This follows Cash, who lives in a small town, Johnston, whom he loves so much. All the memories, ever since he was small, all in Johnston. The people, the places, are the part of Cash's life. Never ever he thinks to move from Johnston or leave Johnston. Until, five years passed since his mom died and his dad left him alone. He felt rather empty, flat, and only has his brothers for life, and this new woman named Rose.
This story contains emotional rides, how he works on his relationship with the people in the town, friends, his love life, and forgiving.
I think it was a great story to tell. My favorite part is when Cash telling readers about his relationship with his parents. It got me teared up a little bit. I felt his warm love and it was very endearing to read.
Nevertheless, I sometimes felt it was a bit flat and kind of stoic. Especially, the dialogues. But what impressed me was although it kinda felt flat, Author successfully caught the emotions between characters and I could feel it.
I do think it can be more enjoyable if it can be edited more, I sometimes feel like it was dragging and I needed to push through.

Thank you NetGalley, The Unnamed press, and Calahan Skogman, for this e-ARC in exchange for a honest review

my acquaintance with Calahan is through Matthias, but my decision to request the ARC of his debut novel was driven by my profound admiration for his writing. his ability to infuse his written words with a myriad of emotions makes it easy for me to empathize with his characters and leaves me in awe of his literary prowess.

the editors wrote on their “Dear Reader” page that Blue Graffiti is a bluesy ode to small-town life. i love tragic, heartbreaking stories — be it specifically romance or just general slice of life, sadness leaves a deeper impression on me. feeling blue was what i expected most from this book. in the first chapter, i thought the bluesy would mostly come from sad love — unrequited, forbidden, dangerous, you name it. so, i unconsciously lowered my expectations (i instinctively do so regarding romance books). i’m glad to be proven wrong. oh, Cal, i shouldn’t have doubted you.

it’s so true to say this book is a love letter to Johnston. as someone who had never stepped on American soil, Johnston grew on me through Cal’s descriptions. it could be his own interpretation, or it might be the expectations he has of this city. either way, i envy having such a place you can always return home to. to live in a place for a long time and never once want to leave it despite all the bad memories? oh, i’d take the first chance that comes to me to leave this city i grew and (still) live in.

i envied Cash; i didn’t understand him at first.

as the story went on, it wasn’t only Cash who finally understood himself better; i felt i was by his side throughout his journey.

if i could highlight Cal’s writing, it could be one whole post alone. his writing is a poetic beauty – he can describe even the most ordinary things in such an artistic way. i could read his writing forever. perhaps this aspect alone could make this book my favorite.
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i’ve only found two male authors who can turn an intimate scene into a moment of worship; it’s Caleb and now Calahan. i mentioned this in one of my posts about how an intimate scene needs to be written so beautifully for me to be able to read it (personal taste & opinion, of course). i thought it’d freak me out to read an intimate scene written by men, but Calahan quickly earned my trust and respect. the way he wrote it made me feel safe to be around and read it. somehow, the respect the character shows also represents how Cal, as the author, respects women.
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i wish i could explain more, but i’m afraid i’d talk too much about it. to summarize this long rambling, this book offers me comfort, safety, and honesty. it validates the complicated feelings i harbor about my parents and the city i live in, feelings of love, frustration, and longing. it also reminds me that the world is vast; we just need to keep going. the emotional journey this book took me on is one i won’t soon forget.

Sorry, I tried, I really did, but I just couldn’t get into this book and I had to call it a day at the 60% mark. I don’t often DNF books, in fact I honestly can’t remember the last time I did, if ever. But I just couldn’t find the interest to carry on with this book. Sorry. It was written in a way that I felt was trying too hard to be stylistic and new, but it made it hard to get into the story, and the plot was lacking. I was expecting a love story, from the blurb, but this was depressing. Thank you netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read it.

I am already skeptical about celebrity books and while this one was poetic, it was also bleak and depressing and not a love story like they made it seem. It was also extremely long winded and tried to be an older version of the outsiders but failed. I mourned the hours lost in reading this book but saved myself money from going to one of his book signings so hooray I guess.

I couldn’t get though this book. I DNF’d at 40%. It’s giving drunk uncle telling you his life stories at a family BBQ. You desperately want to go hangout with all your cousins but your uncle hasn’t seen you in years. He started off with a life lesson at some point but it’s lost now. Is he just talking about his high school buddies? Your eyes keep wandering off to your cousins, all having fun, but your uncle doesn’t get the hint. He just keeps talking. Was this review long winded and generally about nothing? That tracks.

I wanted to like it. I’m all for small Midwestern town. Sign me up. But also, give me some plot with it.

Bleh! Not for me. I didn't realize this was written by a famous until after I finished it - kind of glad I didn't know, because now I know I truly judged this on the merits of it's writing and wasn't secretly judging it for being written by an actor.

I found this repetitive and slow. Little to no plot. A cloying voice that began to grate on me at about 15% in.

unfortunately i couldn't get into this one. the writing and overall plot of the story had me struggling to stay invested and interested. i had been very excited for this release but ultimately had to DNF.

Cash is 29. He has only lived in his hometown in WI. He has mostly known struggle and loss as his father abandoned the family and his mother passed away. Even with these struggles he has found it difficult to moving away from the only place he has known. The writing of this book is beautiful. I don't know that I am the target audience because I had a difficult time connecting to the story, particularly the romance. I would be interested in reading a different book from Calahan Skogman in the future but this one was not for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Unnamed Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A beautifully crafted ode to the charm and intimacy of small-town life. The prose reads like a love letter, filled with evocative descriptions and a deep appreciation for the nuances of rural settings. The author's ability to capture the essence of small-town dynamics is truly remarkable, and it's evident that a lot of care went into creating such a vivid and affectionate portrayal.

However, while the writing itself is exquisite, I found myself somewhat adrift within the plot. The narrative felt elusive at times, and I struggled to connect with the story’s direction. The thematic exploration of grief, though, was deeply moving and really resonated with me.

Overall, Blue Graffiti might not have been the right fit for me. Despite this, I can appreciate the novel's strengths and the beauty in its portrayal of small-town life and personal loss.

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy the writing or the story. Nothing was pulling me forward, so I decided to DNF 50 pages into this novel.

"We have oceans of life, don't we all, right beneath the surface, right where we're conscious and dreaming."

Happy release day to one of my favourite books of the year. The incredibly talented Calahan Skogman wrote a story that feels so deep and personal, like this story came from the depths of who he is, from his bones and all those lingering forever places that form the foundations of a person. The best stories are told by people who live in and love those worlds, and the best storytellers are those who can take a reader with them to live in those places for awhile.

The writing is gripping and soulful. The main character, Cash, is a real romantic who tempers his love of life with his bluesy reflective ways. Cash is in love with life as it is and for all it could be. He believes in potential and opportunities. He sees what's unique in everything and everyone around him. What a special way to look at life, honouring the sonder and wonder of it all.

I have an absurd number of passages bookmarked and will be revisiting this book endlessly. Thank you to Netgalley and Unnamed Press for this arc, and most importantly thank you to Calahan Skogman for writing this book.

I DID IT!! I finished it!!

And then I wrote most of my review, accidentally clicked off of it, Goodreads didn’t save it, and now I, back to writing it again. I think that sums up my experience with this book…EFFORT.

I truly did not think this book was ever going to end. The last two days that I’ve spent reading it have felt the longest of my life. The page count is deceptive, it’s longer than it looks, I swear. I was ready for this book to end at part I, and I think that would’ve been a decent ending, however instead it just kept going and going and going and going and going and going and just never really arrived anywhere. There was just no cohesive structure or storytelling to anything. The blurb was the most well structured and that was a lie.

There was just no plot. No excitement. Nothing. Just Cash getting high or drunk or thinking the same few thoughts over and over again (I too only usually think of the same few things but that’s beside the point). He wasn’t engaging. At no point did I ever really feel a sense of his character growing or actually feeling connected to people. Heck, I couldn’t even tell half the side characters apart! Don’t ask me which friend is Prince and which ones Leon and who is Saul and who is Sal. They all began to blend in to one another. We’d always have new characters introduced and they’d be someone who was so special from Cash’s past — and oh here’s someone else just like that too. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed all the different variations of male friendships, but I kind of found it hard to care when I couldn’t keep up with who was who and what backstory they had and why I should care about it anymore than something else.

I really was just bored out of my mind reading this. There just wasn’t really any plot. Nothing really happened. The romance wasn’t romancing. There was no chemistry. Cash wasn’t appealing as a love interest anyways, I couldn’t see why Rose or anyone would be interested in him and his remarkable conversational skills.

Also what time period was this meant to be set in? I missed that and it annoyed me throughout the whole book.

Now I know it’s going to sound like a lie when I say it wasn’t all bad. But I do think there were often moments of great writing that pondered upon thoughts of grief and brotherhood and friendship and such that were quite profound. I also think the setting descriptors were often well done, such as the describing of the bar etc.

I think the main problem with this was the structure, the character work and the fact that at my core I think, unfortunately, and I currently can’t think of any examples to prove myself wrong, I am a literary fiction hater.

I do still love you though Calahan Skogman even if after this you might not like me. I think for a debut this was good, but Skogman has so much more potential, and it does show here in Blue Graffiti so I’ll be intrigued to see what the next novel is like…as long as it’s not more literary fiction…please…

I requested this book on Netgalley because my favorite author, Emily Henry, has been repeatedly plugging it on social media and in her newsletter. After reading this book, I find that marketing strategy an odd choice because this book is very tonally different.

I will be honest and say I do not have much experience with beatnik authors, except for a few Kerouac excerpts, but I do not think romance readers and Emily Henry fans will gravitate towards this style of writing. I found it to be very meandering and was struggling to pick up the book, especially during the first half because so little was actually going on. Even the conversations Cash would have felt like they weren’t moving the story forward that much because so many of them weren’t actually conversations. Saul would talk and Cash would just say “yeah”, Deangelo would talk and Cash would just say “yeah. Prince would talk and Cash would just say “yeah”.

I do think this is a book that would appeal more to male readers, which is why I find the choice to use Emily Henry to market this book so odd. Her readership is almost entirely female. I feel bad giving this a bad review because I don’t think I’m the proper demographic. That being said, I personally did not enjoy this book. It was so focused on Cash’s internal self that there was almost no plot and Cash’s inner thoughts alone were not interesting enough to make me want to read.

I thought this was a really impressive debut novel! When I started reading I wasn’t aware that it was literary fiction, but this novel suits the genre perfectly. This book is written in a very poetic manner, which makes sense given Skogman’s background with writing poetry. Overall, I enjoyed this book! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eArc in exchange for my honest review.

This is such an impressive and beautiful debut novel. I could tell that Skogman 1) is a poet at heart and 2) put his whole soul into this.

It was visually stunning, with voice and atmosphere I would expect from someone much, much more experienced than him. I felt like I was there in Johnston every time Cash passed a house and gifted us with a little town lore.

I didn’t expect to be comparing this to Salinger or Kerouac, but they kept coming to mind as Skogman dove into the human (particularly male) psyche. But I actually found that this book was much more self-aware and emotional than other similar stories written by men, which made it feel more modern and culturally important. As a certified non-man, I found the male friendships and the insight into being a son fascinating. The way Cash idolizes his father despite his neglect is gut-wrenching and really spotlights a generational trauma not many people talk about openly.

A main theme in the book is how men cope with their emotions in a world that expects and molds them to be closed-off and stoic. Cash is extremely sensitive and emotional, but he only seems to be able to express it openly when he’s been drinking, smoking, doing psychedelics, or with women. I loved that Skogman was showing this because I think it’s a real tragedy that men inflict on themselves. Perhaps more books like this will help men move past that and take that pressure off themselves.

When you read this, have your highlighter ready because I was stunned by some of the lines in this book. I can think of a few I know will stick in my mind for a long time to come.

The story was just so raw and visceral, despite its more subdued, slice-of-life type plot. I’ve never read about loss (particularly the loss of parents) in a way that felt so honest and vulnerable before. It breaks your heart without falling into the dreaded “trauma-porn” you see too often in books. It leaves you thinking about the impact of family, the roots that reach the deepest parts of you.

I think this could’ve easily been a five-star book for me with a few changes.

First, and most importantly, while I feel like Skogman put great effort into writing about the few women in the story in a kind way, I wanted more than that. The women in the story are put on a pedestal, which doesn’t let them develop into well-rounded characters. They were much too perfect. By not really giving them flaws, they are robbed of their humanity and their own character development. It just felt like a big part of the story that lacked the depth of the rest of the book.

If I’m being nit-picky, I thought that some parts of the prose could’ve been more condensed and tightly edited. It sometimes came across as TOO reflective, which as a reader can feel like they’re trying too hard to be deep. It just occasionally distracts from the many parts that are truly insightful.

All in all, this was a meaningful and beautiful read and I’m excited to see how Skogman’s career unfolds (and I will always be rooting for him after seeing how he brought a character from one of my all-time favorite books to life with so much care).

*Thank you to Unnamed Press and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I want to thank netgalley, unnamedpress & Calahan Skogman for the arc. Book is out on August 13th.
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This is a book that talks deep about grief & the natural course of life, the nuances of a little town, the feeling of being inadequate for the life we are living or the things we never accomplished & perhaps, lost the chance to do in what we think is 'the right time'. Here we meet Cash, a man of 29, that tells us of his life in this little of town called Johnston. We get to know about his life, his struggles, the emptiness of pushing 30 with much left to figure out.⠀
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His life is perhaps not much different from our own but 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 is the strongest part of the book. You can sit & read about a life not much different than yours, see how it affects you, if there are parts that feel too far away, others that hit close to home. Cash is a man affected by living alone, by grief, by the love of his friends, by finding a person, 𝗥𝗼𝘀𝗲, that suddenly appears in his life to make it brighter, better, even forcing 𝗮 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 in him.⠀
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You can see the poetry background in Calahan's writing, the novel is far from plain & i really liked how easily you can go from one chapter to the next & not wanting to put the book down. I'm not an avid reader of the genre but it was a very nice re-introduction to it. Again, thank you to the publisher, netgalley & the author for this wonderful book.⠀

I want to thank netgalley, unnamedpress & Calahan Skogman for the arc.
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This is a book that talks deep about grief & the natural course of life, the nuances of a little town, the feeling of being inadequate for the life we are living or the things we never accomplished & perhaps, lost the chance to do in what we think is 'the right time'. Here we meet Cash, a man of 29, that tells us of his life in this little of town called Johnston. We get to know about his life, his struggles, the emptiness of pushing 30 with much left to figure out.⠀
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His life is perhaps not much different from our own but 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 is the strongest part of the book. You can sit & read about a life not much different than yours, see how it affects you, if there are parts that feel too far away, others that hit close to home. Cash is a man affected by living alone, by grief, by the love of his friends, by finding a person, 𝗥𝗼𝘀𝗲, that suddenly appears in his life to make it brighter, better, even forcing 𝗮 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 in him.⠀
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You can see the poetry background in Calahan's writing, the novel is far from plain & i really liked how easily you can go from one chapter to the next & not wanting to put the book down. I'm not an avid reader of the genre but it was a very nice re-introduction to it. Again, thank you to the publisher, netgalley & the author for this wonderful book.⠀

3.75 out of 5 stars!

I want to start off by saying that this book as a debut was very gripping and one will finish it in only one sitting. That's how fast-paced, easy going and gravitating this story was.

I'm also going to include some quotes that spoke to me the most from Cash's (aka the main character of this book) inner monologue.
It's been a while since I've been so mesmerized by the writing style of a book, I kept myself wanting to include lines and lines of the mmc's monologues, that's how much I enjoyed it.

I'm going to find out how she got her walk all dangerous and tailored musically like she has it. Rose. You have done it. It's obvious. You swam to the top of my soul and are floating, effortlessly. I will stand on this maple, and I will call out your name. Rose. The Fox will take the echo. I know this river. Up and down the banks it will travel, and you'll hear me, I know it. Just listen for it Rose, that familiar sound, whispering everything you were meant to hear from the start.

I absolutely adored the short chapters. I think it's every readers dream to read a book which has short chapters. It feels like a reward, most of the time.

I also loved that from the very beginning we get to meet not only the main characters, but the secondaries as well. They were all from very early on fully described how their outer looks were, plus some backstories about them and what kind of a relationship they share with the main character. It truly felt like a movie!
However, on the other hand, the too much of the people's descriptions in the early chapters made me feel a bit icky sometimes.

Do stay. I want to take your hand in mine. I want to kiss your red lips and see through your eyes. I want to look through your greens, and you can look through my blues. We could be the same, in the end, me and you.

Every now and then I got Nicholas Sparks vibes from this book, especially his recent works. I think I can say that this book can be categorised as coming of age, but for adults, if that is a thing.

We are stars in the sky, like far away lamps, in a blues dipped, infinite world.

Coming back to descriptions and how some moments were written out; They felt very poetic, lyrical and even romantic. A lot of the scenes that happened and how they were described made me long for them, doesn't have to be about a person, it was also about moments in the past or just feelings.

But tonight, we are endless. We are spirits in Johnston and on the road right to Heaven. We are story.

I also loved how faith was always there in the plot and in the characters' minds, and that throughout the entire book it was present.

If I didn't know any better I'd tell you God is speaking in the wind. I'd tell you He is speaking all the time, in everything. He's been sailing the ship all along, in no hurry.

All in all, I really enjoyed reading this and I loved how easy it was to get into the story!

Blue Graffiti is an exploration of love, grief, friendship, faith and forgiveness, but at its core, it is a love letter to the small town in Wisconsin where Skogman grew up in.

The story comes to life through vivid and poetic prose, which I enjoyed to an extent but ultimately, it left me feeling bored and hesitant to continue with the story. The blurb also highlights a blooming romance between Cash and Rose, which unfortunately fell flat and came across as one-sided infatuation from Cash's part. Instead, the strength of Skogman's debut lies in Cash's journey as he grapples with the loss of his beloved mother and the complicated relationship with his estranged father, alongside the unwavering companionship between Cash, his best friends and the people of Johnston.

Despite its slow nature, I still really enjoyed Blue Graffiti and I can't wait to see what Skogman will write next!

Thank you Unnamed Press and NetGalley for sending me an ARC!

I tried so hard with this one, but I ended up having to put it down at 54%. This book just couldn’t hold my attention. The story seemed to have no real direction and it just felt like I was reading someone’s rambles in their journal.

I typically really love contemporary fiction, but this one was not my cup of tea.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc!