The Bookish Mindset

Overview:

Title: White Spaces
Author: Elvin James Mensah
Published: June 2026
Genre: Literary
Themes: Relationships, Mental Health

One sentence summary: “A hymn to brotherly love and its transcendent power to heal”.

One sentence review: Mensah has done it again, White Spaces is a masterpiece.

Review:

The writing is such a balm and brings such serenity to the reader, you end up floating in the story. That is until it surprises you and winds you with its hard to read and hard hitting emotion. It’s stunning.

The way he writes friendship is so personal, it’s so raw and honest and an utter pleasure to read.

Expect male friendship, queerness, mental health, eating disorders and parental expectations, all guided with gentleness and precision that we know and loved in Small Joys.

If you’ve read and loved Small Joys I can’t recommend White Spaces enough. And if you haven’t read Small Joys I’d recommend reading that first, it’s not a series but just trust me.

If you’d like to get yourself a copy, you can support local bookshops and my work while doing so on Bookshop.org with this link here or on audio with Libro.fm here.

If you like what you’ve read and would like to access more content, we have a cosy community over on patreon and if you love a bookish giveaway and learning about all the new releases, we’d love to have you with us. You can also find more content on my Instagram here.

And don’t forget to check out my other blogs and reviews – you can find books with similar themes in the same folder link below, or click back onto blogs to see the whole offering.

Last updated 13/07/2026