Scan barcode
sashley98's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
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
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Violence
Moderate: Racism
lindseyhall44's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
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
Open Water was one of the most stunning books I have ever read. The prose felt like poetry, the exploration of race, masculinity, and love was extremely well done.
While this is a love story, it does have incredibly hard topics to read, such as police brutality, so keep that it mind when picking it up!
Ultimately, I look forward to returning to Open Water many times in my life, as well as seeing the future ahead of this talented author.
While this is a love story, it does have incredibly hard topics to read, such as police brutality, so keep that it mind when picking it up!
Ultimately, I look forward to returning to Open Water many times in my life, as well as seeing the future ahead of this talented author.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Death, Violence, Racism, and Grief
_nicole_g's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality and Racism
Moderate: Grief and Racial slurs
bvrealis's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Grief, Racism, Gun violence, Hate crime, Police brutality, Xenophobia, and Death
thecatconstellation's review against another edition
challenging
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? It's complicated
4.75
A beautifully written reflection on love, trauma, and Blackness. Steeped in references to music and art and using language as a precise tool, this is definitely a must read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Police brutality, Death, Grief, and Racism
Moderate: Drug use, Violence, and Mental illness
Minor: Sexual content, Slavery, and Blood
emilyrowanstudio's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This booook π€―π€―π€―
Truly one of the most beautiful and eye-opening books i've ever read. Equal parts a love story and the reality of being a young Black man in London. A book about race, masculinity, vulnerability, and being really seen by another person.
The book is written in the second person which takes a bit of getting used to, and it's without a doubt the most lyrical and poetically written prose i've ever read, and just enough at only 145 pages. The writing style won't be for everyone, but this is a really special book. It made me laugh, smile, wince, shake my head in anger, cry (almost). I really felt the possibility of love, and the pain of living, seeping through the pages. This book will stay with me for a very long time. If this sounds AT ALL up your street, I implore you to give it a go.
Truly one of the most beautiful and eye-opening books i've ever read. Equal parts a love story and the reality of being a young Black man in London. A book about race, masculinity, vulnerability, and being really seen by another person.
The book is written in the second person which takes a bit of getting used to, and it's without a doubt the most lyrical and poetically written prose i've ever read, and just enough at only 145 pages. The writing style won't be for everyone, but this is a really special book. It made me laugh, smile, wince, shake my head in anger, cry (almost). I really felt the possibility of love, and the pain of living, seeping through the pages. This book will stay with me for a very long time. If this sounds AT ALL up your street, I implore you to give it a go.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Police brutality, and Racism
Moderate: Grief and Mental illness
5aru's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-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
Very poetically written, Open Water is a moving and well-executed study of a relationship between two marked bodies β bodies marked as Black in a British context, and hence deeply affected by the social perceptions of their Blackness. Nelson effectively illustrates just how deeply this fearful, constrained existence affects the psyche, delivering poignant social commentary while offering a deeply human and quite romantic portrayal of the slow-burn relationship between our two protagonists.
My main complaint is, however, precisely related to the writing style. The author uses a device based on repetition, which does effectively emphasize certain key themes and motifs throughout the novel, and at times also enhances the emotion of certain scenes. However, it is easy to misuse such devices, and this misuse quickly evidences itself: the novel reads repetitive, as some few sentences are recalled and called back again and again, reappearing in sometimes very quick succession (especially since this novella is really quite short). This seems unnecessary, less a poetic device than a "trying to reach the wordcount of an essay" type of situation. I do wish it hadn't been abused as much, though it does not by any means diminish the significance of the book's content.
My main complaint is, however, precisely related to the writing style. The author uses a device based on repetition, which does effectively emphasize certain key themes and motifs throughout the novel, and at times also enhances the emotion of certain scenes. However, it is easy to misuse such devices, and this misuse quickly evidences itself: the novel reads repetitive, as some few sentences are recalled and called back again and again, reappearing in sometimes very quick succession (especially since this novella is really quite short). This seems unnecessary, less a poetic device than a "trying to reach the wordcount of an essay" type of situation. I do wish it hadn't been abused as much, though it does not by any means diminish the significance of the book's content.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Racism, Police brutality, and Grief
Moderate: Hate crime
jesshindes'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
4.0
As I started reading Open Water I thought it was going to be a bit slight for me - or maybe a bit much of a love story, and I don't usually get that into a book that is *only* a love story - but by the time I'd finished it I'd changed my mind.
This was a debut novel last year and it's set in and around South London (proper South London in specific places, Frances Spufford take note!) (egregious error RE the Brockley overground station notwithstanding). It's about a male character - the narrator, although the book is told in the second person so it's also you, the reader, moving through the story as him - and a woman he meets and falls in love with. They're cautious in taking the first steps, or in moving from friendship to romance, and this is maybe the bit I had less patience for initially - I was like 'Just go for it guys, it's not that deep'. But then actually the whole point of the book is that it *is* that deep (I feel like there's an Open Water pun here somewhere) - because the book is also very much about what it is to exist as a Black person and specifically a Black man, in London, in a society where you can't ever know whether you're going to be seen for who you are or profiled as something you're not; where the police stop and search you as you're on your way to your friend's house for dinner, and it upsets you for weeks; where sometimes the violence or dehumanisation is so much that it's easier not to connect at all.
The book is in lots of ways very different to Natasha Brown's Assembly, which I read last year at about this time and which is also concerned with representing Black experience in London (albeit a different milieu), but I did find myself thinking of them alongside each other. They're both short, powerful debut novels that are more concerned with evoking a specific moment then with unfolding elaborate plots, and I think that as with Assembly this is one I'll find myself thinking over for a good while after having finished it.
This was a debut novel last year and it's set in and around South London (proper South London in specific places, Frances Spufford take note!) (egregious error RE the Brockley overground station notwithstanding). It's about a male character - the narrator, although the book is told in the second person so it's also you, the reader, moving through the story as him - and a woman he meets and falls in love with. They're cautious in taking the first steps, or in moving from friendship to romance, and this is maybe the bit I had less patience for initially - I was like 'Just go for it guys, it's not that deep'. But then actually the whole point of the book is that it *is* that deep (I feel like there's an Open Water pun here somewhere) - because the book is also very much about what it is to exist as a Black person and specifically a Black man, in London, in a society where you can't ever know whether you're going to be seen for who you are or profiled as something you're not; where the police stop and search you as you're on your way to your friend's house for dinner, and it upsets you for weeks; where sometimes the violence or dehumanisation is so much that it's easier not to connect at all.
The book is in lots of ways very different to Natasha Brown's Assembly, which I read last year at about this time and which is also concerned with representing Black experience in London (albeit a different milieu), but I did find myself thinking of them alongside each other. They're both short, powerful debut novels that are more concerned with evoking a specific moment then with unfolding elaborate plots, and I think that as with Assembly this is one I'll find myself thinking over for a good while after having finished it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Grief and Violence
velsbooknook's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
4.75
Caleb Azumah Nelson has a way with words - just wow. Open Water is written in second person and I think I haven't read a book in that perspective. It works so well and you feel like you are a silent observer in the story which I very much enjoyed!
The story is about a photographer and a dancer. The male MC is going through such a lot of trauma and isn't able to express his emotions it is weighing down that otherwise beautiful love story. The book deals with racism, police brutality, relationships, love and overall what it means and feels like to be a British black man.
The story is about a photographer and a dancer. The male MC is going through such a lot of trauma and isn't able to express his emotions it is weighing down that otherwise beautiful love story. The book deals with racism, police brutality, relationships, love and overall what it means and feels like to be a British black man.
βIt's one thing to be looked at, and another to be seen.β
This book was absolutely heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time. It is only 144 pages long but filled so incredibly beautifully with words and feelings. I highly recommend!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Death, Racism, Police brutality, and Violence
jennikreads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Police brutality, Mental illness, Racism, and Grief