Only one word describes this novel.... PHENOMENAL! I can't wait for the readers to read this story. It was a beautiful love story of a father and gay son. It was a love story for all black men if I can be honest. It was so real, so raw, and so spiritual. I won't spoil the story, but I promise anyone who reads this will love it. The characters in this story were alive to me. I saw myself in Isaac, I saw my father in his father, and definitely saw my mother in his mother. I believe ever parent of a LGBT child should read this book to gather understanding. Do yourself a favor and get this book when it comes out in January, you won't

Let me start out by saying Don't Cry for Me is one of my all time favorite books. These are characters I thought about constantly. I was dying to know what Issac would have to say in response to his father's letters.

This is VERY different from Don't Cry for Me. Poetically, I loved it. They are two separate men, with completely different stories, and shared trauma.

Isaac's Song isn't a call and response to the first book. We do learn of Isaac's perspective on certain events, but we are taken on the journey of his life before we ever even get to the letters Jacob left him.

I think that Isaac has an important story and I definitely think the two books need to be read as a pair. But Isaac's Song didn't have the same gut punch as Don't Cry for Me.

Isaac was on a self discovery journey, which can be messy and I feel like that was reflected in the book. I feel like the novel jumped around a lot, though still connected. I loved the crossroad of his identity, the inside look on his therapy sessions and that the book didn't end tied nicely with a bow.

I will say, I think there needs to be a trigger warning once Issac starts righting his book. It actually was a large part of the ending and slave stories are important, but sensitive. I wasn't expecting that. I loved the idea of Issac finally following his passion, but it was a little lengthy and almost distracting (?).

Overall, I give the book a 3.75 ⭐️ but am rounding up to 4.

Thank you to NetGalley & Daniel Black for the digital ARC.


*There were a lot of typos.

This is my song novel by Black and it surely will not be my last. The way he carefully deals with relationships between fathers and son is so heartbreakingly beautiful, just like his writing. I found myself become quite emotional at several points while reading. This was truly a treat.

𝑰𝒔𝒔𝒂𝒄’𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈 by Daniel Black @drdanielblack
Genre: literature fiction
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫
Publish Date: January 28, 2025

“𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒆𝒙𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒖𝒕𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒑 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖. 𝑻𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒉𝒖𝒓𝒕 𝒖𝒔 𝒄𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒖𝒔. 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕’𝒔 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒋𝒐𝒃.”

We meet the main character Isaac in his therapist's office on one of his seances after the death of his father. And therapist advises him to write down his memories in a diary, so he can analyze them through a lens of the facts and not just feelings of memories, which do not always reflect truth.

Issac grew up in Missouri in a very traditional family where he needed to suppress his artistic side and hide from everyone and himself too that he was gay as it was not what was expected from him.

This book has excellent storytelling and has so many different small stories inside one big storyline, and I enjoyed them all.

I liked being able to see how his therapist guided Issac through the healing process and memory line. I loved her observations and quoted several of them.

This book covers many important topics and issues, such as racism, parental expectations, homophobia, generational trauma, and others.

This story was beautiful and I really enjoyed it! Thank you so much @htp_hive for the gifted ARC and opportunity to read and review it.
#htphive #isaacssong

I LOVED ‘Don’t Cry For Me’ (the first book). It made me think about what Jacob was writing and who he was writing for. It allowed me to feel pity for Issac as he was just a young boy wanting to soar into his life. But with this book, it’s allowing me to see Jacob as a person instead of a villian as I initially did. I believe that villians are not curated overnight and to see Jacob in a different light and see the relationship he and Issac had from a different perspective definitely left my mind wondering. We do things because that was how we were brought up but we also have the power to change our dynamics and functions if we can see and understand how our actions and choice are affecting those around us.

This was such an emotional read and I am so happy Daniel Black gave his readers a response. Don’t Cry For Me was amazing and so was this!

It’s a must read and I hope when and if there’s an audiobook component to this story that Daniel Black narrates.

Daniel Black is an amazing storyteller. He pulls you into each line written, each word spoken. The plot is centered around Isaac and his response after the death of his father Jacob. And what a response it is. So much raw emotions expressed from family hopes, dreams and expectations, anger, fear, struggles of identity, race, classism, gender and freedom of knowing how to live your truth. As a child Isaac was not permitted to be his true self, constantly told boys don’t do this, so much so, that he started to live his life the way others expected. Not until he went away to college that he started to see the world and his life differently. He began to question his parents, his upbringing, his identity and his faith. When Jacob died he left a heart wrenching and unbelievably powerful letters to Isaac, pouring out everything about him, his family and his unconditional feelings of love for Isaac. A story of forgiveness, healing and loving who you are. I did want more from the ending to bring the plot full circle and offer a bit of closure. Did the brothers reconnect and did Isaac complete the novel. However, I do highly recommend this book especially for those struggling with who they are and how they fit within their family and community.

I read this first book “Don’t Cry For Me” and bawled my eyes out in some parts. At the end of the book I was left wondering “how did his son react to the letter?” “What happens now!?”

I am so glad that Daniel Black continued the story with this book. It was just as raw, poignant and powerful as the first.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for this e-Arc.

This book was absolutely incredible. Reading from the perspective of Isaac, the son of Jacob from Don't Cry for Me, was an amazing follow up. Seeing the parallels of the father and son's complicated relationship made me so emotional. Isaac faced a lot of hardship of trying to figure out what he wants out of life and who he wants to be. He spent a lot of his life trying to please others instead of really accepting himself for who he is. He mad at his father and resents him, but through a lot of self-reflection after the passing of his father his perspective changes and allows him to realize how much his father tried in his life. This story is the journey of self-reflection, healing, acceptance, and forgiveness. Daniel Black told a beautiful story through Isaac. This is one of my favorite reads of the year.

A beautiful story about healing, forgiveness and the realization that our parents and the people who raised us were human too and sometimes just doing the best with the tools they were given.

Daniel Black is an artist with his words and storytelling. This was an amazing follow up to Don’t Cry For Me. Thank you Net Galley, Harlequin Trade Publishing for the e-ARC!

A poignant and stunning tale that delves into the intricate dynamics often found between a gay son and his father. In contrast to Daniel Black’s earlier work, Don’t Cry for Me, we journey alongside Isaac, a gay man, as he confronts the complexities of his relationship with his late father. Through therapy sessions, Isaac revisits memories spanning from his childhood to adulthood, contemplating how he never felt liberated to embrace his true self as a gay individual. He wrestles with his father's expectations and the shadows of homophobia, striving to comprehend his father's life experiences while grappling with his own role in their relationship, acknowledging that his father was an individual with his own narrative and history. The narrative touches on themes of racism, internalized homophobia, religious trauma, generational wounds, parental aspirations, and the essence of gay culture. The dialogues are rich in nuance yet straightforward, making them easily accessible. This work resonated deeply with me, leaving a lasting impression.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

If you know anything about Daniel Black, you know he’s not gonna just pull at your heart strings… he’s gonna straight rip them apart. And that he did. I absolutely loved this book. This gem reads like journal entries that follow a gay Black man trying to heal from his relationship with his late father with the help of his therapist. If you read Don’t Cry For Me by him, this book shifts the perspective from Isaac’s father, Jacob, to Isaac himself. Between shifting timelines from his adolescence and adulthood, Daniel Black offers a beautiful story in prose about healing from those who hurt us and working to understand our role in our own healing. Through Isaac’s story, we get an intentional exploration of topics like religion, racism, homophobia, sexuality, generational trauma, internalized homophobia, and much much more.

I really can’t describe how amazing this writing was. I enjoyed watching Isaac’s journey to healing and felt every emotion he had like a punch in the gut. This book was extremely vulnerable and showed how beautiful it can be for Black men to heal and speak the truth. It’s a beautiful love letter to Black men, but something we can all take and learn from. 5/5!!!!!!

Other thoughts:
-The journal entries took my breath away. The way Daniel Black writes his characters’ memories and makes sure you feel every bit of them is amazing.
-Isaac’s therapist read him down, and by extension, she read me too. I learned so much from their interactions about what it means to be responsible for your healing
-I loved the overall discussion about how our parents are also real people living life for the first time, too. And they aren’t perfect. Sometimes we can take things from them and make it our own, or we can get rid of what they taught us and discover new ways of being. So dope!
-I especially loved Issac’s processing of a situation in class with a white woman peer. I felt so seen. Less crazy. Isaac simply stated that he learned these folks are out here to destroy you and it captured that feeling perfectly.
-I really enjoyed how Isaac’s creative writing found a home within his own retelling of his story
-I came into the book anti-Isaac’s dad, but like him I learned that people can be many things at once.

I'm still catching my breath. Those first pages? They sucker-punched me. There's Isaac, losing his dad and suddenly crying - didn't see that coming.

The way Black uses therapy sessions to unpack Isaac's life is brilliant. I felt like I was right there, piecing together his childhood, his struggles with identity, all of it. It got me thinking about my own family, you know?

This book does something special with fathers and sons. It's like Black's holding up a mirror to all those unspoken guy things - the pressure to be "manly" versus just being yourself. Messy stuff, but so real.

If you read "Don't Cry for Me," this feels like coming full circle. And for the history nerds out there (like me), you're in for a treat. Black knows how to make the past feel alive.

Gotta thank NetGalley, Hanover Square Press, and Daniel Black for letting me dive into this early. It's the kind of book that sticks with you.

Wow. What a beautiful, touching and thoughtful story. This is my first book by this author and I feel blessed to have been able to read this.

Oh my, this book was so, so beautiful. Don’t Cry for Me was the first book I’d read by this author, and Isaac’s Song hit me even more profoundly than that novel did.

This coming-of-age story follows Isaac over decades, as he struggles to live up to the expectations of a father with highly traditional views on manhood and masculinity. With the encouragement of his therapist, Isaac begins writing his story down, and in doing so begins to understand the dynamic of his family and the challenges his father faced.

This novel is a testament to the complicated relationships between fathers and sons, and the tension between masculinity and authenticity that often exists for boys. Additionally, this novel confronts the intersections of race, sexuality, and manhood; the expectations that are imposed on black boys and men, and the long-term consequences of those expectations. Isaac and his father, Jacob, are both imperfect characters who make mistakes, misjudge one another, and leave too much unsaid, but ultimately, this is a book about healing.

Daniel Black’s lyrical prose is a pleasure to read. More than once, I had to pause and re-read sections just to fully absorb them. This story’s writing is fearless, and I’m certain this novel will stick with me for a very long time.

Five stars, no doubt.

I was devasted by this beautiful novel about a Black gay man who tries to reconcile what he knew about his Dad who didn't accept his homosexuality. It's framed as journal entries writeen whilst in therapy, so the emotional depth sneaks up on you.

Isaac's Song beautifully encapsulates the intersectional experiences of a Black gay man living in America. I really enjoyed the explorations of sexuality and masculinity, and thought it was all tied really nicely together with the long lasting legacy of slavery and oppression. One of my favourite aspects of the novel was the acceptance of moral ambiguity; unpacking how we often label people in our stories as heroes or villain's, when the reality is we are all made up of good and bad decisions, ideals, and actions. Pealing back the layers of Isaac's father was so endearing and enlightening. I also really liked the framing narrative of Isaac working through his life story with his therapist--I actually wished this continued through to the ending, which I thought was a bit abrupt. The writing itself was a tad too simplistic for me, there were moments where I thought the narrative could have been more subtle (more show, less tell). Overall, the book takes readers on a journey that forces them to reflect on their own life right alongside Isaac and confront everything they thought they knew about the past.

Deep

The first time that I read Don’t Cry for Me in 2022, I was desperate to get Isaac’s side of the story. I was overjoyed when I found out about this book. Isaac was such a lovable character for me in both books. This time we get to hear how his father’s failures and successes shaped him. We also learn how his mother left her mark on his world. This was a touching coming of age story that felt like it spoke for so many men. I loved that both Isaac and his father were able to reflect and celebrate the love that they had for each other.

While I really enjoyed this book, it didn’t give me the story that I wanted to hear. I wanted to hear Isaac’s response to his father’s letters. I wanted it to be a direct reply. Instead, I got to hear how Isaac perceived the events that were presented in the previous book. There was no back and forth dialogue. In Isaac’s retelling of his experience as a writer, a few of his stories were woven into this book. They were interesting, but I felt like Black wanted to share more of his own work. He just passed it off as Isaac’s work. The final piece that he presented was a slave story that Isaac was working on. I don’t read slave books. I understood what he was trying to do with that element, but it’s not what I wanted to read.

I feel like this book gave me closure. It tied up the loose ends from Don’t Cry for Me. I think fans of historical fiction will really enjoy this story. Thank you to NetGalley, Hanover Square Press, and Daniel Black for the advanced copy for me to review.

Actual rating 4.5 stars.

I want Isaac’s therapist! I highlighted so many of her observations! Isaac’s Song is a beautifully written story, that almost reads like a biography.

The first pages took my breath away. The story starts when Isaac’s father dies and Isaac cries to his surprise. Weeks later, he visits a therapist because he loses weight and hardly sleeps. Isaac’s meetings with his therapist are the bones of this book and with her he goes back to his childhood and how he perceived his parents, his Blackness, and his sexuality.

“Apologies don’t heal the wounded. They’re for the perpetrator.”

This story digs deep. It’s about love and what we feel and what we think happened. Isaac’s relationship with his dad was always difficult. But while he rethinks what happened, he finds out he might have judged his father too harshly. And might put his mother on a pedestal she didn’t always deserve.

“Some of the truths you discover, Isaac, are going to conflict with what you feel in your heart. Still, don’t back away from them. This is what you’re looking for. It comes to make us reconsider what we think we know.”

I flew through the pages and through Isaac’s life. His childhood, his time at university, when he started working and still didn’t feel comfortable as a Black gay man.

”You become an agent of your own existence the minute you stop blaming others for what they did to you. Those who hurt us cannot heal us. That’s our job.”

When I read his father’s letter, tears leaped into my eyes. The love that shone through those sentences. The fact that his father tried, even though he called his son a sissy and girly. I really need to read Daniel Black’s Don’t Cry for Me. I think it will make me bawl my eyes out.

I absolutely adore Daniel Black’s writing and am so glad I had the opportunity to read his latest work. I find his stories to be incredibly moving and this was no exception. His characters bring a unique level of depth and complexity that he manages to establish early on, which can be difficult. I look forward to reading his next work!