of the time the author put one or two references in and that worked fine, but then you’d get whole paragraphs which I found myself skimming over as they meant nothing to me. There were also a number of heavy handed political references which didn’t seem to fit with the main thread of the story. It broke the narrative for me and I found myself coming out of the flow of the story. Whilst not a deal breaker these did affect my reading experience.

I have to add in that I thought the children were written very well. It’s a pet peeve of mine that authors ‘age up’ children in their actions and their speech but I thought the author captured and represented the children accurately. I’d have liked a little more of their side of things to be honest as they lent an innocence to the storyline which combated the sense of building dread well.

Overall I liked this. I thought the mystery element was well done and the sense of building tension worked cleverly with the backdrop of the tempestuous ocean. I’m glad I picked it up and I will certainly look out for other books by this author.

This quite a different read for me from my usual books but, I did enjoy it even though at times I found it long winded. I found it interesting and was amazed at what happened on the voyage. It sounded like a hard life and as I’m a terrible sailor a life definitely not for me!!!!
I can only give this book four stars as at times I found my attention drifting off but, some readers may enjoy it more.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

I thought this was a really interesting literary thriller. Michael persuades Juliet to give up their corporate, suburban life in the US and take their two young children sailing round South America and the Caribbean for a year. The story of what happens is told by Juliet, after her return to the US and Michael, by way of his captain's log. I thought the interplay between the two narrators is cleverly done, and sometimes the viewpoints switch very quickly, from one paragraph to the next. It's not a super dramatic book, it's a slow burn as you find out what happened during their trip, but I thought the writing was great and it pulled me along.

When Michael decides he wants to pack in his job & take his family sailing for a year Juliet is not very enthusiastic! She is struggling to write a Dissertation & is still trying to overcome post natal depression. However Michael gets his way & along with seven year old Sybil & two year old George they set off from Panama for a voyage round the Caribbean in their 44ft sail boat. Michael has never sea sailed & Juliet has never sailed at all but the voyage seems to bring them closer together. The children thrive but there are indication all will not end well. The story is told by Juliet & from Michael's log books.

This was an unusual book. It took a while to get used to the way the story was told, but I loved reading about their adventures around various islands I was also totally involved in their voyage to Jamaica & I really loved Sybil!

Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.