Open Water Review

TWs: racism, discrimination, PTSD

Open Water is an achingly beautiful poetic statement about falling in and out of love with others and yourself and how that intersects with being black in a world that loves blackness but not black people.

General Impressions

This book changed the way I see the world.

I immediately connected with the main character and the way he saw the world as an artist. There are so many references in this book to not only painters and photographers familiar to art lovers but movies and plays that were out in the last couple of years, mainstream entertainment that most are familiar if not fans of, and seeing them being dissected through his eyes made him more than a character to me. Reading this book feels the same as ending the day with a cup of tea and a conversation with your best friend.

Although you should be prepared to be overwhelmed by the main character's trauma, there were plenty of joyful, magic, loving moments among the bitter, my absolute favourite being seeing an adult straight man being asked for consent by his female partner and asking her as well. I'm so happy to have read a book in which men are not in bed only to be pleasured or to be a part of a woman's self-discovery but feeling, thinking beings who deserve as much respect and care.

More than a romance or a love story, this is a book about how systemic racism from the most obvious instances to the multitude of microaggressions are traumatizing people colour to such an extent that its wounds are able to permeate every aspect of their lives, making them live in a state of constant alertness and having an enormous cost on their mental health.

This was particularly poignant as well by facing up to the European "we are not as bad as the Americans" stance every time racism gets brought up in conversations or on the news.

I finished this book sad about leaving the main character. I was with him for only 150 pages, but I was with him through a lot. I saw him cry, fall in love, laugh, hurt, and heal and even though I left him on a hopeful note, I know I'll miss him.

Thank you to Penguin and Viking for this proof.

Rating 5/5