Recently, I seem to be reading, and falling for, a few of these quiet books about first love, and this one is no exception.

Set in the early 2000s, James is a solitary boy who has recently come out as gay and feels trapped by his family and small village. He meets Luke, who has a troubled past, and has been sent to stay with his aunt and uncle.

This is a beautiful story about first love and how it can impact our lives forever.

Open, Heaven is slow and quiet, but oh so deep and beautiful. Here Hewitt presents us with a queer coming-of-age story that captures so well the feeling of intense longing.

It is a love story of sorts, but Hewitt doesn’t limit his focus; he portrays a wide range of complicated emotions not only relating to romantic love but also familial relationships, home, and the past. His rendering of nostalgia and memory is particularly thoughtful and moving. And the prose is lyrical and, quite frankly, gorgeous. I haven’t read a contemporary book so beautifully written in a while.

All in all, it’s sad gay literature, and what could be better than that? The answer is nothing. Say yes to heaven and read this book.

Thank you kindly to @vintagebooks.

This was beautiful, sweet and nostalgic. Seen Hewitt captured adolescence, obsessive love and not fitting in with the town you were born to so well. Often he articulated specific feelings I have never had the words for before. The prose was lovely, and I really enjoyed James and Luke, and little Eddie, and Barley the dog. If you want a heart felt summer read, with a bit of angst and 2000s nostalgia, I would pick this up.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this coming of age novel which is the story of James who lives in a small rural village with his parents and his much younger brother who suffers from epilepsy. James is gay and has come out as gay at school but has never had a relationship with another boy. On his milk round he meets Luke a slightly older boy who has already left school. Over the summer holidays, their friendship deepens and James fantasises about going further with their relationship.
The book is full of the yearnings and clumsiness of adolescent love it’s tender poignant and beautifully observed. Anyone who’s had a young love will recognise the feelings and insecurities described.

The author has a beautiful flowing writing style. The novel is a relaxing enjoyable read .The setting in the countryside is everything to the novel almost a third character
The Characters themselves are described perfectly as all their reactions to each other
I read a copy of the novel on NetGalley UK in return for an unbiased review. The book was published in the UK on the 24th of April 2025 by Random house UK vintage

This review will appear on NetGalley UK, StoryGraph, Goodreads and my book blog bionicSarahSbook.wordpress.com
It will also appear on Amazon UK

Gorgeous, lyrical and so beautifully tender. The writing is incredible and it was just such a immersive and heartbreaking story.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC.

“Love confused me, bewildered me, tore me apart, but not because it was not love, but because I thought it was fake, some unreal version that did not accord with the love I had dreamt alone.”

Thank you to Vintage Books who sent me a copy of Open, Heaven by Seán Hewitt via NetGalley to read.

This is a beautifully heartbreaking coming-of-age story. After twenty years away, the adult James returns to the village he grew up in, haunted by memories.

In the past, James lives in a rural English village; alone, stifled and isolated - his burgeoning sexuality at odds with his shy exterior.

Then, Luke arrives, the nephew of a neighbour, working the summer at the farm. Dangerous, different, dishevelled Luke, and James wonders…well, could he be in love? Could Luke possibly love him?

I was so drawn to James and had the overwhelming desire to protect him all the way through this novella. At the same time, although I’m a straight girl, the memories of growing up in a rural place, the awkward school parties at the rugby club…all of that hit home so vividly. Hewitt is a really gifted writer; you can tell he is a poet from the gorgeous sentences he creates.

I read this as part of a pile of 10 I took on holiday with me and this was easily my favourite. It really does capture so perfectly those first stirrings of love and the trepidation of it when you’re queer. Unsurprisingly considering Hewitt is a poet the writing is lyrical and evocative but what I really enjoyed was the clear tenderness and gentle hand of it during the teenage James sections that reflect older James’ recognition he couldn’t know or do better at that time. He was just a horny, confused teen experiencing the heady rush of first love.

Though as a very small town gay myself it was the mediations on leaving your family behind to spread your wings and the distance and guilt that creates that resonated with me the most. I have a great relationship with my family now but I still feel guilt for disappearing away to a city far away as soon as I could and never going back.

This book will stay with me for sure, an absolutely gorgeous read that I can’t wait to return to at some point.

Absolutely stunning coming of age queer narrative. I inhaled this beautiful story in one sitting and was utterly transported. Hewitt is such an incredible talent and receiving this arc was a privilege. Many thanks to NetGalley and Jonathan Cape.

This captivating novel is a journey of self-discovery. As an adult, James returns to Thornmere, the village of his childhood, to reflect on his transition into adulthood and, most profoundly, his love for his friend Luke who had ‘transcended himself’ into his life.

Through themes of renewal, woven into the rhythm of the changing seasons, the novel explores the complexities of love and desire, touching on religious undertones of punishment and redemption. Hewitt, an accomplished poet, infuses the narrative with lyrical, nature-filed language which captures the ache of teenage yearning, the intensity of desire, and the solitude of feeling like an outsider.

Thanks to Random House UK, Vintage Jonathan Cape and Netgalley for a review copy.

This was just wonderful and reminded me that excellent books still exist! The writing is poetic, the story touching and I could not stop reading or thinking about it. Highly reccomend!

“The only thing in my mind then, and all night afterwards as I lay in bed, was the vision of Luke’s face, like a bright mask, lit up in the dark field. A sudden apparition revealed by a glowing flare, his eyes starry with the fireworks. Even his hair seemed to blaze. I felt a pull towards him, like the pull a fire makes on the air, dragging things into it and blazing them into its hot, white centre.”

Open, Heaven is a thoughtful and lyrical coming of age story, primarily set in the early 2000s during the protagonist’s teenage years. When James meets Luke it sets a spark alight and nothing is ever the same. This is a beautifully written, nuanced novel about isolation, love and loss. Hewitt’s poetic style was wonderful and the characters came to life so beautifully and hauntingly. This is a book I’ll definitely return to – immediately an instant classic of its genre.

Thanks to NetGalley and Vintage Books for the advance copy of this stunning novel.

What a superb, nostalgic read. I absolutely loved this novel and, consequently, I recommend to everyone!

We meet James, a gay married thinking back to his childhood in rural England, where he meets Luke - a more rebellious boy, older, with a West Country vernacular - and quite different to James. The narrator realises he is gay in his teenage years and as an adult, he is telling the tale from his past. He is bullied at school and not very confident - but he knows he is gay. Meeting Luke is a monumental event in his life, one that sets the trajectory for his latter childhood years - and Luke is supportive of this.

I love how Hewitt takes readers to a particular time and place - it is very visceral in places and just lovely, the way he describes sounds and feelings, very much like I imagine James would have. As a gay man, and someone who came out later in life, I can completely empathise with James' feelings - almost like obsessions. At the end, Luke moves away with is father but James is just delighted to say goodbye to him. Essentially, as an adult, James thinks he sees Luke - and this triggers all of these memories from twenty years prior.

Sean Hewitt has written a book that brilliantly sums up what it means to be a gay man and what it means to have such strong feelings for someone else. It is perfect in many ways.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Although not a YA novel, I feel sure that this will find a passionate readership in more mature teen readers: I certainly would have devoured this classic coming-of-age tale as a teen myself. Beautifully written and lyrical, as an adult fast approaching 50 I wished for some more action to break up the solipsism, but it's that very quality that I think will appeal to younger readers.

Seán Hewitt’s Open, Heaven is a luminous debut that captures the aching beauty of first love and the complexities of queer adolescence. Set in a rural English village in 2002, the novel follows sixteen-year-old James as he navigates his emerging identity and an intense, unrequited love for the enigmatic Luke.
Hewitt, a celebrated poet, brings a lyrical grace to his prose, rendering the natural world and James's internal landscape with exquisite detail. The narrative, steeped in nostalgia and longing, explores themes of desire, memory, and the passage of time. While the plot unfolds with subtlety, the emotional resonance is profound, offering a poignant meditation on the formative power of youthful infatuation.
Open, Heaven is a tender, evocative novel that lingers in the heart, marking Hewitt as a compelling new voice in literary fiction.

First of all, incredible writing. Perfect balance of accessibility and poetry. Heartbreaking story. Just wish it had been longer!

A pretty decent queer bildungsroman. The passages exploring the protagonist's interior world were rich and astute, but did leave the book feeling a little unbalanced and slight in other ways - for example, we don't actually get to witness much real-time relationship development between the two boys, or the subsequent breakdown of the protagonist's marriage (though I feel like this was probably more of a conscious decision). Personally, I found the anguish of those quiet familial tensions (particularly from a queer perspective) more affecting than the romantic torment, though I will say the conclusion of the boys' relationship was beautifully tender and bittersweet.


Rated 3 but really a 3.5.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
Open, Heaven by Seán Hewitt

Wow. Open, Heaven is one of those rare reads that sneaks up on you—quiet, lyrical, and absolutely brimming with feeling. Set in a small northern village in 2002, it follows James, a tender, searching teen discovering his queerness, and his electric connection with Luke, the beautiful, damaged boy who crashes into his world like a storm.

Seán Hewitt’s poetic voice shines here—every line feels carefully carved, dripping with atmosphere and yearning. This isn’t your typical coming-of-age; it’s raw, aching, and full of the quiet, breathless terror of first love. James and Luke’s relationship is messy, magnetic, and deeply human.

If you love queer fiction that leans into vulnerability, longing, and the beauty of emotional risk, this is for you. I knocked off one star only because I wanted more—more of their world, their future, their growth—but maybe that ache is exactly the point.

Tender, haunting, and unforgettable.

I had really hoped to enjoy this coming of age queer novel more than I did; for a novel that features so much nature writing, I found it oddly dull and colourless, and the plot and character work rather flat.

Our protagonist James is a 16 year old boy who has come out to his parents and at school. His coming out has led him to loneliness, unsure of where he fits in. Much of the time James is left to look after his little brother, who suffers from debilitating seizures. After taking up a job on a milk round, James meets Luke, an edgy young man with a father in jail and a mother who has remarried and left for France. Luke becomes his obsession, as does wondering whether his love and infatuation for Luke is reciprocal.

The story is set in a small English village off a motorway, and the best scenes for me were those in the hollow - they were fraught with sexual tension and teenage angst. The rest of the story meandered along at a slow pace and sent me into a bit of a reading slump unfortunately.

If your idea of heaven is lyrical, poetic nature writing and you’re not too fussed on plot, this may do more for you than it did for me. More Ocean Vuong than Douglas Stuart, which will appeal to many. 3/5 ⭐️

*Many thanks to Penguin Books Ireland for the arc and the e-arc via Netgalley. As always, this is an honest review.

“Set in a remote village in the north of England, Open, Heaven unfolds over the course of one year in which two teenage boys meet and transform each other's lives. James—a sheltered, shy sixteen-year-old—is alone in his newly discovered sexuality, full of an unruly desire but entirely inexperienced”

I really liked this book! It was a coming of age so I knew it would be up my street but was still so impressed. I really liked how beautifully written this book was and it felt so realistic about how it feels to have your first love. I feel like everyone can probably relate to at least one small part of this book. It highlighted how all consuming love can be and how it’s a bit confusing when you’re growing up!

I’d recommend this to those who love a coming of age book!

Love when a poet turns to literature; you can usually expect beautiful, lyrical writing and Open, Heaven was full of just that.

It’s a tender coming-of-age debut novel surrounding James, who reflects on each season in his sixteenth year as a socially awkward, confused teen. It is the year James comes out to his parents, which whilst acknowledged is not truly accepted, and meets an older boy, the enigmatic Luke, who is staying with his aunt and uncle in their remote village.
James is infatuated with Luke, verging on obsession. Despite these feelings being unrequited, his thoughts and actions become more consumed by him as the novel goes on.

It’s a vivid account of teenage yearning and captures those highly emotional years perfectly, with themes of loneliness and detachment from your peers. This really was a gorgeous read and I can see it being a big hit.