Rosewater: the debut novel from Liv Little

Product Information

Dialogue Books said of the debut: “Featuring incredible poetry from Kai Isaiah Jamal, Rosewater is a remarkable, modern, multi-generational love story for readers of Queenie, Normal People and Rainbow Milk who will be enraptured by Liv’s original narrative and captivatingly distinctive voice. Rosewater is a beautiful ode to queer love and friendship, and a reminder that self-knowledge is often arrived at in the company of others. It was such an amazing moment of escapism yet I remained deeply anchored in reality cos we all know an Andrew (unfortunately!

People are forever trying to overcomplicate things, dress everything up, but there’s power in simplicity. Pick up this book if: you love to read the book before it gets turned into a BBC mini series (which I think it would make a great one! The pace starts off quite slowly and feels similar to other novels about people spiralling in their life, unable to communicate what is going on to those around, but it gets faster as the book goes on, with much more drama in the second half of the book. This is a story about intergenerational trauma, class and trying to find your place in the world when the odds are stacked against you. Rosewater is Liv Little’s debut novel and is equal parts a coming of age story and a contemporary romance.Opening sentence: Several loud thuds ricochet from my front door and reverberate through my little space. You get so emotionally caught up in Elsie’s story, you both want her to get her break and just give herself a break. Liv Little founded the pioneering media company gal-dem, an online and print platform for women and non-binary people of colour that announced its closure last month. Overall, this was a great debut and an insight into what it means to be black and queer in your 20s.

Elsie is a flawed character but Little builds her in such a way that we are happy to be patient with her as she figures things out. I loved the relationship between Elsie and her grandmother, the Caribbean representation was a plus too! A wonderfully fresh, zesty and sexy debut novelist who is putting black queer lives, loves and longings centre stage, where they belong. I personally would have preferred that the second half of "Rosewater" continued as the 1st half did, however, the genre in my opinion took a swift U-Turn to become a romance story.I do love a good romance, but I felt that Elsie's character would have benefitted from more identifying her issues without using romance as a buffer. Elsie is such a relatable character, especially as a reader who is also in her late twenties and a struggling poet! At the core of Liv Litte's fabulous debut is a classic love story which is made current and relatable by the issues that the main character Elsie is going through - anxiety, career struggles, UK housing crisis and being the oldest daughter.