I have to confess that despite being originally drawn to this novel by the cover (when do you ever see a lobster) and the quirky and unique sound of it I did have some initial concerns that this was making light of mental illness, that it was going to be one of those love cures all type reads.
Thankfully these fears were completely unfounded as this book is absolutely wonderful in it's portrayal of a girl who suffers from anxiety. As someone who's had similar issues for a number of years there was a lot I could relate to and empathize with and if I'm perfectly honest pretty much everything on her list would be on mine (I mean who isn't terrified of geese).
What's particularly great is the originality of it. There are a lot of books which deal with this type of subject at the moment but none of them are like this. It's a little bit ridiculous, it's funny, it's sad (yes I shed a few tears) and it's very poignant in places.
Esther is an absolutely wonderful character and I could definitely understand the reasoning behind a lot of her actions. It was however Jonah who was the real highlight of the story. There's a lot more to him than initially meets the eye and his story was just as important as Esther's. I truly think everyone needs a Jonah in their life.
There were a couple of times I thought the general quirkiness went a little bit too far and some parts of the story weren't really necessary but overall I very much enjoyed this book.
Thankfully these fears were completely unfounded as this book is absolutely wonderful in it's portrayal of a girl who suffers from anxiety. As someone who's had similar issues for a number of years there was a lot I could relate to and empathize with and if I'm perfectly honest pretty much everything on her list would be on mine (I mean who isn't terrified of geese).
What's particularly great is the originality of it. There are a lot of books which deal with this type of subject at the moment but none of them are like this. It's a little bit ridiculous, it's funny, it's sad (yes I shed a few tears) and it's very poignant in places.
Esther is an absolutely wonderful character and I could definitely understand the reasoning behind a lot of her actions. It was however Jonah who was the real highlight of the story. There's a lot more to him than initially meets the eye and his story was just as important as Esther's. I truly think everyone needs a Jonah in their life.
There were a couple of times I thought the general quirkiness went a little bit too far and some parts of the story weren't really necessary but overall I very much enjoyed this book.