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.

Open, Heaven is such an amazing debut novel from Seán Hewitt and I truly didn’t think I’d love this book as much as I did. The way the story moved through the seasons of this one year of James’ life and his adoration/idolisation/infatuation of Luke through the lens of teenage yearning as been executed beautifully by the author.

The pacing of the story and the way the reader empathises with James’ character gives a bittersweet feeling to where his life ended up and the way Luke has never left him and has impacted every moment of his life since - something everyone can relate with one way or another

This book is so much more than just queer teenage first love, it’s a beautiful coming-of-age story and one that will stay with me for a while

‘Open, Heaven’ by Seán Hewitt is a beautifully crafted coming-of-age novel that captures the raw emotions and complexity of adolescence in a remote English village.

The story follows James, who is looking back - literally reliving a pivotal summer - on himself as a sixteen-year-old boy struggling to reconcile his sexuality, loneliness, and growing sense of self in a world that feels both distant and confining. The novel is written with lyrical prose, showcasing Hewitt's poetic talents and allowing the reader to feel the emotional depth and weight of James' internal world.

At the heart of the story is the relationship between James and Luke, a boy he becomes infatuated with. Luke's vulnerability, coupled with James' own isolation, creates a complicated dynamic that is both tender and painful. As James becomes more fixated on Luke, it's unclear how much of his attraction is rooted in his genuine feelings for the boy versus a desperate desire for connection. This tension between emotional yearning and the difficulty of truly understanding the other person is one of the most compelling aspects of the novel.

The setting of the remote village is pivotal in creating an atmosphere of isolation, which permeates the novel. Hewitt skillfully uses the changing seasons to mirror James' emotional state, giving the book a melancholic and bittersweet tone that feels both timeless and deeply personal. The quietness of the village, where gossip and social barriers create an emotional distance, highlights James' internal struggles as he navigates his feelings for Luke and his own sense of self.

The novel is introspective and tender, exploring the nuances of young love, yearning, and self-discovery.

Overall, ‘Open, Heaven’ is a beautiful, evocative novel that captures the complexities of adolescence, loneliness, and longing with sensitivity and grace. Hewitt's poetic writing and the emotional depth of the characters make this a standout debut novel. The melancholic tone and the exploration of selfhood are sure to resonate with many readers. It’s a heartfelt and compelling read.

With thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

"There are intervals of light and dark overhead, like the sun breaking through willows, and it always brings me back here: one year, when I am sixteen years old.
Open, Heaven by poet Seán Hewitt is a gorgeous debut fiction novel that lingers as it unravels in lyrical prose, transporting the reader through time, memory and longing. It is a deeply emotional meditation of desire, nostalgia and self-discovery. Hewitt’s poetic background is evident in every passage of this lyrical and evocative narrative. The story revisits one nostalgic period in the protagonist's teenagehood, twenty years from the present, where James is confronted with an all-consuming teenage love with the weight of adulthood’s regrets. Time is a recurrent theme and the source of the nostalgia Hewitt's prose provides.
“Time runs faster backwards. The years–long, arduous, and uncertain when taken one by one–unspool quickly, turning liquid, so one summer becomes a shimmering light that, almost as soon as it appears in the mind, is subsumed into a dark winter, a relapse of blackness that flashes to reveal a face, a fireside, a snow-encrusted garden. And then the garden sends its snow upwards, into the sky, gathers back its fallen leaves, and blooms again in reverse."
The novel moves in flashes and snippets and glimpses of a past long lost, laced with longing and shame. The writing is immersive and has a dreamlike quality to it, yet grounded in moments of aching truth.

In a fictitious idyllic village of Thornsmere, frozen in a time between the Great Wars, James returns to his hometown, where an old farm is for sale. As he looks around the property, he is confronted with the "sense of time's irrecoverable" Reflecting on his adolescence, James sees himself as a lonely, introverted and sensitive boy grappling with loneliness and friendlessness. "I suppose I was always a shy teenager, but I was also proud, and the combination often gave way to sullenness." Hewitt's portrayal of teenage desire resonates with depictions that are frequently suggestive and ambiguous, with an all-consuming sexual tension and yearning conveyed through rich imagery. I was desperate to be set free from my longing, and the only way I could be set free was if one of the boys opened me up."

At the centre of the story is James' friendship with the troublesome, charming, newly arrived seventeen-year-old, Luke. Hewitt captures adolescent yearning with raw precision—the desperate fear of being seen, yet an even greater fear of being invisible “I was terrified of exposing my desire. I thought it would be shocking, that it would tear right through the fabric of the world”. The novel brilliantly encapsulates that intensity, the way desire can consume, distort, and define a person. Hewitt is a master in describing longing, similar to the works of André Aciman. James' obsession with Luke is visceral, feverish, and utterly platonic. The smallest details—a trail of hair, the warmth of shared spit on a bottle, the imprint of a hand—become a fixation. Some moments ache with an almost unbearable intensity, “I could not take my eyes off him. I didn’t believe any of his anger was his alone… When he was alone, inside himself, he was pure, golden”. The novel revels in this kind of intimacy, the feeling of being on the precipice of something both thrilling and disastrous.

Open, Heaven is not just a story of longing—it is also a meditation on memory and the impossibility of returning to the past. James is caught between what was and what can never be again. He clings to the past as if it could offer salvation, only to realise that his love for Luke was always, in some way, dissonant. The novel captures this realisation in stark clarity and it is beautifully melancholic. Hewitt’s prose, while stunning, is occasionally frustrating, leaving some moments feeling incomplete. There is an overwhelming sense of longing, but at times, the weight of it risks becoming suffocating and unsatisfying. Nevertheless, Hewitt's portrayal of James' immaturity and tenderness is beautifully narrated.

Still, Open, Heaven is a remarkable achievement. It is a novel that aches, that burns with a quiet ferocity. Hewitt captures the rawness of queer desire, the melancholia of revisiting the past, and the loneliness of a platonic love that never quite materialised. It is a book that will stay with you, its sunlight breaking through the your memory with a warm feeling of nostalgia.

Thank you, Random House UK, Vintage | Jonathan Cape and Seán Hewitt for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Open, Heaven is the stunning debut novel from established poet Seán Hewitt, which follows our main character James as he wades into adulthood trying to find his way in the world. Set in an idyllic rural English village, Open, Heaven tells a beautiful, almost melancholic queer coming of age story which will have a grip on your heart from the opening pages.

The book follows the story of 16 year old James as he begins to come to terms with his own identity and sexuality while also trying to manage the struggle of those angst filled teenage years. In stumbles troubled Luke and it is quite possible his world might implode.

Told with such stunning prose and vivid imagery, Hewitt uses the four seasons to convey the tension yet also beauty of James’s journey. As each season changes, so too does James. And just like the seasons themselves we see everything from small gentle almost imperceivable alterations to stormy, blustery seismic transformations.

The emotions flow freely from the pages of Open, Heaven and it is hard to read it without a building ache in your heart. From the bubbling tension of teenage yearning and angst to the moments of deep sorrow which are filled both with the fear of the unknown and the unfortunate agony of what is already known. This book may possibly break you, but in the most beautiful of ways.

Sometimes you want a book to give you a warm soothing hug, other times you want it to absolutely rip you apart, leaving you an emotional wreck and Seán somehow manages to do both with Open, Heaven. Something very special can happen when a poet turns to fiction and this is indeed the perfect example.

If you enjoyed this review come follow me on Instagram @TravelsEatsReads for more

Open, Heaven by Seán Hewitt is a breathtakingly poetic book that captures the intensity of first love, longing and the quiet ache of self-discovery. Set in a remote village in the north of England, the story follows sixteen-year-old James as he navigates the loneliness of his newly realised sexuality and the constraints of his rural surroundings. When he meets Luke, a boy with a reputation for trouble and a past marked by loss, everything shifts. Their connection is immediate and all-consuming, filled with the uncertainty and urgency of youth.

Hewitt’s writing is exquisite, rich with the lyricism of his poetry. The English countryside is evoked with stunning clarity, from canal towpaths to night skies, milk bottle runs and the song of blackbirds. Every sentence hums with nostalgia and longing, drawing the reader into James’s world, where desire and fear exist side by side.

This is a book about yearning, the intoxicating rush of first love and the quiet devastation of not knowing if your feelings are returned. It is tender, melancholic and utterly absorbing. Hewitt has crafted something truly special, a book that lingers in the mind long after the final page.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

I LOVED this book, truly a remarkable debut novel that will cast a long shadow for me! Open Heaven was so relatable to me as a gay teen who came to terms with my sexuality as a teenager whilst navigating secondary school between 2000-05. It's amazing and so affirming to finally see writers of my generation accurately portray what that experience was like. It's very inspiring! Huge thanks to Sean for writing it.

Open, Heaven by Seán Hewitt is set to be published on 24th April 2025 by Jonathan Cape.

The story follows James, a young gay student from the fictional village of Thornmere, outcast by his peers and laden with the expectations of his parents, a job with a milkman and his little brother's ill health. James feels like no one understands him due to his sexuality, until he meets Luke, the nephew of the local farmer and he falls hard and fast. Will Like reciprocate his feelings, or reject him for them? And is the older boy really as bad as his reputation suggests?

I devoured this beautifully written book, poetic in its descriptions and with two amazing protagonists, and really didn't want to leave the world Hewitt had created for these two young men.

Hewitt had been on my radar for a while, I've had his 2022 memoir All Down Darkness Wide on various wishlists for quite some time, and 300,000 Kisses, the anthology of ancient queer stories he wrote with Luke Edward Hall, was the gift I received in my family's 2024 Secret Santa. It was an absolute no-brainer that I would pick up this book, especially as a queer writer/poet of Irish descent myself. And, let me tell you, I was not disappointed.

Told in movements that correlate with the seasons of the year, Open, Heaven, follows James and Luke as they get to know each other better and form a special bond.

Relatable, heartbreaking but also triumphant and beautiful, Open, Heaven is a must-read for fans of queer literature, romance and also generally well-written fiction.

Image description/alt text: The author's name and the book's title in a white font over a stylised green and yellow painting of a forest.

I was so excited for this release. Its blurb and premise seems something I’d absolutely lap up, and I did in fact start and finish this entirely in less than 48 hours. But this coming of age story, mixed with teenage sexual awakening and first (and obsessive love), did not give me the emotional yearning I thought it would.

Reminiscent in tone and style of Call me By Your Name, Hewitt’s relatively short novel shows one year / summer of unrequited love, obsession, belonging, and angst, mixed with vivid descriptions and poetic (if not a bit blunt) language.

There’s ALOT of description and inner monologue in this and I think it’s easy to see Hewitt’s history as a poet rather than a novelist because the pacing was tediously slow and could have done with 20% more dialogue.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an early copy in exchange for a honest review.

Beautiful and poetic, this book really captured the wholly consuming nature of first love.

I loved the way James’ obsession grew and the desperation he felt was so tangible. It was also an incredibly lonely novel. Honestly, it echoed with loneliness and I almost felt the ache of it. James was both hopeful and fearful for the future, and I think that worked so well for a coming of age novel like this.

I also liked that he had come out prior to the start of the book - I’m kind of over coming out narratives now, so a story about discovering who you are and what love means to you without that was pretty unique.

The subplot with Eddie and his health was also really interesting. I also found the relationship James had with his mother compelling.

There wasn’t quite enough of Luke for me though, and at times it felt a bit meandering. That being said, I did enjoy the stream of consciousness vibes to a level, so that’s fair.

Thanks NetGalley and Vintage for the arc!

As much as I loved the writing, I unfortunately had to DNF this one around the 30% mark. Eddie, the brother of James, has seizures and epilepsy and this is a massive personal trigger for me. I did love the descriptions of the English countryside and nature though, there was some beautiful quotes in this book.

Open, Heaven is the debut novel from the already much lauded poet Seán Hewitt. This is a beautiful elegy on love, a raw, queer coming of age tale that feels timeless yet so specific to a time and a place. The writing is utterly exquisite - you expect nothing less from a poet of Hewitt's skill.

James, our narrator, is remembering a year in his life twenty something years later, and this casts a nostalgic glow over proceedings, but also makes the love story at its heart feel more universal - it made me think of my own youthful loves and how they made me feel. If the responsibility of fiction is to move and to entertain, then Open, Heaven did both these things for me. I read this in one sitting it was that good.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

I expect it's me rather than this book but I found it just a bit too archetypical: set over a glorious rural summer with ravishing descriptions of nature, the narrator, James, falls into excruciating first love with the older and troubled Luke.

James' desire is both physical and emotional, and a close adolescent friendship builds between the young men. The writing is lush and sensitive, there's a melancholy heatedness as James recalls this pivotal summer twenty years later. But I was, perhaps unfairly, left feeling this is a bit slight.

With gestures towards [book:The Go-Between|89900] for a kind of 'death of the heart' vibe, there's a strange timelessness that niggled: it's 2002 and no-one has a phone and the boys are reading porn magazines?

Ultimately, I found this a bit too neat and easy. The two young men love each other, but with different forms of love - and James is still thinking of Luke when he marries his husband.

A romantic, nostalgic piece that will prove popular, I expect, but I think I wanted something rawer and less finished than this.