This was such an anticipated read for me, but ended up a little anticlimactic.
The writing was an unusual style, but I rather liked it, and the characters were likeable. The plot was slightly tedious for me, I kept waiting for something major and gripping to happen! The themes of love in the 21st century and homosexuality were important topics and made it extremely relevant.

Unfortunately, this one just wasn't for me. The writing style is very particular and a little jarring in places - it shouldn't be a dealbreaker for anyone to read this book, but I just could not get on board with it. I wonder if it might translate better on audio, where I can hear someone speak with the intonations of the text as the author intended, but this one just isn't one I enjoyed.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I struggled at first to get into this novel, perhaps due to the separation of the voices, but once Mike's voice was also present alongside Benson's I was hooked. A realistic portrayal of the difficulty of maintaining relationships, both romantic and familial, the central premise is perhaps hard to believe at first - who would leave their mother alone with their boyfriend for months while they went back to the country where she lived to nurse their dying father? But the characters feel realistic and every other choice feels painfully true to life, and I loved the note of hope in the ending.

Memorial explores relationships through the thoughts, feelings, words and actions of Benson and Mike, a gay couple who live together in Texas. They sense their relationship is at a crossroads, and when Mike leaves to be with his dying father in Japan whilst his mother visits and is left with Benson, they are forced to consider the next steps. In addition to the relationship between life partners Bryan Washington presents a very real examination of relationships old and new, with fathers, mothers, siblings and co-workers, and particularly evoked a sense of the passing of time. I really enjoyed the descriptions of Japanese food which unites many of the characters.

I did not finish reading this but I think it was more linked to me and my headspace at the time rather than the novel itself. I read about 100 pages but could not get attached to any of the characters. Partly it was the writing style of brevity without much emotional context. You could see that Mike and Ben were not suited but this came mainly from the non-interaction between them. Because it chose to focus on one character at a time rather than jumping between the two, all I had to go on was Mike’s monosyllabic mother, which wasn’t enough to sustain my interest.

An original novel which tackles the complexities of modern relationships, issues of race, class, family, poverty and gentrification.

The experimental writing style feels very contemporary and fans of Washington’s debut will enjoy the diversity of the city of Houston vividly coming to life again.

I enjoyed that certain emotional subjects were tackled without becoming the focal point of the story. I also love that it’s a realistic portrayal of the often messy nature of contemporary relationships and communication. I just wish that both characters had more distinct personalities and ideas came through more clearly. What is left unsaid leaves the reader unsatisfied. Additionally, the lack of use of quotation feels unnecessary and creates what comes across as stilted dialogue.

Still a nuanced portrayal of a queer relationship not specifically centred on trauma rather on the often complicated nature of family and love.

Thank you to Netgalley for the e-ARC

Memorial is a beautiful and sad novel that follows Ben and Mike's relationship.
When Mike decides to go to Japan to visit his dying father, he does so without Ben's knowledge, informing his partner of it only a few days before. To make matters worse, he leaves right after his mother, Mitsuko, arrives to the US, leaving Ben to share an apartment with a stranger.
This novel explores the couple's relationship with each other and with their families: how their families reacted to their homosexuality and the consequences of their parents' past mistakes.
I really enjoyed this novel. Bryan Washington has a beautiful way of describing the nuances of a sad relationship, and expressing how hard it is to let go.

I loved this slow, pouring over the bones of a relationship and examining of broken down family dynamics after the fact. It felt intimate and intense and we languished in that feeling of being stuck between full and complete commitment and leaving it and letting it go. So beautiful.

When I started reading Memorial and met Benson and Mike, I was expecting a love story a typical love story. One with obstacles and bumps along the way but a love story nonetheless.

As I read on, I found that this is not at all what Memorial is about. Yes, there is a story about love throughout, whether it's familial, romantic or platonic and most of it is complicated and undefined. The best part of this though, is that it takes the reader on a journey and shows us that sometimes you find out who you are, but figuring out who you are now.

Benson and Mike are not men who should be together. Neither are they men who are like their fathers. Both of these things are true and yet untrue and it's this that makes Memorial such a beautifully told and compelling novel.

It's safe to say that I devoured this and loved everything about it. Bryan Washington has been on my to read list for a long time and he has lived up to my expectations and the some. I've been banging on about this book to anyone who would listen and it is easily one of the best books I've read this year.

I can't wait to see what comes next,

This is a book about human nature, the complexities of life, and relationships. We follow Ben and Mike, a couple who have been drifting from one another for years. When Mike unexpectedly decides to visit his dying father in Osaka, Ben is left alone with Mike's mother who is visiting from Japan. The two of them must spend a month together, while Mike spends time with his father, and we explore and unravel the issues in their relationship

This book made me sad, because the issues experienced by the characters were so visceral and real. Both men in the relationship have separate issues, relating to family, their sexualities, race and discrimination. There are a plethora of issues surrounding the relationship and they don't deal with any of it upfront together, in a very believable and human way

I liked how this book was written: we get Ben's perspective at the beginning and end of the book with Mike's perspective sandwiched in the middle. I enjoyed following Mike in Osaka, exploring the guilt and confusion he feels towards his estranged father who abandoned him and his mother, but who is now dying

I enjoyed Mike's perspective as well, and his view as a gay Black man in America. Mike is also HIV positive which I don't think I've ever experienced in a book before. Both of the guys are insecure and unsure of themselves in various ways, which is often expressed through lashing out at one another and angry sex

TW: death of a parent, HIV positive character, homophobic slurs, racism

Beautiful. Achingly gorgeous, filled with loved. How we as families are broken and try piece ourselves together how we hurt and heal together. Fabulous story. Amazing writer.

Thanks to Atlantic Books for letting me read Memorial by Bryan Washington in advance. Memorial is about Benson and Mike, and their complicated relationship - going from love to dissatisfaction to love and all the way back again. On the whole, I enjoyed this book but I felt like it didn't live up the expectations I had from the first few chapters! Bryan Washington has a very sparse and digestible prose style, and it was so easy to slurp it all up in one go. The premise - focusing on a once-promising relationship that has soured, and two men navigating family issues - was great, but the dual narration was delivered in big chunks and I much preferred Benson as a narrator, which meant I was quite disappointed when it shifted to Mike's perspective. I liked reading about Houston and Osaka, though, and it was refreshing reading about a relationship between two men that's not tortured for all the usual reasons. Memorial is nuanced and sensitive, and paints such a vivid picture of multicultural America. At times, the prose was a bit too oblique for my tastes, and I felt like the family situations were quite similar - I would have liked more to distinguish the two! Basically I really just wanted a book entirely from Benson's perspective but oh well. 3.5 🌟 from me!

An absorbing book about two men and their relationship. I'm not entirely sure what to say about this book, where not much happens plot wise but emotionally between the spaces, so much happens. Benson, a young black childcare worker lives with his boyfriend, Mike, an equally young Japanese restaurant worker. Mike's mother Mitsuko arrives just as he finds out that his father is dying and so he returns to Japan leaving Benson and his mother together. Mitsuko wordlessly decides to teach Benson how to cook. The preparation of food is a constant theme in the book, often done without words but as a way of building connection. Definitely not a book to read when hungry! Benson is quite flat which really comes across on the page whereas Mike's drive and energy shines through. We learn about these characters through their thoughts and what they do. I liked the way it was written, although the lack of quotation marks, meant at times it was tricky to know who was speaking and when (probably easier in the print version). Set in Houston, this is a book to make you think about how we connect to others, how we love, poverty, racism, violent fathers and what makes families. A very different kind of LGBT relationship book, not a typical romance, more a seasoned reflection on the reality of long term relationships.

With thanks to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

I did not like the way this was written. It had a peculiar style and no speech punctuation. I was uncomfortable with the Japanese/ black /gay/ urban cultural mix and setting which left me with nothing to relate to. I did think the mother was a very strong and interesting character. I skim read parts but dd not finish.

In Washington’s debut novel, set in Houston and Osaka, two young men reassess their commitments to their families and to each other. The narration is split between Benson and Mike. Behind the narrators’ apparent lack of affect is a quiet seam of emotion. Both young men are still shaken by their parents’ separations, and haunted by patterns of abuse and addiction. Flashbacks to how they met create a tender backstory for a limping romance. Although the title (like most of the story titles in Lot) refers to a Houston neighborhood, it has broader significance, inviting readers to think about the place our loved ones have in our memories. Despite the tough issues the characters face, their story is warm-hearted rather than grim. Memorial is a candid, bittersweet work from a talented young writer whose career I will follow with interest.

See my full review at BookBrowse.

I really wanted to like this book much more than I ended up actually enjoying it. The author has so much potential and I loved the main characters especially Mike, Benson and Mike’s Mother. But the plot lacked focus and felt too flimsy. I know this author is more well known for his poetry and maybe this book was just the authors’ way of working out the kinks in his writing style while he was adapting from poetry to narrative form.

I will certainly read anything else this author writes as his character development was fantastic. But the slow nature of the relationship between Benson and Mike was too frustrating for me and they spent most of the novel apart in separate countries which meant we spent more time with filler narratives than their own on/off romance.

Thanks to Atlantic Books, Bryan Washington the author and Netgalley for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

A slow burning, beautifully written book. I look forward to reading what Bryan Washington writes next.

I finished this book with tears in my eyes on a Thursday morning and then I’m expected to go to work? After dealing with this emotional rollercoaster?

I absolutely adored this. I didn’t want it to be over. Gut-wrenching, heart-breaking and wonderful.

Memorial is the story of Mike and Benson, who have been together for a few years and are both having doubts about their relationship. Then when Mike’s dad gets ill, he decides to go visit him in Japan, at the same time as his mother arrives to visit them in Houston.

This story takes place from both perspectives, a trope I absolutely adore. We start with Benson, who finds himself with a strange Japanese woman in his house who cooks delicious food but rarely speaks. I want to take a moment here to see how much I loved the descriptions of food in this book! Food and its connection to family and home is a real theme.

Then we switch to Mike, living in Japan with his estranged father who is dying and doesn’t particularly want him around.

I couldn’t put this book down but I also dreaded it ending. I felt so invested in the characters and it is such a beautiful story, I didn’t want to leave.

This is a heart-breaking story of love and love and most importantly of home and family and what that means. But it’s also realistic and at times funny and joyful.

This is going to be a huge book this year and I’m so grateful to have had a chance to read an advanced copy! I can’t wait to discuss this with people and spread the word.

I really loved this elegiac and truthful-seeming book. A little uneven, 'Memorial' is nonetheless full of sharp observations and realistic dialogue, and I was hay to see a nuanced depiction of a relationship between two men. I will be looking out for other books by this author.

I desperately wanted to read this after loving 'Lot' by the same author so much, so thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to do so. For me, this fell slightly short of the magic of 'Lot' - but the emphasis there really should be on slightly, as it's still fantastically well written!

If I had to choose one word to describe this book, I would go with 'bittersweet'. Washington has perfectly captured the highs and lows of a relationship here, showing in fine detail how small events can have bigger implications for the relationship as a whole. I found this quite an emotional read at times, but brilliantly honest and real.