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A review by wafflepolly
The World at My Feet by Catherine Isaac
4.0
Oooof. I'll admit that from the cover – and from the fact that I hadn't read the blurb for a long time before reading – I was expecting a light-hearted, comforting read. This is my first of the author's books so I don't know how naive a thought that was. Anyway I found a far more powerful read than that.
Ellie is an Instagram star. Her feed shows the perfectly curated lifestyle of an English gardening influencer... and completely avoids the fact that due to severe agoraphobia she hasn't left her property for years.
There is some important real-world history from the 1980s-90s touched upon here, which I'm kind of ashamed to say that I knew pretty much nothing of and will be doing some research on.
As Ellie's story unfolds, I realised with the benefit of hindsight that there are some fairly big clues about there being more to her background than we're initially lead to believe, however it was done with an excellent level of subtlety, leaving the story to develop for the reader naturally.
This is a book about trauma, about anxiety, about recovery (and relapse), about family, and about love. I felt so deeply for so many of the characters, and I think they will stay with me for a while.
Ellie is an Instagram star. Her feed shows the perfectly curated lifestyle of an English gardening influencer... and completely avoids the fact that due to severe agoraphobia she hasn't left her property for years.
There is some important real-world history from the 1980s-90s touched upon here, which I'm kind of ashamed to say that I knew pretty much nothing of and will be doing some research on.
As Ellie's story unfolds, I realised with the benefit of hindsight that there are some fairly big clues about there being more to her background than we're initially lead to believe, however it was done with an excellent level of subtlety, leaving the story to develop for the reader naturally.
This is a book about trauma, about anxiety, about recovery (and relapse), about family, and about love. I felt so deeply for so many of the characters, and I think they will stay with me for a while.