Everyone Grieves Differently

This book presents with one of the most interesting and unique premises I have encountered in a long while. Our main focus of interest Piper Parish loves her life with her husband, and he is a part of her everyday routine. The only problem with this is the little inconsequential fact that her husband is dead. Piper lives on a quaint island known as Frick Island which is slowing sinking due to climate change. The island has a robust group of interesting and quirky characters all of whom indulge Piper in her delusion involving her very dead very much not there husband. This little tidbit is what brings us to our protagonist Anders Caldwell, who happens to be an ambitious journalist. Said ambition brings him to Frick Island and to him stumbling ass backward right into this peculiar situation. Obviously, what else could any sane ambitious person like Anders do when put in such a situation? Why make a podcast about it of course.

With an understanding of this premise and being a couple of chapters into the book, I was enthralled. Not only by the central mystery the book presents but also by the characters and residents of Frick Island. Because

• a.) what could possibly posses a person to interact with a dead man as if he were alive
• b.) what could possibly posses a whole island to go along with the what is a very known and obvious delusion when in most circumstances such a thing would signal a serious and concerning mental break of some sort.

Another aspect of my enthrallment was the fact that I couldn’t really fathom how this book could possibly conclude. Specifically when the author, unbeknownst to me, began a romance subplot between both our main characters. Now I know, I know, a cursory read at the books tags on Goodreads or Storygraph would tell me that the book is a romance. I however, seemingly missed the obvious.

If you want to read this book and don’t want spoilers, STOP NOW. If my recommendation is all you wanted I highly recommend you read this. Now if you have read this book or don’t mind spoilers for the whole book read on.

Anders our male protagonist, has big dreams. He wants to be a Pulitzer level journalist and famous podcaster. This ambition is where his podcast “What the Frick” about Frick Island comes in. What it starts as and what he continues to tell the residents of Frick Island it is, is a podcast is about climate change and how it’s affecting Frick Island. However, when he observes Piper Parish go through her daily routine with her very much not there husband ‘Tom’ and the entire island go along with her, he discovers that Frick Island may have a far more intriguing & award-winning story that he can tell. Now, the residents of Frick Island are not the most welcoming to a complete stranger, so Anders finds himself having to work a lot harder than he anticipated for his story. He also finds himself having to come back to the island over and over and slowly integrating himself into the lives of the residents of Frick Island, including and especially the object of his podcast Piper Parish. Anders finds himself beginning to care about the residents of the island, past the normal human decency level, and even forming attachments to them. However, unluckily for him the more he cares about them the less he feels right about keeping his true intentions with the podcast a secret. A beautiful thing the author does along the veins of this storyline is showing Anders slowly begin to care less and less about fame and fortune and notoriety as he begins to build strong attachments to the residents of Frick Island and fall in love with Piper. You slowly see him lose interest with the fame as he starts to value his real relationships with the subject(s) of his podcast. The romance between Anders and Piper was completely out of left field for me because I went into the book blind. So its a testament to the writer that I absolutely loved it. It wasn’t a once in a lifetime epic love but I loved how real it felt and how slow and subtle it was. Piper was dealing with the lose of her husband and the author never minimized that or tried to diminish their love or relationship, but instead showed that its okay to move on and find love again and it doesn’t mean you love the person you’ve lost any less it just means they’re gone and you’re still here and that sucks but that’s life. And its okay.

The Characters

Anders: Anders is complicated, flawed, and realistic. I don’t have much to say as I’ve basically already covered him. 10/10 protagonist. Love his character arc.

Piper: Piper is such a beautifully complex character. You at first much like everyone else simply assume she’s lost her mind because of grief. And the reveal is that she only forgot her husband was dead one time, everyone went with it and then she just kinda did as well because it felt comforting???? Its a very realistic depiction of the complexities of grief. Her struggles with accepting her love for Anders in terms of accepting the death of her husband was well handled and again, importantly, realistic. Piper was kind but not a push-over and her story was heartwarming heartbreaking and realistically flawed. A subplot for the book is questioning how Piper’s husband, Tom, an experienced fisherman could have drowned at sea and whether or not it could have been intentional. Seeing Piper talk about Tom’s depression and how she tried to be his sunshine chasing away the darkness was realistic and heavily flawed and added a whole other layer to her grief.

The residents of Frick Island: One of the best parts of this book were the residents of Frick Island and their love for Piper. The idea that they would go along with Piper’s “delusion” out of sheer love and compassion is in a word heartwarming. Albeit a little concerning seeing as as far as they knew she was having serious mental break but I digress. The residents were lively and full of character and play a major role in making the book as wonderful and whimsical as it is.

The Invisible Husband of Frick Island is a truly wonderful book. Its whimsical, heartwarming, heartbreaking and an easy 10/10 recommendation from me. Throughout the book a worry and concern of mine was how the author was possibly going to end the book and answer the mystery in a way that was satisfying, intelligent, and in line with the overall tone and plot. Somehow, inexplicably, Colleen Oakley managed to accomplish just that. Read it and thank me later.