Oh this was sublime.

James is a teenager living in a small village & has recently, reluctantly, come out. He has effectively withdrawn from all relationships & companionship as a result; he’s constantly afraid that his gayness will be used as a weapon against him. Then Luke arrives. He’s slightly older, a little bit bad & James is immediately infatuated.

My god the yearning. The pining! It would break your heart in two. Especially when we get commentary from James at 20 odd years older.

Absolutely gorgeous. And the way the seasons were woven in? Perfectly evocative. A book I won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

Open, Heaven by Seán Hewitt
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 stars
Publication date: 24th April 2025

Thank you to Vintage and Netgalley for providing me with an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

On the cusp of adulthood, James dreams of another life far away from his small village. As he contends with the expectations of his family, his burgeoning desire threatens to unravel his shy exterior.
Then he meets Luke. Unkempt and handsome, charismatic and impulsive, he has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle on a nearby farm. Luke comes with a reputation for danger, but underneath his bravado lie anxieties and hopes of his own.


This was such a beautiful, nostalgic and painful coming of age story, at a time in life when everything feels so “big” and so important, but also overwhelming and confusing. The writing is gorgeous, which is no surprise when you know that Hewitt is a poet (I don't like poetry and yet, I rarely have a miss with novels written by poets; they are always very special.)
It is almost exhausting being in James’ mind, at an age when you're feeling so much (too much? The angst!) and your heart is ever so fragile. I was swept by James' all consuming first love with Luke (who's an amazing character in his own right,) and really appreciated how his relationship with his mother was approached - it was much quieter, but no less impactful or painful.
This was very beautiful and very tender, and I'll happily read more from this author in the future.

Many thanks to the author, Sean Hewitt, @netgalley, and the publishers, Vintage, for a digital ARC of this book, which comes out in the UK on 24 April. I was really excited to read this as I read the author’s memoir, All Down Darkness Wide, in 2023 and thought the writing was superb. This, his debut novel, is a brilliant, claustrophobic study of a friendship and an infatuation.
The novel starts in 2022 where James, the narrator, is visiting a house for sale in the village where he grew up. James is alone and melancholy, which is unsurprising as his marriage has recently broken up. However, it quickly becomes apparent that James’ melancholy is less concerned with his marriage than with thoughts of the friendship he had with Luke as a teenager: he’s actually chosen to view the house because Luke lived there. The novel then spools back 20 years to tell the story of Luke and James’ relationship.

At the time, James was in his late teens, desperate to become an adult (“I was almost feral with it”), but still quite immature in his thoughts. After he’s outed at school, he retreats from his friends and is lonely, isolated, and desperate for some company. He’s also struggling with his desires for other boys, fantasising about all the boys at school at one point or another, but believing that love won’t happen for him – or, that if it does, it will be tainted.

When James meets Luke, he thinks that Luke will provide the key to a new door, and the possibility of a real relationship. The two boys become friends and James is always desiring, but unsure how to read Luke, and whether to make his desires known or not.
Relatively little happens in this novel – even in terms of the friendship, only a few meetings between the boys are shown. James says very little, particularly at the start of the novel, but he’s hypersensitive and overly analytical, so everything is parsed and dissected within his mind. It reminded me rather of Persuasion by Jane Austen in this regard, where a character is so caught up in their own head that they’re a shadow figure in the real world.

In terms of its yearning after a beautiful figure who always seems to be out of reach, the novel reminded me of Alan Hollinghurst’s The Folding Star. However, I’ve never read such a psychologically acute evocation of an infatuation before. The prologue and epilogue reveal the effect James’ view of Luke has had on his whole life, and I found the end of the book, which closes the story, but doesn’t resolve James’ feelings, to be deeply moving. This will be one of my books of the year and I would recommend it to everyone.

I was really keen to read this book. The first novel from Irish poet and non-fiction writer Sean Hewitt sounded just the sort of thing to impress me. And it did. I’m finding myself attracted recently to quiet novels which exude a rich sense of yearning and vulnerability and this certainly does this. Narrator James’ life is in a rut following his break-up with this husband. He sees an advert for the sale of a farmhouse, a place he knew growing up in Thornmere. He decides to view. His dissatisfaction with his present leads to a nostalgic trip through his past, particularly one year from Autumn 2002, when he was 15 and met Luke, a couple of years older, who came to stay at the farmhouse.

After a prologue set in the modern day and a bit towards the end the novel focuses on this year. Books with this feel tend generally to have an earlier time-frame (perhaps I’m just getting old). 2002 allows James to be a teen who has come out at school and to his parents in a small town yet very aware of his perceived position as an outsider. Luke is taciturn, sent to stay with relatives whilst his father is in prison. James becomes obsessed.

This is the tale of that obsession, of a love which cannot move on, of the interpretation of the smallest of gestures as something significant and it is beautifully written. There are elements which could have been beefed up, the location and the sense of the time both seem a little vague but James’ longings are such that the real world barely exists and this makes the lack of definition here very plausible and universal.

I was involved with James’ family background, busy parents with the limited time they have given to his brother, who is 10 years younger but it is James’ desire for Luke which fuels this tale in a way which is poetic and yet so relatable. It is hard to read this without making connections with one’s own teenage years. It will certainly be up there amongst my Books Of The Year.

Open, Heaven is published on April 24th 2025. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.

This was my first experience reading Sean Hewitt and I suspect that I will read many more as this was so exquisitely written and supremely enjoyable.

James came out to his parents while still in school and finds himself in a lonely place until the arrival of Luke to a neighbouring farm. Luke is a bit of a wild character and James is in awe. As the next year unfolds they encounter each other in different circumstances.

Having read Open, Heaven I was not at all surprised to learn that the author has already published two poetry collections; the imagery and descriptions are delightfully vivid.

Superb!

This is a beautiful book to read. I advise you to read it slowly and savour the words of this debut novel by poet, Séan Hewitt.

James is a 16 year old boy who has recently come out to his family and friends. He felt isolated before he told people, and as the jibes wore off, he felt even more alone. His mother and father do not seem able to communicate with him, and the main focus is on much younger brother, Eddie, who has some form of unknown condition that causes fugue states and convulsions. James is expected to look after his brother all the time his hardworking parents cannot, and at times, despite loving Eddie, he resents this lack of freedom.

As money is extremely tight James' father gets him a job doing a milk round and it is on the farm that he meets Luke, a troubled young man staying at the farm while his father is in prison.

James becomes enamoured of this young man, and the book centres around one summer as James begins to understand what truly loving someone means for him. He struggles with his responsibilities to his own family with his need to find independence and acceptance.

The whole story is a beautifully told description of James' feelings about his life and his understanding of love and attraction, and I didn't want it to end. The language is evocative of school summers that seem to last forever at that age. James is such a sympathetic character and so clearly drawn by Hewitt's words that I wanted to take his hand and tell him it wouldn't always be this hard.

Beautiful. A stunning debut.

Thank you very much to Netgalley and Random House for the advance review copy. Most appreciated.

I suspect that my reaction to this novel will be unlike that of most of its other gay readers.

While lyrical to a fault, it is drenched in rather eerie sentimentality which I found cloying and twee.

Amazingly for a novel which deals extensively with the inner world, longings and imaginings of James , the out-gay 16 year old protagonist and his love for 17 year old Luke, there is so little character development that I felt I was watching two generic young men pasted into a computerised backdrop of villages, farms, woods, canals and above all, of flowers.

I felt unengaged throughout, despite the fact that I too began to explore my gay identity at 16 , albeit in the late 1960’s, and not the early years of the 21st century as here.

There are so many long passages of “fine” writing, so self-consciously wrought and so, so, skippable that , paradoxically,I felt clogged and mired, aching ,in the wrong way, for the inevitable “something” to happen.

The “something “ is, in adolescent gay terms , such a crass cliché that I was momentarily thrown by its mundanity,and the declaration, with which the relationship culminates, also is of a predictably quite stunningly…predictable.

Ultimately I felt some compassion tinged with a huge dose of astonishment that this adolescent encounter effectively ruined James’ ability to form and maintain adult relationships but I am aware that this is not uncommon,however alien it may be to my own experience.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital review copy.

Open, Heaven is a realistic yet melancholy account of a teenage boy in the early 2000s. James is gay and seems comfortable with his sexuality despite it being to his deteriment among his peers at school who have ostracized him from friendships. James befriends Luke the local farmer's nephew and falls hopelessly in love with him. The story is written with a sense of anticipation, a "will they, won't they", I could certainly relate to those heady days of being a teen and thinking I was in love, the story is written with absolute feeling, I could almost sense this was the author's actual story.

I enjoyed the book, the lyrical writing style at times seemed a bit like adding meat to the bones and it would have been nice to know how James' relationship with his parents and his younger brother developed and what led to him finding the courage to leave the village but I can appreciate that doesn't form part of the "first love" narrative.

Seán Hewitt is one of my favourite writers, and Open, Heaven quickly became one of my most anticipated reads for 2025.

This is absolutely Hewitt's take on queer romance because it will devastate you and uplift you in equal measure. The discomfort that the MC has in their own body really resonated in ways I didn't think possible, and I found myself sent straight back to my awkward youth. This book really hits home, and I can't recommend it enough.

Open, Heaven is a character-driven, coming of age novel set in a small English village, where teenager, James, begins to fall for his best friend, Luke. The story is told through lyrical prose, depicting the painful longing of unrequited love and the heartwarming joy of friendship, as well as the comfort and claustrophobia of life in a small place where everyone knows each other.

It’s a quiet and reflective book, exploring sexuality, friendship, love and yearning, all while tenderly showing the excitement and confusion of growing up. The writing is rich, beautiful and poetic, with phrases and sentences you can’t help but highlight, capturing the emotions of being a teenager and trying to discover who you are. I loved how we had adult James looking back on his experiences, nostalgic for being young and in love, even many years later.

A heartwarming and emotional book that will stay with you a while. Thank you to Vintage Books, Jonathan Cape Books and NetGalley for the chance to read this early.

Loved this. Massive fan of Sean's other work and this did not disappoint. Beautifully distilled, incredibly evocative, so much happening between the lines. You are right there with James and the relationship with Luke is stunningly, poignantly done. The heart aches!

I just love it when I take a chance on a debut author on NetGalley and end up finding a glorious story and budding great writing. Open, Heaven is one of those finds – it’s Irish poet Seán Hewitt’s debut novel – and I adored getting to know James and Luke, two teenage boys who meet in a small village and, over the course of one year, begin to learn the tumultuous nature of first love and desire. It gets off to an undeniably slow start, albeit the beautifully told landscape set-ups on the first couple of pages are magical, and then, like poetry, we tumble into James’s story.

I just love a good coming-of-age story once in a while, and this one demonstrates such simple but life-affirming growth from both James and Luke. I adored the shifting relationship between the main characters, and especially how their varied personalities melded and jumped off the page. But I also enjoyed the light commentary on familial relationships, brotherly bond, the delicacy of the late teenage, coming-of-age years. It’s intimate and brooding and obsessive in that unique teen-aged way, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

i can imagine this felt very relatable for many. with that first love being for a friend. and especially for young gay men, who know they cant be loved by the person back so there is the desire and yearning but they would never break the friendship or want to lose it so simply obsess and keep things as they are.
its such a beautifully written book. this is my first by this author but he swept me along almost on a hum. its had a feeling of poetry prose as you flowed through the story and scenery. like you were in the wind watching it happen. its just felt so gorgeously written. i think i could read anything from this author in future if it has that same flow.
James has clearly led a sheltered life. and so coming out is even harder. especially in the rural village he lives. so meeting Luke explodes his life. forces it open because all James now wants is that passion and love in return. this is his first love and many can relate to just how brilliant but horrific this can be! i think people often say there is nothing like the first love for good and bad reasons. and you dont realize you need to let go of "that" feeling until you do. because there is a biological and life meaning behind why the first feels different. let.it.go...
i felt so bad for James. knowing he could act on what he wanted. and i thought it added a whole new mature layer when the story we are told is from the James in the future when he goes back to that village he grew up in and where all this happened. i really wanted to know how he felt now. was it like looking at young Myspace accounts,ha. or was it so much deeper and life changing than that.
this is a book so full of light,shade and all the in between and it truly makes you feel right alongside the words, the characters and the scene setting. its felt lucky to read it.

Open, Heaven tells the story of James as he returns to the countryside he grew up in to reminisce on the year he spent meeting and falling in love with Luke. This coming-of-age story is slow, angsty, and full of yearning, and at times reminded me a lot of how it felt to be in Elio’s head in Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman. Both books do a great job at characterising a near-obsessive teenage boy coming to terms with the beginning - and end - of his first love, often feeling claustrophobic and raw in the most human way possible. However, Open, Heaven failed to captivate me in the same way CMBYN did, and I found myself feeling a little disconnected from most of the characters.

Firstly, I have to say that Open, Heaven is a beautifully written book. Hewitt’s prose is lush, thoughtful, and poetic, and I will definitely read more from him in the future. However, I found my mind wandering a lot throughout the story, and it was hard to stay focused on James’ more meandering thoughts. I think that’s the main reason why I felt such a disconnect to the characters; we are so deeply within James’ psyche that all of the other characters feel flat and forced. There were glimmers of beauty in the budding friendship and maybe-romance between James and Luke but something just felt off, disconnected.

There were also some plot points that I found confusing and underdeveloped, and I think for a book this short, could have potentially been rethought to be more impactful. I won’t go into detail for spoilers sake (although, I don’t really think this is the kind of book you *can* spoil), but James’ brother’s storyline, and the mentions of Luke’s dad just felt a little out of place to me. I think with ~100 more pages one, or possibly both, of these threads could have been expanded on and added more emotional depth to the story, but as is they also felt flat and I questioned the inclusion of them.

All in all this was by no means a bad book; it was beautifully written, and Hewitt is definitely an author I’ll be keeping my eye on. It just fell slightly flat for me, but I think if you’re a fan of slower-paced, claustrophobic and obsessive love stories, I think it’s definitely worth a go.

“I was never really loving, never really inhabiting my days, because I saw them all as a prelude to something else. I would always have the sense, deep inside me, that there was another world beyond my own.”

The year is 2002, but in Thornmere, it feels like the 1980s. James is a sheltered, shy teenager who has just come out to his family and feels massively isolated from his rural English village community. Then he meets Luke - handsome, impulsive, dangerous Luke - and James’ desires for love, passion and companionship explode, changing him forever. James recalls the year he spent with Luke many years later, as he visits that same English town he grew up in. The novel is bookended by short chapters in which adult James looks back on the year when he fell in love for the first time.

Having read Hewitt’s memoir All Down Darkness Wide, I knew what to expect from Open, Heaven, and was not disappointed - it is a beautiful coming-of-age story with some of the most gorgeous nature writing I have come across. Hewitt’s writing is the star of the show here - to be expected - and Open Heaven is light on plot, something I probably should have realised going into it. It’s a novel about thinking, not acting, and the pain that can sometimes bring when you’re not brave enough to act on your intense feelings.
Hewitt writes prose like a poet (complimentary) which always makes for a really unique reading experience. The writing is layered with meaning and image; it does a great job of evoking nostalgia in the reader. The nature writing, in particular, is swoon-worthy - lucious, evocative and completely transportive.

There are some really beautifully realised smaller moments in the novel where James interacts with his family that I wanted to note; his relationship with his mother, in all its painful love and complexity, got me good.
Open Heaven is a gorgeous novel that may re-tread well-worn ground but it does so with aplomb. If you enjoyed Chloe Michelle Howarth’s Sunburn, or Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman, you’ll adore this one. A treat!

Sean Hewitt’s Open, Heaven explores the first experience of gay love in a teenage boy for someone who cannot express it in case he loses a friendship. Many first loves are for a friend, and rather than lose that close bond, they take what they can and imagine possibilities. A situation that nearly every gay young boy can relate to and sympathise with.
The subtle play that James makes with Luke is both endearing and heartbreaking. Bitter and sweet.
It’s a friendship that is brief but taints James’ future relationships.
Not quite as intense or romantic as Call Me By Your Name, James’ longing is for something more basic - a connection.
I enjoyed the descriptions of a lost summer of boyhood and the empathy with James.

The beautiful prose and the tender emotions portrayed made me want this book to last forever. Love is a complicated business.
An effective structure underpinned the whole work without getting in the way.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this novel.

🌿 REVIEW 🌿

Open, Heaven by Seán Hewitt
Publish Date: 24th April 2025

Thank you @netgalley and @jonathancapebooks for the e-ARC!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

📝 - James—a sheltered, shy sixteen-year-old—is alone in his newly discovered sexuality, full of an unruly desire but entirely inexperienced. As he is beginning to understand himself and his longings, he also realizes how his feelings threaten to separate him from his family and the rural community he has grown up in. He dreams of another life, fantasizing about what lies beyond the village’s leaf-ribboned boundaries, beyond his reach: autonomy, tenderness, sex. Then he meets Luke, a slightly older boy, handsome, unkempt, who comes with a reputation for danger. Abandoned by his parents, Luke has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle on their farm just outside the village. James is immediately drawn to this boy who is beautiful and impulsive, charismatic, troubled. But underneath Luke’s bravado is a deep wound—a longing for the love of his father and for the stability of family life.

💭 - I thought this was a really beautiful story, a quiet, tender insight into coming of age as a gay teenager living in a rural northern village. I felt James’ character was so well developed, the adolescent flaws and missteps alongside the latent desire he feels throughout. I also thought Luke was brilliantly written too, giving some real depth to him beyond being the centre of James’ world. I think I struggled a little with the ending, but otherwise this was a great debut, perfect for those who love a tender, quiet coming-of-age story.

#openheaven #seánhewitt #bookreview #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #queerfiction #queerlit #lgbtqbooks #bookrecommendations #literaryfiction #litfic #booktok

Teenage James lives in a small village in England with his parents and younger brother Eddie. He is painfully lonely and has always struggled to make friends, not least since he came out.. But then Luke walks into his life and he falls for him in a big way. But does Luke love him back? And can James be honest about his love?

This book is a vivid account of teenage love, yearning and obsession. It also feels like an accurate portrait of a teenager stuck between childhood and the love of his family and adulthood and trying to find his way in the world. The descriptions of James’s feelings and the world around him are so evocative. And while I didn’t feel like all of the emotion landed with me, it still packed a punch at times and I really felt for James as a character.

This is a very promising debut novel and I look forward to reading the author’s future works.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

“I had felt alone for a long time and thought that we might break each other’s aloneness or at least be alone together.”

Following the breakdown of his marriage, James retraces his steps back to the place of where his heartbreak journey started for him and still haunts him to this day, Thornmere.
We enter a coming of age story, set in the North of England where James struggles with coming to terms with his newborn desire, sexual awakening and place within this world. Since coming out, James has led a solitary existence, complicit servitude and a sense of sacrifice.

Touching on the idea of a “My Sister’s Keeper”, but with a twist, Hewitt delves into a world of unrequited love, “second generational siblings” and the uncertainty of what truly exists between two people. It’s a tender raw depiction of the contradictional loneliness and ecstasy one feels within a romantic relationship.

Open Heaven is out in 24th April and I want to thank NetGalley and Vintage Digital for this early release copy.