Review: "Open, Heaven" by Seán Hewitt

Open, Heaven by Seán Hewitt
Published April 2025 via Knopf
★★★★

It's the early 2000s, and life is trudging on in a small village in the north of England. Between the isolation of the town and James's family's difficulties and his own sexuality—which is by and large tolerated, but not really accepted—James is feeling pretty isolated himself. He dreams of connection, of meeting another boy like him. And then a new boy, one who doesn't know James or how he doesn't quite fit into town, arrives, and things start to change.

Our summer should have seemed open-ended. Almost every day was hot, with endless blue skies and the deep green of woods and meadows, but I knew that, before the autumn came around again, Luke would be gone. (loc. 2201*)

File this one under slow-moving, character-driven, beautiful language. James spends so much of his life daydreaming—about boys, mostly, or about men; I've never particularly wanted to be in a teenaged boy's head, but this does rather take us there. But there's quite a bit else going on in his life, including a younger brother whose health is uncertain and a more general desire for connection. As much as James is a ball of unfortunate teenage hormones, a lot of what he dreams of is much less about sex than it is about wanting someone to be close with, someone to touch, in a way that he can't fully articulate. Everything is constantly on the cusp, about to change but not always in ways that James can predict.

I was a bit nervous about the direction the book was taking, but the ending sold this for me—3.5 stars, I think, rounded up. No spoilers, but the plot very much builds toward that end of summer, and there are a number of ways the plot could go. The level of restraint bumped this up for me. One to read when you're in the mood for something introspective and dreamy.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.