Play Book Tag discussion

Caleb Azumah Nelson's Open Water follows the story of two young, Black artists in London falling in love. They never really seem to get a foothold in their relationship for various reasons and the timing for them is always off. It's more literary fiction in that there is no real plot, except the romance will-they-or-won't-they thread; it's more a meandering through the young man's life as he navigates this romantic relationship and also life in general, but dealing a lot with the trauma of racism while trying to find joy in art, music, and kinship.

Nelson writes like a poet. There is a beautiful cadence to his writing, lots of word and phrase repetition I found effective in driving home his points.

Nelson himself says he wrote this story after dealing with multiple deaths in his family which comes through in the writing because it is quite dark and sad. Knowing this might help readers choose the optimal timing to enjoy a story like this.

Highly recommend for fans of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong and How We Fight For Our Lives by Saeed Jones. Those are non-fiction, memoir style stories but both Vuong and Jones are also poets so I think they too have a kind of poetic cadence you will find in Open Water.

Adding! Thanks for the review, Meli 🥰

Hope you enjoy it 😊

Thanks for your review, Meli! I have been considering this one for a while. Definitely adding it now.

You both probably know this, but it's also really short! That's a big selling point for me when I get recommendations.

I have had this on my tbr for a while, your review reminds me of yet another book, I need to read.

I am surprised so many people have heard of this book because I had never heard of it. It just happened to be my local indie bookstore book club pick this month. We have a novella book club and it's been amazing!

Great review, this one was high on my list for a while and needs to go back up to the top of the list.