Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson Book Review (Contains Spoilers)|CarenzaOnBooks

Title- Open Water

Author- Caleb Azumah Nelson

Series- N/A

Published- 2021

Page Count- 163 pages

Publishing House- Penguin

Genre- literary fiction, modern fiction

Rating- 4/5 stars

About the Author

Caleb Azumah Nelson is a British-Ghanaian writer and photographer. His debut novel, Open Water, won the Costa Book Award for First Novel.

Taken from Wikipedia.

Plot

In a crowded London pub, two young people meet. Both are Black British, both won scholarships to private schools where they struggled to belong, both are now artists--he a photographer, she a dancer--and both are trying to make their mark in a world that by turns celebrates and rejects them. Tentatively, tenderly, they fall in love. But two people who seem destined to be together can still be torn apart by fear and violence, and over the course of a year they find their relationship tested by forces beyond their control.

Narrated with deep intimacy, Open Water is at once an achingly beautiful love story and a potent insight into race and masculinity that asks what it means to be a person in a world that sees you only as a Black body; to be vulnerable when you are only respected for strength; to find safety in love, only to lose it. With gorgeous, soulful intensity, and blistering emotional intelligence, Caleb Azumah Nelson gives a profoundly sensitive portrait of romantic love in all its feverish waves and comforting beauty.

This is one of the most essential debut novels of recent years, heralding the arrival of a stellar and prodigious young talent.

Taken from Goodreads

Opinions   

Open Water is currently the fiction book of the month at work and one I had wanted to read for a while. I had heard a lot of good things about it and rightly so. This book has some of the most beautiful writing I have ever read. I've recently started underlining/annotating my books and I highlighted so many great lines in this book. To think that Caleb Azumah Nelzon is only in his twenties and the potential he has ahead of him is insane. This book won the Costa First Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Waterstones Book of the Year, which it deserved. If the only thing that you take away from this review, is that it has beautiful writing, then I'm okay with that. 

The story was a very interesting one. It was a lot of small threads being pulled together to form this overall story. I'd say the main one was the love story between the main characters, whose names you never actually learn. Then what it's like to be a young, Black artist is another important theme discussed. There's also a lot of racism and how Black people are treated in the UK. For a book that's only 163 pages, it packs a lot in. It very rarely feels like there's too much happening and the story moves at the right pace. 

Speaking of the story, the reason I gave it 4/5 stars was because it was predictable that they would break up. It always seems to happen and it would have been nice to see them stay together as a couple. They clearly cared for each other and could have supported him after his traumatic experience with the police. I also wanted to get to the relationship a tiny bit quicker as I'm impatient and that stage of a book is always interesting.

At the end of the version I had, it included the short story Pray, which Caleb Azumah Nelson wrote for the BBC Young Writer's competition. You could really see the growth in his writing from Pray to Open Water. I actually struggled with Pray because the writing style was so different. I can't wait to see what he writes next as he is such a talented young writer. I imagine this will be one of my favourite books of the year. 

What did you think of Open Water??  

What I've Learned Working as a Bookseller| CarenzaOnBooks

Today's post is one I've had the idea for since I started working as a temporary bookseller at my local Waterstones in November. Over three months later, it's safe to say I've learned a lot and I wanted to share some of the things I've learnt while working in a dream job for me. This is mostly going to be about me and my experience in relationship to books, rather than the demands of the job. I think this is the best way for me to talk about it. So let's get into what I've learnt about being a bookseller. 

The kid's picture book section after I spent the day tidying it

My "Speciality" Within Books

One day I was having a conversation with someone visiting our branch from a different branch and they asked, if I could become a specialist or senior bookseller, what area would I like to focus on. I genuinely didn't have an answer because I don't know. I thought maybe I could pass as a fantasy/sci-fi bookseller or teen/YA, but even then I would have felt out of my depth. Before I started this job, I would have said I knew a lot of titles in these sections. However, the ones I've been exposed to are the ones I see on Bookstagram. This actually leads me on nicely to my next point...

I Don't Know As Much As I Thought I Did

I realised pretty quickly that my knowledge of books was actually way smaller than I thought it was. I thought that being a part of the online book community meant my knowledge of books was good, but it's actually very limited. I only knew about the big titles, the ones I saw everywhere. It's made me want to make more of an effort to track down some smaller/less talked about books. I've been picking up books that I haven't seen online in order to expand my horizons. There's just so many books and I've only read a small fraction of what we sell. It's definitely something I want to work on expanding and has given me a new spark in my love for books. 

Seeing New Books

Before working at my local Waterstones, I would have only checked out the sections I already read books from, such as new fiction, fiction, YA/Teen and fantasy. Now, I have worked all over the shop. I have seen books that I would have never imagined existed. There really is a book for everyone out there. There's probably more than I can ever imagine. We get so many requests for books off the beaten track. It really has opened my eyes to books I wouldn't have had the opportunity to learn about. For example, there are some really interesting non-fiction books out there that I'd love to read. All of this has been making my TBR very long!

There's More to Bookselling Than Meets the Eye

I don't know what I imagined booksellers did all day, but there really are a lot of different roles within the shop. My main ones do seem to be working the till or shelving. But there's also pricing our non-book related products, sorting out customer orders and cleaning. There are times when there isn't much to do, but we're often always wandering around doing something. I think my favourite things to do are to shelve books and to price items. I find it very therapeutic using the pricing gun and getting the job done, but that's probably just a me thing.    

Those are just a few things that I've learned from my time as a bookseller. Yes, there are some not so great aspects about being a bookseller, but overall I love it. If you want to learn more about being a bookseller, I recently The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell, which I enjoyed and would recommend. It had a lot of experiences in that I could relate to. 

The Hatmakers by Tamzin Merchant Mini Monday Review (Spoiler Free Book Review)| CarenzaOnBooks

Welcome to the first in a new series on my blog, called Mini Monday Reviews! In essence, these are going to be small reviews, focusing on the things I liked and didn't like, in either a book, film or TV show. They aren't going to be as detailed as my normal reviews, but a chance to highlight some of the things I've been reading and watching that I wouldn't get a chance to review normally. Without further a do, let's get into the first Mini Monday Review! 

Plot

Cordelia Hatmaker's father is lost at sea and she is determined to find him. Along the way, she learns of the King's madness and how the other Maker families have all had precious items stolen from them. Together, this leads Cordelia on an epic adventure across an alternative version of Georgian London, filled with magic, madness and a little bit of mayhem. 

For more information on The Hatmakers, you can read the Goodreads page, by clicking here. 

What I Liked

This was our Children's Book of the Month at work (I work as a bookseller at my local Waterstones) and I forgot to bring my book to work one day, so on my break I started this. I was hooked. I hadn't read much kids/middle grade before and this is definitely the type of book I'd like to read more of. It had exactly the type of adventure I like, which is something goes missing and our characters have to hunt for clues. I thought Cordelia was a great character. She was fierce and determined, but also capable of showing her sadness after her father went missing and when she fell out with her friend. I thought the world of the Maker families was quite unique alongside the typical tension between rivals. It left enough room to be intrigued for a sequel, which comes out later this month. It was just a really good adventure story with solid characters and a story that kept you wanting more at just the right pace. 

What I Didn't Like

I feel like the blurb was a bit misleading as it seemed that the focus would be about Cordelia's father being missing, where as this quickly became a smaller plot line. The main plot line was about the missing Maker's items, which was a good plot line, but not what I expected. I also guessed who the villain was as it was fairly predictable. Overall, I have very few complaints about this book as I really enjoyed it and it's sparked an interest in reading more books like this.

What did you think of The Hatmakers by Tamzin Merchant?? Are you excited for the sequel?? 

The Witcher Series Two TV Show Review (Contains Spoilers)| CarenzaOnBooks

Taken from Google Images

Title- The Witcher

Creators- Lauren Schmidt Hissrich 

Cast- Henry Cavill, Freya Allan, Anya Chalotra, Joey Batey, MyAnna Buring, Eamon Farren and ensemble cast

Genre- fantasy, drama  

Length- 8 episodes

Platform- Netflix

Rating- 4.5/5 stars 

Plot

The story begins with Geralt of Rivia, Crown Princess Ciri of Cintra, and the sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg at different points of time, exploring formative events that shape their characters throughout first season, before eventually merging into a single timeline.

Geralt and Ciri are linked by destiny since before she was born when he unknowingly demanded her as a reward for his services by invoking "the Law of Surprise". After the two finally meet, the witcher becomes the princess's protector and must help her and fight against her various pursuers to prevent her Elder Blood and powerful magic from being used for malevolent purposes and keep Ciri and their world safe.

Taken from Wikipedia 

Opinions  

I was swept up in The Witcher hype at the beginning of 2020, having never read the books or played the games. I really enjoyed it and went out and bought the first three books. I even rewatched it a few months after I had first watched, while we were plunged into lockdown. It became a favourite and a show I was excited for the second series. After a very long wait because of the pandemic, it finally arrived. I was only able to get to it in mid-January, a month after it released because I was so busy and tired with work. I wanted to savour it and enjoy it. I ended up watching it over three days and I bloody loved it. 

Taken from Google Images

This series had a much stronger overarching plot. It felt established and like it new what it was doing. While I liked the jumping around and different timelines in series one, I found myself engaging with this one more. This is odd because when I was reading the books I loved The Last Wish (which provided the stories/inspiration for series one) but really struggled with Blood of Elves (which was the inspiration for series two). I had a lot of expectations for series two and it didn't fail to meet them. I really liked when Geralt, Ciri and Yennefer finally all met together. It has a lot of potential for series three, for them being a little family unit. They're clearly meant to be and are connected to each other. 

Taken from Google Images

If you follow me on Twitter, then you might know that Jaskier is a favourite character of mine and I was beyond excited to see his return in series two. I wish he could have been introduced a bit earlier, as I was almost watching just to find out what happened to him and not the other characters. His introduction as the Sandpiper was great. Speaking of great, they had some more incredible songs in series two. They had a very difficult job of topping series one, but they did it. Burn, Butcher, Burn lives in my head. I've found a playlist on Spotify with all of his songs and I listen to it on repeat. I felt we got to explore a bit more of Jaskier this series. He wasn't just the comic relief. He went through a fairly traumatic time and his directness with Gerlat was really good. I hope they include Jaskier in the family dynamic in series three as he is an integral part of that family. 

Taken from Google Images

Let's talk about the ending. I audibly gasped when it was revealed that Dunny was the White Flame as I thought he was dead. That was a really good reveal. The end with Ciri being possessed made for a good battle, with Yennefer's sacrifice and getting her magic back feeling like a satisfying ending. It wasn't quite as dramatic a cliffhanger as series one. I found the plot line with the Elves somewhat predictable. I knew that something bad was going to happen to the baby Elf. I didn't see Francesca going on a baby killing spree, that was kinda haunting. There's a lot of room for great things to come in series three, but I'm not as desperate for it as I was for series two. 

The production felt a lot tighter this series. I thought the sets, the costumes and the overall design of the show was beautiful. The stories and directing were great. I could talk for days about the music because I'm a sucker for a good soundtrack. It felt like a step up from series one, with even better things on the horizon for series three.

Overall, I really enjoyed this series. I'm glad I waited until I was in the right mindset to watch it as I think I enjoyed it more. Naturally, I am very excited for series three and I'm even tempted to dive back into the books, despite some of the problems I have. In the meantime, I'm going to impatiently wait for my Jaskier Pop Funko to arrive, while listening to my Jaskier playlist repeat. 

What did you think of the Witcher series two??