I think sometimes a book can be too literary for me, or too experimental, or too something. Unfortunately, this was one of those for me. I appreciated the writing style and the premise, but ultimately it didn't quite work for me.

Ouff the teenagers were simply insufferable to read about which I am sad to say ruined my reading experience. I would recommend Finna by Nino Cipri instead which has similar vibes without the frustration. Unfortunately this book was not for me.

I loved this! It was a real breath of fresh air. Egg Island is a surreal coming-of-age road trip - two bruised teenage runaways are searching for a place that may not exist. It had echoes of the wonderful “The End of the F***ing World” - quirky, darkly funny with pockets of joy.
It examines the relationship of Julia and Colt but also delves into the wider connections which tie us to other people, places and things.
Egg Island is a sad, peculiar, endearing read - it was a pleasure!
Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. All views are my own.

Egg Island by Sara Flemington

This book follows teenage runaway Julia who is looking for Egg Island. Legends says that there is a rip in a sky there and Julia hopes that finding it will also bring clues about her missing father. Julia meets Colt in a has station and he travels with her.

I found the book a bit unusual with the streams of consciousness and the story jumping around in time in places. It took me a while to read it even though it is a short book as I just wasn't hooked. There were nice passages even though I didn't love the story overall.

Thank you to netgalleyuk and the publishers Dundurn Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Egg Island is out now.

Okay, I read the reviews, knew that it didn't work for many readers and yet I requested. Because there was something about the blurb and the cover. I read the excerpt and the beginning seemed interesting.

'He looked me in the eyes like he was going to love me then murder me, then spend the rest of his life building a shrine for me.'

But I struggled to read this book (did not finish to be honest). Mainly because of the writing. The blurb mentions 'laconic teenagers', but they are so talkative, consequently too many unnecessary dialogues. The dialogues affected the narrative/description and didn't seem to carry the story anywhere.

I seriously expected it to be a quirky read but didn't work for me.

Where is Egg Island? Julia and Coll are trying to get there and what a long strange trip it is. This is an unusual read made all the more challenging by the stream of consciousness approach. It wasn't for me but there are bright spots in the writing. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

This was definitely one of the weirdest books I've ever read. It had these almost dream like sequences that I wasn't sure if they were supposed to be magical realism or just dreams. It also jumped all over the place. Still, I liked it. I think this author writes very well and certainly has an imagination. The descriptions were great, too. I will read more from this author in the future.

Egg Island comes out next week on July 19, 2022 and you can purchase HERE.

By the time I arrived at the first gas station my shoulders were rubbed raw from the straps of my backpack. My T-shirt and bra all soaked through with sweat. The old man behind the counter asked where I was headed and why the heck I was walking to get there on a day hotter than heck.

The cover was so enticing, the premise alluring. The reality was a disjointed road trip, on the road to Egg Island with some interesting meetings en route.
This was a DNF for me at 70% I just couldn’t travel any further with them. Sorry.

This was a really quirky story about 2 teenagers in search or Egg Island? It missed the mark with me. I’m sure it’s going to be great for some people, but I never connected with the characters and the plot seemed a little aimless.

This book was a quick read for me, which is always a positive. The chapters were reasonable length so it made it easy to pick up and put down again. I enjoyed meeting the variety of characters that made an appearance through the book that always had some interesting quirks. However, I found it hard to warm to the main characters and just found them to be a bit unlikeable. I don’t know if it was the fact they’re teenagers and the mannerisms I just found annoying or they were just unlikeable people. I also felt like the book was kind of written just as a prequel to the actual story because not much actually happened in terms of plot development or action.
Overall, it was a read that I was able to get through easily but I would have enjoyed there to be more development in terms of the story and for some action to take place or questions to be answered.

I am grateful to have received this ARC via Netgalley and this is my honest review of the book.

Egg Island by Sara Flemington

Random stream of consciousness – characters chasing their tales without a real destination in mind – searching for something – and – at the end I wondered if or when they will find it as they did not find it by the end of the book.

That said, I applaud the author for writing a book and am sure this story will appeal to someone even though that did not happen to be me. I felt that the telling of the story was more important for the author than having the characters find what they were looking for or even finding something that would help them grow or become more. I suppose that is true for some in life, but I prefer to spend my time reading words that take me somewhere, see the characters grow and develop and that leaves me feeling hopeful when I read the last page.

Did I read every word? Not really…I read the first few chapters, did not engage with the characters, could not see myself in the story as one of them, and wondered what the true purpose of writing the story actually was, so skipped to the end, read that, read a bit in the middle and decided the book was not for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dundurn Press for the ARC – This is my honest review

2-3 Stars

Egg island is Flemington's debut novel in which Julia and Colt journey to the mysterious "egg island". As the story unravels we learn more about Julia's motives and how egg island isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

This is a quirky and fun novel, in which Flemington experiments with linear narrative plunging Julia into a dream-like world. Whilst this in itself is interesting, it sometimes came off as quite disjointed, in a way that didn't work for me. Some of the side characters were a little flat, and whilst they had distinct personalities, they often seemed to do the same thing - they would take Julia in and ask her to do chores in return - leaving some of the story feeling a little repetitive. I felt this novel had a lot of potential, since the vibe and writing lent itself to something a bit different, so I was almost disappointed - but not surprised - by the ending - it felt like a classic YA type thing (which for reasons below I wasn't expecting to read).

This is not an issue with the book itself, but this is listed aa literary on NetGalley and not YA. The novel certainly does have some literary elements but without the YA label, I had slightly different expectations of the novel, which may be why I didn't gel with it as much as I had hoped.

Overall, it's a fun trip and if you are interested in something a bit different, I'd definitely give this a go.

Egg Island is out on 9th August!

This was a fascinating premise but I lost motivation to pick it up. Maybe it was just the wrong book at the wrong time for me kind of issue. Very quirky but I don't think this will be for everyone.

I really really wanted to like the book, I had such high expectations but it just isn't my cup of tea. Both Julia and Colt and their antics seemed too weird for me to handle. There were some parts, phrases, secondary characters that were interesting and stuck out to me but it didn't happen often enough to keep me hooked. Maybe I'm too serious to enjoy the quirky setting. I do hope you'll give it a read and decide for yourself. The author's note was beautiful btw.

What a quirky little gem of a book this is it made a refreshing change from some of the other novels I’ve read recently
The book flows along in a slightly surreal stream of consciousness form letting the story happen to you and the characters
Although ultimately the book is the story of a rambling journey taken by 2 strangers who meet by chance and subsequently make all their decisions almost as randomly as throwing a dice
I enjoyed the feel and tempo of the book greatly and fell in love with the 2 characters immediately
I saw the book described as like the tv series end of the fucking world and can complexly see this
The book celebrates youth and spontaneity and really made me want to get up drive off in my car and have an adventure
The characters are believable in their oddity as are the constellation of others met on their journey
I’d recommend this book to anyone wanting to add a bit of joy to their lives I loved it .
I read an early copy of the book on NetGalley Uk it is published in August 2022

A book full of summer road trips vibes and an atmospheric setting. Perfect short book to read outside when camping or on the patio!

Egg Island is an interesting book that ultimately wasn't for me, but I can definitely see its appeal to the right target audience!

Shouts out to NetGalley for the ARC.

Egg Island is quite the modern conundrum: a YA book that features young people who, you know, actually talk and act like young people. Irritable, confounding, complex, downtrodden young people, but young people nonetheless.

This fact may mean that it isn't even shelved as YA. There are no aspirational characters, no morality lessons spouted by flat, character cyphers, and no happy romances.

To enjoy Egg Island, you have to accept the conditions of the ride: you will not end up where you wanted to, the journey will piss you off, and the character growth will come in fits and spurts, with plenty of backsliding.

I found the two main characters amusing and engaging, if not occasionally annoying. Not every quippy conversation works, and not every line about teenage ennui lands. However, I enjoyed their dynamic, and how they pushed each other, throughout the bizarre, variegated settings.

This book isn't for everyone, but I hope it finds a wide audience of people not predisposed to dislike it given their genre expectations.

I was entertained and engaged by this YA-ish road novel, but I felt like there were a number of unanswered questions about the main character and her motives that, had they been fleshed out more, would have made the read and the conclusion more satisfying.

I was drawn in by the premise of this book. The writing was spare and the characters quirky. I enjoyed the dialogue. I really wanted to love this book, and based on the blurb and cover, I thought I would. It is original and still a good read, regardless.