Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Blue Hour

Rate this book
** ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S SUMMER READING SELECTIONS **

What is motherhood in the midst of uncertainty, buried trauma and an unravelling America? What it's always been – a love song.

Our narrator is a gifted photographer, an uncertain wife, an infertile mother, a biracial woman in an America that's coming undone. As she grapples with a lifetime of ambivalence about motherhood, yet another act of police brutality makes headlines, and this time the victim is Noah, a boy in her photography class.

Unmoored by the grief of a recent, devastating miscarriage and Noah's fight for his life, she worries she can no longer chase the hope of having a child, no longer wants to bring a Black body into the world. Yet her husband Asher – contributing white Jewish genes alongside her Black-Japanese ones to any potential child - is just as desperate to keep trying.

Throwing herself into a new documentary on motherhood and making secret visits to Noah in the hospital, this is when she learns she is, impossibly, pregnant. As life shifts once more, she must decide what she dares hope for the shape of her future to be.

Fearless, timely, blazing with voice, Blue Hour is a fragmentary debut with unignorable storytelling power. The perfect next read for fans of Raven Leilani's Luster, Jenny Offill's Weather and Bernardine Evaristo's Girl, Woman, Other.

'Gasp-worthy… How did Harrison achieve this spectacular feat of emotional withholding while also making readers feel so much?' – VULTURE

'Incredibly powerful' – GOOD MORNING AMERICA

'A brave new writer' – PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY

'An urgent, heartbreaking, and profound meditation on motherhood, art-making, uncertainty, the ongoing violence of American racism and police brutality, and the courage it takes to choose the future' – BUZZFEED

161 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 4, 2023

106 people are currently reading
10235 people want to read

About the author

Tiffany Clarke Harrison

2 books37 followers

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
434 (26%)
4 stars
625 (38%)
3 stars
418 (25%)
2 stars
119 (7%)
1 star
17 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 274 reviews
Profile Image for Dee.
650 reviews173 followers
November 2, 2023
4.5 stars rounded down - I added this off B. Obama’s summer reading list & I thought it was a really, really good book, but it’s also a super SAD book. There is a LOT of trauma here with our unnamed MC, and trigger warnings for pregnancy loss, racial injustice & police shootings too. It’s incredibly well written (stream-of-conscious & 2nd person POV), very character driven and very, very moving & emotional. I found it to be a easy & quick read.
Profile Image for Praveen.
193 reviews375 followers
March 4, 2024
Is this book an exhibition of so many human emotions, a labyrinth of emotions? Perhaps yes, perhaps no. This book, for me, turned out to be just one emotion stretched over so many pages in such a tinkling tone and esoteric poetic prose, with a unique narrative thump that I could not put it down. That one emotion was 'trauma'.

I must tell you that I was reading a Murakami book alongside that was going too well in pace, when I received this book, and it was an interesting thing to check that after reading a few pages of this book, would I turn back to Murakami to complete that first or not? But I did not.
And this book, from the time I started, was almost unputdownable. Not that I was liking the story, which was in fact not to my taste, but the tone, the pace, and the poetic clink that its prose generated after every sentence. Levitating in the monologue (it was almost that sort of) of an unknown narrator who decided to remain hidden till the end, was sublime.

This is story of a woman, who is a photographer and biracial, who fights with the emotions of miscarriage and motherhood. Witnessing the violence endured by Black in US, she does not want to bring her black child into this world,
You think you're the only one who is afraid? I'm afraid for our black child too."


The book is small and can be quickly read. It has a multitude of themes. There is a question asked at the end of this book. Do you think the novel's length heightens its impact? My answer is yes. Had it been a bit longer than this, it would have washed away the impact it created in such a short body of work. I was perfectly fine with the length. Its compactness made it more conceivable, allowing the reader to widen the throttle of his own imaginative faculty. The abrupt end of the novel, leaving some questions unanswered, left this book more noteworthy, at least for me, because something should remain hung on the head of a reader so that he carries it home and remains wreathed in the smoke of the work he just read.

"Voices raise. A scuffle. A shout rings out, shattered glass, and a bang. The herd of bodies thickens and shifts in an agitated wave as police storm the streets. A grey cloud of gas explodes into the air. Everyone runs. Screams. A high-pitched scraping of vocal cords and eardrums, deep-bellied animal cries. I let go and lose you, stop and stand in the middle of the sidewalk, clicking, clicking, clicking and camera, A stampede."


The book may not be for all, but this book worked well for me, and I am recommending it to all who love a poetic language, with symbolism that connotes anxiety, uncertainty, fear, motherhood, and parenting on the human side, and racism, violence, and social security on the outside.

I thank NetGalley and Publishers for providing me with a copy.
Profile Image for Queralt✨.
793 reviews285 followers
October 9, 2023
Thanks God this was a short audiobook. Don’t get me wrong, it’s well written, but definitely not for me.

The story follows a couple trying to get pregnant after a miscarriage. It deals with grief and… stuff, I guess. While the writing is beautiful and lyrical, the narration is more of a stream of consciousness and it was difficult to follow. I also didn’t care for the characters much 🤷‍♀️
Profile Image for roohi.
19 reviews34 followers
January 30, 2023
After Natasha Brown's Assembly, this is the only other book to be so brief and yet so moving, effective, and powerful in its message. While Assembly dealt with themes like workplace inequality in corporate spaces, the myth of meritocracy, institutional and social belonging, and colonization, this deals more specifically with police brutality and systemic violence against young black men, a problem that has become increasingly visible and endlessly heartbreaking. The author deals with themes of motherhood, ambivalence, not knowing how to parent and protect in the face of a society that will take the life right out of even the gentlest souls.

This short novel reads beautifully and effortlessly - despite the heavy subject matter, it's written well, I almost had the sensation of listening to an acoustic song, just coasting on the gentle melody of the protagonist's not-quite stream-of-consciousness account of events and emotions. The narration is very well done, almost cinematic. You can imagine the scenes as they happen, and the author has a gorgeous technique of seeming to hint at or evoke what the protagonist doesn't explicitly verbalize, and the reader understands it all the same.

I am sorry that the subject only becomes more relevant with each day, but I highly recommend this book - to everyone really, but especially anyone who is interested in viewing this endemic problem of institutionalized racist brutality through the lens of motherhood, powerlessness, grief, and anger.
Profile Image for Susan.
3,560 reviews
March 31, 2023
While I loved the story itself (multi-racial woman dealing with her own fertility watching the police brutality around her), I was not a fan of the presentation. Short, stream of conscious type narration has never been a favorite of mine. I much prefer a more structured telling. Additionally, second person isn't a favorite of mine either. But, even my annoyance with the writing couldn't take away from the power of the story itself. Reading the dichotomy of trying to bring a new life into the world while watching another life leaving the world and trying to make sense of the situation is heavy stuff. The book is short but the story is one that will stay with me for much longer.

Thanks to NetGalley and Soft Skull Press for a copy of the book. This review is my own opinion.
248 reviews
July 29, 2023
I’ve been trying to be more discerning in my reviews so in the past year plus & I’ve rarely given a book five stars but this one earns it. there will be some that don’t like that it’s written in the second person, but that not my ministry… this was heartbreaking, anxiety-inducing, sweet, sexy, and just plain lovely… apparently Barack and I have good taste…
Profile Image for Jeff Matlow.
528 reviews19 followers
June 10, 2023
6/10

After looking at the other reviews for this book, it appears I’m in the minority. I wanted to love this book, I wanted to believe it was groundbreaking, as many others mentioned. But, frankly, I didn’t like the writing and couldn’t wait for it to be over.

I give credit to Tiffany Clarke Harrison in this, her debut novel. She took a chance at doing something different. Sometimes that results in a home run, sometimes a miss. For me? It was a miss.

Here are the two things that irked me:
1. It was written in the second person, which is just plain odd. I can’t think of any adult novel in which this works.
2. It seems like stream of consciousness, bouncing from one topic to the next so quickly I got whiplash.

The sad thing is that this is a really important and impactful story. The narrator is a biracial woman. Her parents and sister died in a car wreck. A black boy she knows was beaten to oblivion by police and is in a coma. And she and her husband are having a helluva time trying to have a baby.

It’s a study on the racism in this world and the struggle to bring children into the world while others are unfairly taken out of it.

I just wish the story were written in a way that I could’ve been invested in what was happening.

#netgalley #bluehour
Profile Image for Tina.
1,096 reviews179 followers
April 9, 2023
I absolutely loved BLUE HOUR by Tiffany Clarke Harrison. It’s a super emotional read that made me cry. It features a biracial female narrator who faces a miscarriage and grapples with grief, motherhood, racial injustice, her interracial marriage and love. These heavy themes are written so eloquently within just 160 pages. I loved the biracial representation from a female perspective. I devoured this book in one day in February and I’m still thinking about it now. It’s one of my fave novels of 2023!
.
Thank you to Soft Skull Press for my advance reading copy!
Profile Image for Rory Conn.
26 reviews
December 20, 2023
I read this book for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award first round.

I know Obama likes this book so I’m sorry king but all of the characters were unlikeable. I barely cared about their problems, which is problematic because the entire book is essentially a stream-of-consciousness rant from the main character about her issues.
Profile Image for Jenny Chelmow.
171 reviews2 followers
October 17, 2023
Stream of consciousness that I often couldn’t follow. Or didn’t feel motivated to follow. So many heavy issues packed into 140 pages that I found it difficult to properly connect with any of them. Was not a fan of the writing.
Profile Image for Nikki DiVirgilio.
80 reviews4 followers
October 31, 2023
This book added to my run of disappointing reads lately. Another reviewer asked what I’m wondering- is this kind of writing the new trend?!?! Choppy, short, quick- not taking its time and adding in elements that often feel forced. It’s not for me.

Also, what was that ending…?
53 reviews1 follower
February 6, 2024
I read the digital ARC of this on Netgalley.
A novel told in vignettes the way the different threads are woven is beautifully intricate. The themes overlap and connect to form a complex narrative of our main character and her relationships as she navigates infertility, miscarriages, and grief as a black woman.
I loved how layered the characters were but especially our main character. I felt deeply attached to her and I spent the novel hoping that she would get closure and happiness as she endures so much hardship.
The writing style is poetic and intimate. If you liked Ocean Vuong's novel "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" I think you'd love this.
Profile Image for Tamsen.
1,081 reviews
January 20, 2024
I read this fast; you have to.

I always read the quotes (if any) at the front of the book after I'm done, and this one matches the novel perfectly, so I am leaving it here.

"All art is a kind of confession, more or less oblique. All artists, if they are to survive, are forced, at last, to tell the whole story; to vomit the anguish up." (James Baldwin)
353 reviews
September 28, 2023
2.0 Rating Thank goodness it was a short book; very difficult to follow along and many times was lost with the storyline. Not sure I would recommend. It's for a different kind of reader.
Profile Image for Kim Lockhart.
1,233 reviews194 followers
August 8, 2023
Blue Hour is a remarkable novel, with so many lines and concepts I wanted, needed, to highlight, that I stopped reading and waited to buy a copy before continuing. 

The author seamlessly tackles marriage, motherhood, art, loss, and violent racism. I like how few of the characters choose particularly healthy ways to process their feelings, and how they lash out with their pain, two behaviors which are realistic and spot-on.

The author references many kinds of loss, and the author uses each one as a touchstone. 

Reading this seemed to take place on two tracks: via conscious consideration, and also through subconscious processing. The emotions elicited by the first create a bridge to the second.

Each of us will have different reactions to what we've read, though these were my focused thoughts:

Blame is a way for grief to express itself.

Miscarriage is not the opposite of motherhood.

No one gets what they want. If you're lucky, someone gets you.

This short, but impactful novel, is likely to have the effect of leaving the reader, as the author says: "intact, yet dismembered."
Profile Image for Giovanna Osit.
157 reviews3 followers
June 20, 2025
4 ⭐️

I did this on audio and it took me a little longer than expected because I kept having to stop due to it being incredibly heavy.

Please check TW with this one (infertility, miscarriages, grief, racism, etc).

Anyway, this book really tugged at my heart and I didn’t expect it to. The protagonist and narrator is exploring her own ambivalence to motherhood while also grappling multiple miscarriages, depression, grief and issues with her spouse. She is also biracial and has fears of brining a black/asian child into the world while seeing police brutality in America during all of this.

The structure and kind of stream of consciousness of it all did get a bit confusing and sometimes difficult to follow but it didn’t take away from the way the story propelled forward.

The overall tone was very raw. I enjoyed it and would recommend it if you want an interesting voice and different perspective.
Profile Image for Dee Eliza Pea.
180 reviews6 followers
December 12, 2023
Another Obama summer pick and this one really worked for me. It is written from the point of view of a biracial woman, in the form of a letter or diary to her partner, as she navigates family trauma, marriage, infertility, miscarriage and a complex, conflicted yet overwhelming yearning for motherhood against an overarching backdrop of institutionalized violence against Black bodies in America.

I thought it was beautiful and sad and like a long poem. I see that not all GR readers found the unnamed protagonist (another one! I am on a roll!) "stream of consciousness" style resonated, but I like lyrical, ambiguous prose. It felt like Clarke Harrison trusted her readers and sometimes less is more, especially when the intention is to evoke emotion or create a mood. I don't gravitate towards motherhood literature, but I cried real tears for this narrator. I thought it was a gorgeous little novel.
Profile Image for Dylan Kakoulli.
729 reviews132 followers
January 8, 2025
Grappling with racial tensions, police brutality, as well as motherhood, loss and what it means to be a person of colour -especially one who is also a prospective (and/or trying) parent, living in a country (world) that is constantly “against” you, TCH’s Blue Hour is an incredibly timely and challenging novella, that creatively (at least in terms of the narrative structure) manages to delve into a multitude of themes and emotions within such a short span (though I do wish we lingered on certain aspects a little longer) that’ll leave your heart both aching and raging at the (almost infinite) injustices of the world.

Powerfully poignant and poetically written, I can’t wait to see what TCH writes next!

4 stars

PS - mega shoutout to my good pal Jemima, for putting this beauty on my radar !
Profile Image for Valeria Spencer.
1,763 reviews12 followers
September 6, 2023
Blue Hour is on President Obama’s best of 2023 and deservedly so. This is a compact book at only 130 pages; Harrison makes every word count. Brutal and in your face making you see the world as it really is, and heartbreaking and tender and making you thankful for the moments of beauty that life offers to try to counter its pain.
Our unnamed narrator is a bi-racial woman, someone who is having great difficulty maintaining a pregnancy, struggling with terrible loss in her family, trying to make a living as an artist, to work her way through insurmountable grief. Harrison creates a very intimate portrait, letting us see the raw, ragged life with all its anguish and possibilities for joy and connection.
Profile Image for annie.
965 reviews87 followers
April 26, 2023
"I will tell you when telling you doesn't seem like punishment. The body tightens, constricts with the expectation of failure. Constricts with false hope, a smile plastered across your lips pretending this time it will be different."

spare and affecting. i found this fragmentary, vivid exploration of grief, motherhood, miscarriage, and police brutality to be incredibly impactful and beautifully written. sometimes vignettes-as-novel don't really work for me, but here i thought the fragmented approach captured the narrator's trauma and uncertainty quite nicely. the prose beautifully captures all aspects of the narrator's life while also expressing her complex emotions, yet it's not solely focused on prose; i found the characters intriguing and the narrator's relationship with her older sister to be particularly moving. overall, quite liked this book!

4.5 stars
Profile Image for Nina Schuyler.
Author 13 books113 followers
September 18, 2023
An amazing example of the art of compression. In a mere 137 pages, Harrison weaves in a zigzag motion of time, racism, parenting, raising a child who is a person of color in gun-happy America, pregnancy, miscarriage, guilt, and its crippling effects, on and on. I enjoyed the structure, which is hard to do--when do you move to the present, when do you jump to the past without losing the reader? On the back cover, it's called a "fragmentary" novel, but there is cohesion through the narrator as a thread, and the second person address to her husband.
Profile Image for Rae Lanczak.
217 reviews1 follower
December 21, 2023
With such a strong premise, I had high hopes for this book. It was suppose to be a look into various difficult topics. Yet, it ended up being more about a woman who really should get a new therapist.
Profile Image for nelly :).
207 reviews17 followers
May 25, 2024
i love how this book tackled so many heartbreaking topics in such a respectful, human way. its a tough book to read, one that hurts the heart a fair bit, but it was really enjoyable :) thanks to verve for the pre-release proof
Profile Image for Cece D.
21 reviews
March 27, 2025
A fabulous book. I wish I could read it again for the first time. And I hope I do in my next season of life! The writing style is everything I love in a book, in writing, and dare I say, life? It so beautifully (and with extreme sadness) explores the intricacies of relationships and love and motherhood and I genuinely loved every word. The ending made me want to reread the whole book right THEN it was wonderful
Profile Image for Reborn.
104 reviews34 followers
May 25, 2023
Too many years ago, I found Harrison's blog and she found mine. Both of us more or less screaming into the void, but my impression was that she had an amazing talent. We communicated online. We became and remain friends on Facebook and Instagram. And now she's published this incredible, emotional, touching novel and I'm so proud of her for it.

One warning: You.will.cry. Ugly tears. Make sure you're somewhere you can do that before you read it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 274 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.