Reviews

Like Water Like Sea by Olumide Popoola

readwithkapz's review

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

kathrynjonesreads's review

challenging emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Like Water Like Sea is a reflection on life and loss, grief and those left behind. Nia's mother, Susu, and her older sister, Johari, both suffer from severe mental illness. We find Nia living in the aftermath of Johari's suicide with both Nia and Susu in the depths of their grief.

While the story is clearly heavy, the style of writing is lovely and meditative, and while the healing journey is difficult, there is beauty in how Johari lives on through those she leaves behind.

We need more stories like this that show the diverse messiness of life. I'm grateful to NetGalley and Cassava Republic for the ARC. I will be placing an order for when it comes out in May, so that I can enjoy it more slowly on re-read.

estherokunlola's review

challenging reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

mackinseyjoy's review

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

2.5

fiendfull's review

4.0

Like Water Like Sea is a novel about loss, self-discovery, love, and mental illness, as it follows a queer woman in three moments of her life. Nia lives in London and ten years after her sister's death by suicide, she is struggling for what she wants out of her relationships and how to relate to her mother, who has bipolar, now that she is also an adult and with their shared grief. When she makes two new friends, a couple who found her at a low point, a journey starts in which she will make mistakes, navigate her connections to other people, and emerge at fifty years old with fresh realisations. 

 

This is a complex novel that weaves together a lot of emotion, exploring not just the grief that runs through the book but also types of love, queerness, race, and ways of living in a harsh world. The styles of narration change, with Nia's perspective predominantly, but also sections near the start that explore the lives of her sister and mother, and also a final part that is more ambiguous, offering up three potential endings (with one marked as most probable). This offers a cacophony of perspective and the idea that there's not just one way of living, especially living with grief and in different kinds of relationships. Queerness plays an important part in these endings, exploring how family structures are created, and generally the book explores how relationships are often not made on equal or matching emotions, and must be navigated as such. 

 

Another very crucial part of the book is bipolar and cyclothymia, and the impact this has on Nia's mother and sister, but also how it is not everything about them. It is refreshing to see this kind of depiction and the complexity of mental illness and how different people experience things. Generally, the book explores the fluidity and messiness of many things, and always returns to kinds of love. Though the narrative is more of a self-discovery, meditative one than big events happening, changes in relationships do mark the passing of time and structure in the novel. 

 

Like Water Like Sea is a powerful book, at times bittersweet, and filled with different snippets of experience and emotion. It is great for fans of literary fiction that engages with feelings and self-discovery, and with ways of forming families and relationships. 

niaamore's review

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

 This book is a reflective piece about grief and the loss of a family member. Check the content warnings!

First, let me just say, name twins! That’s as far as the joy goes, as the story takes us on an introspective journey on life after a painful death. It’s lyrical, it’s hopeful, and it shows how choosing happiness can make all the difference.

Thank you to NetGalley and Cassava Republic for this ARC. 

bookofcinz's review

dark emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

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

4.0

What a brilliant book!

We meet Nia Like Water Like Sea who is a queer, bi/pansexual naturopath living in London. The book spans over thirty years of her life, we need her after the death of her sister and how she is dealing with her grief. Her mother is bipolar and that adds another layer of heaviness for her to work through. 

Nia decides to leave a party with a girl she’s been seeing on and off to go into the water to feel what it is like to drown. While she does that a couple jogging pass sees her and inquires after her, this leads to a friendship/ situationship. She tries figuring out who she is, what she wants for her life and how to navigate grief that means all consuming. 

I really enjoyed this book. It feels so fresh and biting. The characters are so flawed but I love the disastrous mistakes they make and their bid to make their life one that they are proud of. The journey was amazing to see unfold. 

I don’t want to compare this book to anything, but if you love Sally Rooney’s novels you will enjoy this book!