Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Isaac and the Egg by Bobby Palmer

17 reviews

xiraetx's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

„He knows that it only takes a gentle tap to break its shell.“ 
•••••
this book broke me. I bawled my eyes out while reading some of the scenes. its depiction of loss and how Isaac dealt with it couldn‘t have been more realistic. I felt like I was right there with him, feeling everything he was feeling. I‘ll definitely need some time to get over this beautifully sad and cute book. 

p.s. everybody needs an Egg in their life. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Mental illness

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Blood and Self harm

anxiousbookclub's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Mental illness, Car accident, and Alcohol

Moderate: Alcohol, Suicide attempt, Medical trauma, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Grief, Blood, Addiction, Mental illness, and Alcoholism

isobel_laura's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Mental illness, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

natalieliza29's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Mental illness

novelshire's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Mental illness

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Death of parent, Car accident, and Panic attacks/disorders

basil_touche's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-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

4.5

I ended up being sold on this book after reading the first page. It's bizarre premise and absurd sense of humor really appeal to my own sensiblities when it comes to fiction, while also having an emotional core that holds no barred to it's subject. The style of the writing was clear and kept my attention and the fun quirks with the typography where words move or even form the shape of an egg really added to the experience. 

Egg was probably my favourite character, I kept imaginging him as being a puppet from the Jim Henson Company and the erratic wiggling of his absurdly long arms made for quite the humourous image. But, he's also essential to the darker subject matter in helping Issac acknowledge and remember the full extent of his wife's death. It's a fine balance that I think the book does with flying colours. Whether Egg was real or a memory of Mary's last book project is left for the reader to decide. I like to think it's a little of both.

I do think that the big reveal near the end of the book was obvious and that it felt a tad rushed at the end, but I still found the conclusion to be an emotional and satsifying one (I even got a little teary eyed). Really glad I read this one

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Grief, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Alcoholism, and Car accident

vmayne's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Death

Moderate: Mental illness

jvicarm's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Mental illness

foxo_cube's review against another edition

emotional hopeful medium-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

4.5

I have started recommending this book to basically anyone who will listen. It was great, and to think I impulse-bought it without really expecting much in particular!

It does one of my favourite things that a story can do, which is to wrap sad, serious issues in absurdism in just the right way to emphasise the message. Isaac, our protagonist, is going through some terrible mental health issues after becoming a widower at a young age. I felt that the depiction of the depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, etc. was sympathetic and pretty accurate to my experience, at the very least. In general, I think he responds to the situations he finds himself in pretty much how you'd expect, really. I loved when he found the egg in the forest and is panicking while driving home because, aside from the fact he'd been drinking, which was bad enough, what if he's arrested for... having a large unidentified egg in his car? what if the egg is secretly full of drugs or something? Isaac would definitely be the sort of guy to hate taking toilet paper home from the supermarket because he's sure everyone is looking at him and going "Ha, look at that idiot, I bet he shits".

I think the pace at which we learn about the egg and see the development of its relationship with Isaac is brilliant. They are mysteries to each other (and, although the egg <i>seems</i> like far more of a mystery to us as the reader than Isaac does, that's not as true as it appears), and seeing them try to work each other out - both when they succeed and when they don't - is wonderful. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes sad, sometimes sweet. Along with that, we get a bit more insight into Isaac's relationship with his wife and where he was in life before her death kind of threw him into stasis. I really want to go into significantly more detail here but the way that all of these things are hinted at and foreshadowed, and how it all comes together, is almost certainly far better to experience when you have as little idea where the story is going as possible.

Basically, read this book. I cannot stress this enough. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis

emilylouisa's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, and Mental illness

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Car accident, and Addiction