Reviews

Isaac is grieving. Grief does strange things to people and their minds. Isaac is a prime example of this.

‘Isaac and the Egg’ is a story of a man’s journey through grief, his healing, his backward turns, his coping mechanisms and his moments of sheer despair.

For me, the egg symbolises companionship for Isaac in his journey of recovery through this hard time in his life. The egg is Isaac’s coping mechanism, to give him hope and help him to get through. Grief changes our perspective of the world, it forces us to rethink our priorities, and can often lead our bodies to go into fight or flight mode. Isaac was constantly flipping between these two states. As his grief develops and he begins to heal, we see his determination for preferring the “fight” response more and more. This shows his mental strength returning.

I really resonated with the importance of lists and working through step by step in order to help your mind heal. I am proud of Isaac for crossing off everything on his list. I found it very prominent how he was challenging himself to do these incredibly emotionally challenging tasks, so soon after his wife’s death. He is a brave man.

An incredibly emotional book, which had me tearing up at times, with twists and turns that had me gripped throughout.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Content Warnings

clariceyj's review

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dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

ems_98's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

katykelly's review

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4.0

Grief, friendship, family. Very touching.

It took me a while to feel this was for me. I didn't understand 'Egg' for a while. And then I realised I didn't NEED to.

Isaac doesn't either. He's beyond the understanding of most of us, in the midst of the worst of grief and about to take his own life when his scream is echoed back at him by... a something. An egg.

Is it real? A human? Animal? Alien? In his head? Whichever it is, Isaac doesn't leave it, it comes home with him. Not that an egg is going to be very helpful - it's not a counsellor. It can't hug him. It can't even talk... at least not at first.

This is a 'suspend disbelief' story. But it's also a 'slow reveal' of just what's happened to Isaac, and a very intimate and heart-breaking portrayal of grief and love and loss. Yes, I cried a few times. The love story is rather beautiful, and seeing Issac through Egg's....er... eyes? adds to the confusion of what he/it actually is, but also makes this a unique story.

Mary Poppins is mentioned here, and Egg is almost Poppins-like, it's a fair comparison, and again, maybe real, maybe not. It's whimsical and very much like a sad fairy tale.

Assuredly told, layers are peeled back gradually and movingly. This would make a beautiful film. I read an audio version, and it captured me throughout with the character voices and narrative.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample audio copy.

mcwych's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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