Review: Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson

An artful exploration of black romance, grief, and learning to love.

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@shereadsbooks.sometimes

Dates read: 08/01/26 to 14/01/26

Star rating: ⭐⭐

Word to describe: Monotonous

Genre: Literary Fiction, Contemporary Romance

How do I even start to explain a book that I begrudgingly finished reading and felt like I was treading quicksand whilst doing so? There was so much I wanted, expected, and did not get whilst reading this Goodreads Debut Novel award winning book. I had heard raving reviews, heartfelt emotions, and deep connections to characters that had paved the way and cemented the perception of joy in my mind. I didn't feel that. I really wanted to and I felt disappointed and regretful.

My disconnect to the entire story started with its repetitive phrasing and the overuse of nature metaphors. Whilst this can work exceptionally well in other books, and you'll know from most of my reviews I love a good metaphor, in Caleb's writing it was the same metaphor over and over again. For me, it was overused it was exhausting reading the exact same thing and without that this book could have easily been even shorter. It came across like a distracted GCSE student trying to shoehorn as many thesaurus words as possible - but hey, maybe that's the famed Literary Crisis of modern man slapping me in the face and telling me to get educated.

The lack of personality and character development for both the main character and the female romance interest was stark. I finished the book and nothing had really happened. It is possible that I had missed parts from the constant staring into space wishing for it to end. I felt like I was watching the character act out the plot but I wasn't attached to it. I was vacant in the eyes staring at the page and feeling nothing but discontent with how gratingly long the monologues were. On top of that the sheer disrespect of not naming the female character and having her fetishized the entire time rubbed me the wrong way. There is nothing I dislike more than a female character simply existing to be sexual pleasure and a bit of eye candy (1984's Julia). There could have easily been further development of her character and an exploration of their relationship that extended further than drinking, dancing, and the vivid descriptions of the attractiveness of her body.

Maybe second person narrative was not for me, and that shock upon the initial opening of the book had already set the tone of dislike. I have mostly read books in first person or third person narrative so a new narrative style was different. It was jarring, and honestly distracting. But again, that comes down to personal preference rather than negatives in the book. I simply found it an interesting choice made by the author.

Most of all, maybe it's because I am reading this as a white person, never being able to understand the black perspective. I can learn, empathise, and bring myself to be educated in all matters of race and history. There may have very well been nuances that I am ignorant too because of my own upbringing. There were many references throughout the book to police brutality, and the reality of life as a black man in the UK, and that is something I will never experience, and I can't review this book without highlighting stressing how important it that is. It is important to read from a different perspective to your own and that is something I will continue to do, despite my dislike of this one specific book.

Despite my issues with this book I cannot pretend that there was not beauty hidden in the madness. Caleb is artful and deliberate in his words, and his portrayal of newfound love was devastatingly beautiful. But overall, I wanted more. I wanted to deconstruct the language, add more character development, and give a plot that offered more. I wanted a whole new book and it is unfair to judge Open Water on my pre-conceived expectations.

So, I suppose, there are many things to be learned.