Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by nickartrip102
Open, Heaven by Seán Hewitt
4.0
I requested and received an eARC of Open Heaven by Seán Hewitt via NetGalley. James is a sheltered and shy sixteen-year-old, growing up in the North of England. When he comes out, he begin to feel the distance widening between him and his family. He feels stifled by the rural community he has grown up in and dreams of a life where he feels he belongs. James is introduced to Luke through a job his father procured for him as a salve for his loneliness. Luke is older with a reputation for trouble, but James finds himself drawn to the boy's beauty and charisma. Beneath the surface, Luke is carrying pain of his own after being abandoned by his family.
Hewitt perfectly captures what it means to be young and gay. The uncertainty that comes along with it, the feeling of being isolated within our desires. There’s this really terrific passage in which James muses about the way he transposes his feelings on to unsuspecting boys, spinning entire fantasies around their beings, that really resonated with me and my own experiences as a gay teenager. He also contemplates his willingness to conform to whatever shape their desire takes, hitting on this idea of how gay men (and queer folk) are made to negotiate their own happiness in a world set against them. Open Heaven was full of familiar sentiments expressed in lyrical language that made me want to sink into this book and enjoy every page.
The writing in Open Heaven is evocative and rich, Hewitt takes queer teenage angst and turns it into something exquisite and visceral. The beauty and the pain of first love seem to live within the pages of this novel, often leading my heart to ache for James. The relationships in this novel, between James and his little brother, James and his mother, James and Luke, are all so wonderfully done. I didn’t anticipate loving this book quite as much as I did, but man did it cause some cracks in my heart. I think most gay men have experienced some version of James’ summer in Open Heaven and having that experience dissected and understood in such a tender and thoughtful manner was very moving.
Hewitt perfectly captures what it means to be young and gay. The uncertainty that comes along with it, the feeling of being isolated within our desires. There’s this really terrific passage in which James muses about the way he transposes his feelings on to unsuspecting boys, spinning entire fantasies around their beings, that really resonated with me and my own experiences as a gay teenager. He also contemplates his willingness to conform to whatever shape their desire takes, hitting on this idea of how gay men (and queer folk) are made to negotiate their own happiness in a world set against them. Open Heaven was full of familiar sentiments expressed in lyrical language that made me want to sink into this book and enjoy every page.
The writing in Open Heaven is evocative and rich, Hewitt takes queer teenage angst and turns it into something exquisite and visceral. The beauty and the pain of first love seem to live within the pages of this novel, often leading my heart to ache for James. The relationships in this novel, between James and his little brother, James and his mother, James and Luke, are all so wonderfully done. I didn’t anticipate loving this book quite as much as I did, but man did it cause some cracks in my heart. I think most gay men have experienced some version of James’ summer in Open Heaven and having that experience dissected and understood in such a tender and thoughtful manner was very moving.