Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

A Minha Avó Pede Desculpa by Fredrik Backman

33 reviews

jackielane's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Animal death, Toxic relationship, and Bullying

sweetandspicy's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Abandonment, Death, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Bullying, and Cursing

Minor: Cancer, War, Violence, Stalking, Infidelity, and Kidnapping

A very sweet and relatively light-hearted book. The narrator being a child added a fun adventurous dimension. The last quarter or so is when it really picks up and becomes harder to put down. I would recommend to a friend :)

jessamo19's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Grief, and Death

Moderate: Violence, Terminal illness, Animal death, Physical abuse, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Infidelity, War, and Alcoholism

ohsnapsabrina93_'s review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Bullying, Physical abuse, Child abuse, and Cursing

james1star's review against another edition

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. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Grief, and Bullying

Minor: Alcohol, Child death, Alcoholism, War, Drug abuse, Cancer, Domestic abuse, and Cursing

heim_weh's review against another edition

emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.5

It’s meant to be a ‘comfort book’, one that’s not literarily heavy nor dense on convoluted plot or themes. But wow did it read my heart out and ripped it into smithereens, like Elsa would say. I cried a lot reading this book. Partly because it’s a bloody well-written book, partly because I lost my grandpa to cancer exactly four months ago. He was the complete opposite of who Granny was, and he would’ve been horrified by her way of living. But I miss him, and I see him in Granny, somehow. 
This book feels a lot like Ove, except darker despite the blatantly fairy tale facade. It’s so sad and funny at the same time. It’s not meant to be realistic I guess, but the heart in the story is real enough to make me love these characters. 
‘Who teaches us to be normal when we’re one of a kind?’ I think Elsa would appreciate this quote from Legion. It’s a bloody good show. 
Minus half a star because of how juvenile it can seem at times. 
Also, please don’t feed dogs chocolate or cinnamon buns or cake mix. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, War, Death, Animal death, and Violence

kickitupanotch7's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Violence, and Animal death

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Alcoholism, Grief, and Pregnancy

Minor: Bullying, War, and Abandonment

suzydunk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, and Bullying

Moderate: Mental illness, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Sexism, Cancer, Addiction, Animal death, and Child abuse

fluture's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad 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

4.75

Such a light-hearted and inspiring book. I don't know how to explain my feelings the moment I finished reading this book. This book somehow can be a reminder for us to fully appreciate little things in life and live to the fullest. There's no wrong in questioning stuffs. Everyone carries secrets and pain in their life and they have the right to do what they chose to do—choosing how they cope with it. There's no right nor wrong in this world. Everyone just tried to survive.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Bullying, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Blood, and Cursing

Minor: Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Animal death, Drug use, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Stalking, and Toxic relationship

finnifinn's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Just a great book about love and imagination

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Content Warnings

Minor: Grief, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, and Death