Reviews with content warning for Racism - Open Water

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson

372 reviews

bricharis's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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sandwiiche's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad fast-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

this is a powerful and thought-provoking story. the prose was heartfelt and lyrical, and many of the quotes resonated with me on a personal level. it's also told in second person, which was very interesting because it placed us into the main character's shoes.

here are some of my favourite quotes:

You have always thought if you opened your mouth in open water you would drown, but if you didn't open your mouth you would suffocate. So here you are, drowning.

It's easier to hide in your own darkness, than to emerge, naked and vulnerable, blinking in your own light. Even here, in plain sight, you're hiding.

There is a difference between being looked at and being seen.

i definitely recommend this -- it will challenge you, open your eyes to the racial injustice that occurs everyday and speak powerful truths into your life.

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ptit_bibite's review

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challenging emotional reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

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all_yellow's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

The prose is stunningly beautiful, more like poetry than a novel. The story is moving, emotional, necessary, raw, and I enjoyed the second-person perspective on the main character. A small complaint but I found some of the dialogue a little hard to follow without attributions, but I forgive it because the book was otherwise so brilliant and really made me feel things deeply.

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alexisvana's review

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reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.25

I'm SO in the minority for pretty much every part of my review, but here goes...

I think the writing style (i.e. prioritizing poetic/lyrical prose over like... baseline plot development) actually mostly worked for me, I'm shocked! There were a couple times where I highlighted lines because I thought "hmmm... this line sounds pretty, but it doesn't make a lick of sense" but aside from that, I generally enjoyed it
Don't care about the second person narrative in this context. For me, this very rarely works for my brain in novels/memoirs and I don't really understand what purpose it was serving here
I think the plot of the first 70% of this read like an episode of 'Friends' in that... I feel like we were romanticizing deeply problematic/toxic behavior. I think 5-10 years ago I would've been absolutely swooning but now I'm like "damn, I would've dumped BOTH of you a long time ago" lol
In general, I think there was far too little character development for this to be moving for me. I'm walking away knowing next to nothing about our main characters other than they are presumably very hot and drink pretty much constantly

Not mad I read it, but I think it should've just been a poem or a novella - I think the lack of character devleopment/floofy writing style would've been much more successful if it were less drawn out.

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meggy_lewis's review

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emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

It is not my most traditional 5-star review as this was a deeply uncomfortable read that made me question what I knew about myself. Caleb Azumah Nelson's beautiful prose so magically replicates the complexity and reality of Blackness, masculinity, and grief that it's hard to believe that the novella is only 145 pages long. You can get lost in the story, the emotions, and the characters and truly feel as if you're breathing with them.

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oz2021's review against another edition

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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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amylav's review

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emotional reflective fast-paced

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

4.5

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cass_ward's review

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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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mandaant1's review

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challenging emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

4.0

This is a story to contemplate on. A young black-British male and female trying to find their way to fit into the world. He is a photographer, she is a dancer, going to college trying to become someone. Their relationship is complicated because of how they met. No one wanted to hurt anyone. No one wanted to make the first move. They were stuck between being a couple or staying friends. It was a roller coaster love story. We get the POV of the MMC on how he sees love and how he sees himself - a black man in a racist city witnessing racism and police brutality. This made him unsure of himself afraid to be himself. Afraid to love and be loved.

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