An intense story about a long term friendship group staying in a house in a wood by a lake, waiting for a wedding. Written like a modern Virginia Woolf character observing, it felt so like To The Lighthouse with a family and friends in their house and it reference on Woolf writing itself.
LGBTQ+ characters, mental health experiences, referencing Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar and complex relationships.
It is an absolutely fantastic story. I will read everything that the author writes. Will re-read this so many times, loved it.

Hot, hazy, heady and brimming with charged energy - like any perfect summer weekend.

CALL ME BY YOUR NAME meets THE BIG CHILL with a smattering of THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD. A powerful character study of desire and emotional boundaries, those we shackle ourselves with and those placed upon us by external forces. But ultimately a hopeful rumination on the power of attraction and human feeling to break down even the most unscalable walls.

I doubt I’ll read a more intoxicating novel this year.

i think the amount of self awareness a generation has is both a hindered and a cure sometimes. this book could teach both sides of the age gap something. because i dont think such happiness can ever lie in so much questioning of ones self. but its also the questioning that has indeed led to some better people,changes that NEEDED to happen and also happier people. so perhaps it isnt a generation in particular. its just when you look at any snap shot of any age you feel so overwhelming by the problems you can see there. and actually ha if you took a group from another age group im sure there would be far more serious consequences to certain outlooks and beliefs.
but you see that being said this book has indeed done what a book like this should do for me. its made me think. and that is exactly the kind of beauty i wanted from this book going in.
the plot of of the characters. we are following them. and it was a fascinating and thoughtful book full of differing characters even amongst such a group of friends.

Waist Deep By Linea Maja Ernst
Translated by Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg.

Set over one week in a lake side cabin in rural Denmark, five university friends now in their 30s are spending their holiday together. It is a chance to catch up, read in the sun, eat and drink, swim and talk and flirt and relive their old days. At least that is what Sylvia is hoping for but then her friends arrive, some with their partners , one with their family , with their professional careers and their lives in control. Sylvia is a dreamers and despairs of what has become of them and the radical ideas they used to have when students. When two of the group, announce their plan to get married later in the week , Sylvia is thrown into turmoil , she believes she might be in love with the groom and has been for years, a fact her long term monogamous girlfriend Charlie, has no idea about it.

As the week progresses leading up the midsummer wedding, tensions, desire, anxieties and flirtations increase as the group spend their days and nights languishing in the sun. There are a cast of characters all of whom are drawn in great detail as they ponder their lives , their relationships and the future. I loved how this book was written, its simmering with wanting and longing and captures the group dynamic so well. The story builds and there is inevitability that the week will not go as planned but which characters will slip?

While this book felt wholly original there were elements that reminded me of other books, the razor sharp look at older millennials lives reminding me of International Book Prize finalist Vincenzo Latronico's Perfection, some of the dialogue between characters would not be out of place in a Sally Rooney novel and the simmering sexual tension and lake setting was reminiscent of Miranda Cowley Heller's The Paper Palace, at times. I loved the Danish rural lake setting, the characters were fascinating to read and while I don't think this book will be for everyone, it hit all the right notes for me. A deliciously sultry summer read.

Sadly this was a DNF for me. I got to 50% and just didn’t find myself bonding with any of the characters or the storyline. I really hate not raving about a book pre publication but always want to give an honest review. Super grateful to have had access to this early copy.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

a group of friends organise a week in a cabin in the woods....

its suppose to be a relaxing time for them all but two of them announce they are getting married there.... and so begins the fall out

strangest book i have ever read... i tried to understand all the thoughts and feelings but some of it went right over my head... i carried on reading to find out what would happen... not the brightest idea i had...

thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review! <3

’Every book opens a potential new world, new forms of life. Something to strive for, to inhabit’

Have you ever wondered ‘what would The Secret History by Donna Tartt read like if they stayed in the house in the country?’. Well look no further, because Waist Deep is exactly that, just in Denmark.

This book is nothing short of brilliant, and a beautifully written examination of identity and love and friendship all placed in the most gorgeously described setting. For such a short book I was instantly drawn in and connected with the characters so deeply, particularly Karen and Gry. Each person was unique, and had aspects of their personality to analyse that were raw and human. I loved the comparison between Karen and Gry’s perceptions of materialism and motherhood, and Adam and Quince’s stoic-personality and free-wheeling attitude. I think the only character I didn’t care for was Sylvia, who while a nuanced and interesting character just isn’t the sort of person I’m drawn to, in real life or in books.

While some of it was a little predictable - I certainly figured out who would be together by the end of it - that is overridden by the stunning prose and magnificent character work. Yes, they might have been all completely insufferable (other than Karen and Gry) but that’s sort of the point.

Overall, Waist Deep gets 4/5 stars.

What I found whilst reading Waist Deep is that on the surface, it isn't highly dramatic with much happening, but below the surface, there was actually alot going on.

I found the dynamic between this group of friends highly fascinating. I thought I wasn't going to like Sylvia much at the beginning, tbh, but, despite being a 'dreamer' and someone who was quite flighty, I found her to be refreshingly 'real' which surprised me in the best possible way!

This is exactly the type of provocative, summer read you could easily loose a whole afternoon reading!

The ending was the only thing that confused me with the small snippet from Karen? Apart from that, I enjoyed this immensely!

Waist Deep by Linea Maja Ernst is a novel set to be published by Jonathan Cape on 8th May 2025. It has been translated from Danish by Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg.

The novel follows Sylvia, who, along with girlfriend Charlie, leaves their Copenhagen narrow boat for a holiday in a forester’s cottage in the woods at Madum Lake with her friends. There's Quince, a trans and queer Casanova; Gry, the group's mother hen, with young children Vera and Sejr in tow; Gry’s intimidating husband Adam, an important ministerial advisor; Karen, the leader, queenly and stoic; and Esben, Karen's poet fiancé and Sylvia's long-term crush.

Sylvia and Quince are two of my favourite literary characters of all time, I have to say. Sylvia is all too relatable to me as a dreamer and idealist, wishing for more and getting it thrown unceremoniously back in her face. Her feelings for Esben are all too familiar for me, too. And Quince is so unapologetically himself, even when he isn't always 100% certain of his own place, in the world, in terms of masculinity,

Very reflective and introspective, Waist Deep is almost a treatise for how we need each other, and how things like the gender binary, heteronormativity and society get in the way of this, while also advocating for self love and being true to yourself. I love how the author plays on the reader's perceptions, as well to reinforce this, plus the vivid descriptions of the beautiful landscape really adds something.

No, there isn't much action, but so much happens and I certainly felt different by the end, in quite a short time, too, as I couldn't get enough of this beautiful book.