I love, love, love this novella. A beautiful and realistic love story that I'll be recommending to everyone.

Quite simply the best book I've read in the last few years. Beautiful and utterly utterly heartbreaking.

I had this book on my Kindle TBR pile for a good while - but have only just got around to reading it. Anyway, I had high hopes - 'Open Water' has had rave reviews and has also been given various awards, book of the month in retailers etc. For me, though, it just didn't tick my boxes. I realise I am probably in the minority - I really wanted to like it, but I just didn't, really, and here's why.

'Open Water' is, admittedly, beautifully written; in fact, it is quite poetic, and the focus on two characters enriches the reader's experience. However, I didn't like the second-person narrative. I think it works - and it can work in lots of different prose - but I found it too intense. Partly, I believe this is due to the fact the book is character-driven - there isn't a very distinguishable plot, and even though it is about the way a relationship evolves over time, I found the 'you' too much. This is not to say it's a bad book - it certainly isn't, and one can recognise - and give credit to - the quality of the prose.

I am sure other readers will be much more positive than me. My 3/5 rating is more a reflection of how I respond to a book, and the enjoyment it gives me, as opposed to being representative of the quality of the writing. But, awarding it higher than 3/5 wouldn't justify my experience.

A beautiful debut which explores so many important topics. I loved the contrast between the beauty of photography and music and the unbearable sadness and unfairness of racism and police brutality.

This book deserves the praise it has received so far and a lot more in the future.

Such an intense and fantastic literary read. Utterly compelling and wonderful writing. I loved it so much.

This book is an intimate love story between two people. The writing is so beautiful. It’s poetic and lyrical.
This is about belonging and being accepted for who you are. It’s so sad in places and then so beautiful in others.

This book really is beautiful, haunting, and heartbreaking.

Even though it is relatively short, it's not a quick read and that's not a bad thing. It takes a while to process the content in this book and reading this slowly allowed me to take some time to think about everything.

At first, I was unsure about how it is written telling the story as 'you did this' etc. but I found that this narrative grew on me and it made it feel a lot more intimate as if I was reading a memoir.

I think it's an important read for anyone but especially if you live in the UK.

Caleb Azuma Nelson, a British-Ghanaian writer's debut novel Open Water is a beautiful, lyrical journey into vulnerability. Looking at the intimacy of two Black people, who meet after winning a scholarship to a private school, we see the two trying to make their mark in a city that at times celebrates and rejects them. Stunning writing that definitely makes you empathise with the characters.

When this was at its best it was beautiful - the meditations on music, the mentions of other texts, his love for Zadie, his love for her.

At times it read almost like poetry and I liked the refrains that he was able to develop throughout the novel.

Grappling with his mental health, the anxiety caused just by being a black man in London this got dark at times.

The ending felt like there may have been a light at the end of the tunnel, but I think I wanted a little bit more.

I will keep an eye out for the next thing from this promising writer.

My thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is one of the most heart breakingly wonderful books I’ve ever read. The writing is so beautiful and poetic. Will definitely be recommending this to everyone from now on!

When I received the eArc of Caleb Azumah Nelson's Open Water on Netgalley back in the beginning of the year I made a grave mistake: I forgot about it. You know how it goes; new books are released, the semester takes over, and suddenly it's way past the publication date. At times, it's a benefit - this time it was not. I'm lucky enough now that I got my shit together and actually read the book, and boy was it worth it. With incredibly unique narration, Nelson took me on a journey that was heartbreakingly real and it's a reading experience I can say for certain will stay with me for a long time. Told in second-person narration often sported in fan fiction but rarely in published fiction, Open Water forces you, the reader, to do the impossible: to put yourself in the shoes of a black man living in London (unless, of course, you are a black man living in London, in which case, I'm hoping you feel seen by this book). It's a book that takes you through love, through hardships, through fearing for your - and everyone around you's - life, and it's wrapped up in perhaps some of the most beautiful writing I have seen in a long time. I cannot recommend Open Water enough. Don't be like me. Do not forget this book.

I would like to extend my gratitude to NetGalley for giving me this advanced readers’ copy in exchange for an honest and frank review.

I did not finish this book. I felt that the way it was written was using very “flowery” language. There was more description about people and places than there was actual storytelling. I think it may be too clever a book for me to enjoy.

I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin, and the author Caleb Azumah Nelson.
While I can appreciate the skill and poetry of this novel, the style just wasn't for me. I didn't enjoy the format or the flow of the novel, and I found the flowery and overly-dramatic style quite frustrating at times. I have to agree with another reviewer in that it was trying just a little bit too hard to be different. Not for me, unfortunately.

One for readers of Normal People and Assembly. I always enjoy the use of second person narration, and it works pretty well for this love story between two young Black British people. The title is a metaphor for the possibilities and fear of intimacy. The protagonist doesn’t know what to do with his anger about how young Black men are treated. I felt he was a little heavy-handed in his treatment of this theme, though I did love that the pivotal scene is set in a barbershop, a place where men reveal more of themselves than usual – I was reminded of a play I saw a few years ago, Barber Shop Chronicles.

Ultimately, I wasn’t convinced that fiction was the right vehicle for this story, especially with all the references to other authors from Hanif Abdurraqib to Zadie Smith (NW, in particular); I think a memoir with cultural criticism was what the author really intended. I’ll keep an eye out for Nelson, though – I wouldn’t be surprised if this makes the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award shortlist later this year, and I feel like in his next book he might truly find his voice. This one, unfortunately, was poorly served by its editor in that a number of homonym slips/wrong word choices remain: bough when he means bow (three times!), diffuse instead of defuse (I see this pair used incorrectly ~90% of the time), “renounce you of your guilt” where it should be absolve, etc.

A readalike: Poor by Caleb Femi (even though it’s poetry with photographs – there’s a South London setting, and Nelson’s protagonist is a photographer)

This is a modern day love story written in the most beautiful style.

This book focuses on two Black British young people who are trying to grapple with finding their place in society. You can feel the electricity of these two people coming out through the book and you are rooting for them to have a happy ending despite all of their complications.

This book covers a lot of important topics in such a humane way that it felt so genuine and real. This isn’t a love story that feels like a fairytale, it’s real, it’s gritty and it’s heartbreaking.

What a work of art. I absolutely loved this extraordinary book. It's poetic, majestic, heartbreaking and real. I felt on the edge of my seat waiting for whatever was going to impact this growing love, and just what that was going to be. This is such a rich contemplation of love and desire and vulnerability. The central character's voice, written so perfectly in the second-voice, adds such a depth to the narrative. I was in his head, I was with him, I watched him and walked with him, and I experienced this form of writing in a new way. I can't rave enough and I look forward to the author's next book. (I accidentally requested this book from two publishers, so have reposted here.)

This beautiful book is a triumphant literary delight. It's compellingly narrated and the immediacy of the sensory details is compelling. The story is set in 2017 and 2018 and while on one level it is a love story of a dancer and photographer falling in love when there are challenges and boundary issues around them. It is a greater story than that and a deeper one, on many levels. The expression and voice of the writing is compelling and familiar in its verisimilitude. The conversations, both between characters and internally have a clarity and wit which landed with me as a reader and articulated beautifully aspects of art and love I'd only previously seen shared in art which seemed removed from the world. To see the moments of softening and awakening being unfolded in everyday life, in modern times was beautiful. This book is written about Black experience and states that they are
“more than the sum of [their] traumas”. This is so clearly shared in this book.

One of the best books I have ever read.
This book is one of those reads that will stay with you for a long time after you finish. It is so beautifully evocative and heartbreaking. Written in the second person, you cannot help but be drawn into this story and feel the full effects of its power.
The portrayal of Black love is so delicate, yet so powerful, that it allows you to see the magic and strength and intimacy that is completely bound up in this presentation of Black beauty and love. It allows you to experience this even if you can never experience this. It helps you understand it.
It helps you understand the heartbreak that Black mothers and sisters and wives and daughters have to go through, knowing the dangers that they, and their men, face on a daily basis. It angers you. It makes you want to do better, to find a way to rewrite our collective psyche. We need to angle ourselves towards the love, not the hate.
I loved the repetition of certain themes, including the idea that words are not enough and language will always fail us (something I wrote my dissertation about so it resonates with me). The book celebrates alternates to words, and how these things are so much stronger and more beautiful - things like a touch, a look, a feeling, a love.
I really think everyone should read this book - it is breathtakingly written, and presents the magic of Blackness in such a way that it is impossible not to fall in love.
Thank you to Caleb Azumah Nelson - I feel so honoured to have stumbled across this book, and to have felt, just for a moment, that magic.
I do not have the words, but I will never stop trying.

I was very excited to be given the opportunity to read this book by @netgalley (many thanks for the ARC), as this short piece of literary fiction had all the premises to be a great read for me.

I loved the narrative voice and the writing style of this; I don’t think I had ever read a book written in the second person while not knowing who this voice belonged to, and I found it quite fascinating.
The downside to this is that I felt that it distracted me from the emotions that I was feeling throughout the book. I would get really engrossed in the writing style without paying much attention to the content. This is probably my fault, for not being able to let myself be absorbed in the story, but I have to say it did affect my enjoyment of the book.

I do think this was a great debut novel, and I will definitely read whatever Azumah Nelson writes next!

Open Water plumbs the complexities of the human condition: the need for company, love, intimacy, respect, validation, knowledge and acceptance. How love can be slow and strong and then how it can be stretched and torn. The author’s depiction of these two nameless, vulnerable, richly-drawn characters and their journey moved me deeply.