Lauren Fox

Can a book about grief be funny? Yes. It can be funny, and heartfelt, and nostalgic, and clever, and unbearably sad all wrapped up together. Lauren Fox pulls this off brilliantly in her new book “Days of Awe.”

On the surface, we see main character Isabel Moore face of year of grief and struggle: the death of her best friend, the demise of her marriage, the frailty of her aging mother, and the growing resentment of her tween daughter. But Fox isn’t content to let the story sit on the surface. She digs into the inner lives of her characters and exposes raw human emotion and connection – the depth of female friendships, the strength of mother-daughter bonds, the thrill of falling in love, and the pain of recognizing that love is gone.

I loved Fox’s writing style – which had me wanting to read more and more. I also loved her sense of humor. Several exchanges in the book had me laughing out loud. Other sections of the book made me cringe, only because they were so real I felt uncomfortable for the characters. I am eager to look into Fox’s other books as I enjoyed this one so much.

5 stars.

Thank to you NetGalley and Knopf for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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Lauren Fox's novel, [Days of Awe], is the story of a friendship, of a family, of grief, of pain, of betrayal, and of acceptance. It is Isabel's story, as she grapples with the recent death of her best friend, the disintegration of her marriage, and the resentment of her daughter. I thought Isabel was a great character - believably flawed but good, exhausted by life but always striving to do better, and wryly funny, as well as self-aware. The novel's main flaw, to me, was that I occasionally got confused by the muddled timeline so that I wasn't sure when what was being described happened in terms of previous events. As a flaw, it's a pretty minor one, though. This was an all-around satisfying read - funny and sad and bittersweet and tender. I will be looking for more by Ms. Fox.

4 stars… (more)