Reviews with content warning for Grief - My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises

Reviews tagging 'Grief'

My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises by Fredrik Backman

61 reviews

alienexpert's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

An extremely moving novel discussing the complexity of grief and the stories that live on long after. Elsa is such a spunky kid and her wise yet youthful mind cuts through so much sadness.

Content Warnings

sweetandspicy's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.0

Content Warnings

passionatereader78's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is a great book for dealing with grief. It's not extremely emotional and it's told from a child's point of view. This little girl learns about who her grandmother was before she was born and about her regrets. I loved all the stories. Well written!

Content Warnings

jessamo19's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

james1star's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Read this for my Bookish World Cup (video link: https://youtu.be/hV87o_hJqKI?si=lsQjjW_YXGSWreM-) but if not I’d definitely of DNFd this book.

I don’t think the story or character are anything particularly bad but the writing’s extremely dense and overwritten. We follow soon-to-be-eight year old Elsa via a third person perspective and her relationship with her wacky granny. Their bond is so strong and clearly important for Elsa given an up-and-down family life and bullying in school, he grandmother tells her stories which were nice to start. Not long into the book, we find out granny has cancer and sadly dies but not before instrumenting an adventure for Elsa embark on. Via letters to other characters in the real world, she gets to understand the past lives of her granny and I would say the piecing together of the story was certainly the best part of this book. It was a rewarding reading experience to some extent but…

…It is just so dense that on the whole I was left very unfulfilled and slightly irritated after finishing this. So much of the book is filled with repetition after repetition of the same messages, names, and in many ways mini plot twists/turns that after a while you do see coming. Backman goes on far too many tangents including mountains of unnecessary detail and storytelling that was okay to start but became extremely monotonous as the book went on. I had a similar issue in reading ‘A Man Called Ove’ but at least in that we were following characters that I cared for (take a moment of appreciation for Sonja) and it wasn’t that bad. But here… ugh I dunno I didn’t find a lot of what occurred all that realistic and I feel the formatting took me out of the story. This could’ve been helped had Backman chose first person POV from Elsa but then again I don’t think he truly grappled with a child’s understanding all that well.

Overall, this was fine. I liked how things fitted into place but was certainly overwritten. Not the best from Backman.

Note: no chocolate for dogs! Or much else they give them tbh.

Content Warnings

fkshg8465's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

The only reason I finished this book was because I was foolishly convinced it would get better, and only because it was written by Frederik Backman. I don’t love the protagonist, which is terrible cuz she’s a child and I believe all children should be loved. I was constantly distracted by Britt-Marie because I kept wondering if she is the same character from Britt-Marie was Here (like did she get a new job in between books???). And there were other issues. I’ll stick to his books with characters who are at least in high school.

Content Warnings

lifeofchrstnlvly's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Death's greatest power is not that it can make people die, but that it can make people want to stop living.

Backman, as always, knows how to tap into human emotions and explore humanity. What I appreciate most about his writing is his ability to take a simple truth and delve into it to the extent that it prompts a different perspective, making us recognize the significance of that truth. Kudos to Backman (and the translator!) for always knowing how to articulate the essence of humanity.

I enjoyed reading "My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry" (in my opinion, Backman can do no wrong). However, I did notice one flaw that bothered me a little: Elsa, who is almost 8 years old, sometimes seemed unusually mature for her age. The only thing that reminded me that she is still a child was her fascination with the Land-of-Almost-Awake. If it weren't for her interest in this imaginary world, she would come across as someone in her teens who simply enjoys escaping reality by creating a different world in her mind.

However, this book reminded me that being different is not wrong. You should not allow society to bring you down simply because you are different.

As with any of Backman's books, he once again reminded me of the importance of kindness. It serves as a reminder that we never truly know the struggles and experiences that others are going through. We should always keep in mind that even the people we may dislike have their own challenges and reasons for behaving the way they do.

Content Warnings