Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson

48 reviews

peggy_racham's review

5.0

"Ask: if flexing is being able to say the most in the least amount of words, is there a greater flex than love?"

Second person perspective, my beloved. Never have I read a love story quite so profound and beautifly written and also tragic.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Murder, Police brutality, Racism, Alcohol, Drug use, Animal death, Blood, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, and Death

cass_ward's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

I had a hard time getting into the second person POV at first, but it was used perfectly. Caleb puts the reader into the shoes of a young, Black man and leads us into an experience of joy, love, fear, and deep sadness and it was, at least in my opinion, essential that the book be written that way. This MC laughed with his friends, and cried alone in the dark. He fell in love and grappled with his reality of “[praying] every day that this will not be the day.” We existed in the fullness of his life with him and that’s important because Black men are never given permission to show these parts of themselves. They are told to be small, to fit a part society wants them to play, to hide away and suppress and ignore and never, ever cry or be weak. And all the while, more Black men and boys are dying, and more pain and grief are accumulating. 

I loved that this book has honest depictions of grief and pain and fear, and also joy and love and life in equal amounts. This isn’t just a story of how a Black man endures trauma. This is a story of how a Black man lives in the truth of systemic racism and the hope for joy despite it. 

What a stunning story. What an important one. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Death, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Gun violence, and Murder

Minor: Chronic illness

annick's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Highly recommend. With patience you reveal the beauty in the lyrical heartbreak of this prose. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Racism, and Murder

Moderate: Grief, Police brutality, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content and Suicidal thoughts

pkc's review against another edition

dark hopeful reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

If I was asked to review this story around the mid way point, it probably wouldn’t have been massively favourable. In fact, I came reasonably close to DNFing but in the last 70 pages, something happened. The core of the story unveiled itself, made itself known in a really profound way that I hadn’t expected. At just over 140 pages I hadn’t expected as much depth as I got from this book. It’s a touching and haunting look at the safety (or lack thereof) of black people  amidst the persistent thrumming drumbeat of a system that is built to oppress and violate in equal turns. The second person narrative is so well considered and any reader can become engaged in the unease and feel everything that “you” are supposed to feel. I loved the protagonist and the rich storytelling was poetic, languid and sumptuous at points.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Car accident, Death, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Pregnancy, Racism, Alcohol, Blood, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Murder, Physical abuse, and Police brutality

asourceoffiction's review against another edition

emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Filled with quiet, poetic beauty. This is a novel to savour, drink in, enjoy in quiet moments.

I find a second-person narrative always takes a few chapters to get used to. But this lent itself so well to the story; it gives events an inevitability, like the central couple only had so much control over what was coming.

The whole thing is kind of wistful, and the two main characters (whose names we never learn) lead each other in an intense dance filled with emotion and inner conflict about growing up black in London.

I love the showcase the book gives to black art and music, and how that inspires these characters and their relationship. It forms a counterpoint to the racism that's endemic in how they are seen (or not seen), and shows how important it is to continue championing black voices. A really powerful book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Racial slurs, Drug use, Murder, and Racism

emfield's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Police brutality

Moderate: Murder, Blood, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Drug use, Grief, Hate crime, and Mental illness

afion's review against another edition

4.0

Favourite quote:

That is what you are being framed as, a container, a vessel, a body, you have been made a body, all those years ago, before your lifetime, before anyone else who is currently in your lifetime, and now you are here, a body, you have been made a body, and sometimes this is hard, because you know you are so much more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Police brutality, Racism, and Murder

dannythestreet's review

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

That must be one of the most beautiful things I've ever read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Police brutality, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Racism, Violence, and Gun violence

Moderate: Classism, Death, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Abandonment, Addiction, Cursing, Drug use, and Medical content

isaospina's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is. A master piece about being black, which I am not.
I felt the anger, the pain, the trauma.
The prose flowed like water and told a powerful story that allowed me to further understand what it means and feels like to be black in this day and age. 

At moments I felt like my pain and anger where being shared, as a woman on latin America life is not easy and the anxiety that bled through the words felt too familiar.

The entire book felt like a beautiful show with its own soundtrack and as a music lover I appreciate how every song was perfectly framed in the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Police brutality

Minor: Murder

nialiversuch's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Police brutality, Murder, Racism, and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Sexual content and Gun violence