Reviews tagging 'Death'

Isaac and the Egg by Bobby Palmer

33 reviews

abi_sarah's review against another edition

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emotional funny 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? No

4.0

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. 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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alyssaunabridged's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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aimee2498's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful 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? Yes

3.0


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isobel_laura's review against another edition

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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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courtnetto's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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? No

5.0

Omg. When I tell you this book is so emotional, I’m not even lying. It took me a chapter or two to get into it but once I was passed those I just couldn’t put it down. 
The book follows Isaac on a journey with “Egg” which is believed to be some sort of Alien? however, the more you read on, you realise that maybe Egg was sent to him from his wife, Mary to help him through his grief. 
Egg is a loveable character and you really see how he helps Isaac to get better and you see progress with Isaac the more you read on. 
The way I saw Egg was like Nanny McPhee, when you don’t want him then he must stay but when you want him but no longer need him then he must go - this pretty much sums up Egg, which you will discover why if you read this book. 
I was hooked when reading this from Chapter 3 onwards and would totally recommend this to anyone who is wanting to read it! 
Here are some notes I’ve made when reading the book - until I got really into it and stopped making these notes😂

“He knows this place, and he knows he didn’t walk here. He can’t have. He’s in the middle of nowhere. He’s been drinking, which is a bad sign, because he’s clearly been driving. He knows he’s been drinking because his tongue is carpeted with the taste of hours-old alcohol and he knows he’s been driving because he can still see his car at the end of the bridge, headlights still on, driver’s door still open.”

“An oval of blankness cut out of a pristine sheet of paper with children’s scissors, or an oval cut from that same pristine paper and pasted on to the clearing with a stick of children’s glue.” 

“What inside? Will it be dangerous? Will it hatch anytime soon? Should I have left it in the forest? Should I take it back to where it was? Would going back just make things worse? Is it a crime to find an egg and take it home? If so, what’s the likelihood of being caught? Do I really need to go to prison over this? If so, what’s the custodial sentence? Should I dispose of the egg? Should I cook the egg? Boiled or fried?”

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basil_touche's review against another edition

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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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vmayne's review against another edition

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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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annatroughton's review against another edition

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emotional funny 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

4.0


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isaaceelliot's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I picked this book up because it had my name written on the cover, I never expected to enjoy it so much or be so moved by the end of it!!
well written, a fresh and adorable take on “found friends that can’t stay for long”
Go into it knowing as little as you can. 
First five star read of 2023

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jvicarm's review against another edition

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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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