Reviews tagging 'Racism'

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

25 reviews

aus10england'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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Pregnancy, and Suicide attempt

kt2e56's review against another edition

funny reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

I was hoping this would be a five star book for me based on reviews I’ve read but alas, it’s only a 3. I was really enjoying it at first but it started to become very repetitive and quite frankly, Ove kinda sucks. He has some good qualities! He’s saved lives! He does eventually help his neighbors! But he comes across less like a grumpy old badger who just is lonely and more like an outright bigot. He’s super misogynistic (and never really changes that). He’s racist (and never really changes that). He lets a gay man stay with him after he’s been kicked out of his home which is lovely! But he refers to him as (I’m presuming based off of Pervana’s reaction to the phrase) a slur 80% of the time. And I think the most annoying is that he is (but also quite frankly the author is too) WILDLY fatphobic. Like disgustingly so. And Backman himself also seems SUPER fatphobic as he can’t write about Jimmy at all without calling him a slob, talking about whether or not his clothes fit, constantly making him pester everyone about food, etc. It’s gross. I do like the overall message and there are moments that are sweet here but even in flashbacks to life with his beloved wife, Sonja, I can’t help but wonder why she stayed with a man who belittled her pretty frequently and also was just so nasty to others. His hatred of bureaucrats makes sense! His racism, sexism, and other casual bigotry really does not. None of that factors into his backstory and I feel like it’s odd that the author made certain qualities of Ove so repugnant when he could have just been a crotchety old man and loner who thinks everyone else is incompetent. The story would have been just as impactful. It all ties itself up by the end with a neat little bow but there are portions of this that are genuinely draining to get through.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Grief, Ableism, Suicide, Body shaming, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Car accident, Dementia, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Terminal illness, Bullying, and Infertility

booknerdsinmn's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt and Fatphobia

Moderate: Death, Racism, Misogyny, Car accident, Xenophobia, Grief, Child death, Animal cruelty, and Body shaming

stephbernoth's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

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

1.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Cancer, and Death

Moderate: Terminal illness, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Racism, Cancer, Violence, Medical content, Infertility, Dementia, and Body shaming

bridgetkay's review against another edition

Did not finish. Could not finish. I got more enjoyment reading the 1-star reviews for this book. 

The character is problematic as all hell and I really have no interest in a story centred on a white man who’s surrounded by people who aren’t white men as supporting characters to some kind of redemption arc. Any time I attempted to read this, it put me in a bad mood. So for self care purposes, I will not be finishing this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Body shaming, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Racism, and Suicidal thoughts

christinaswilcox's review against another edition

emotional inspiring 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Racism and Sexism

Minor: Homophobia

huttonki's review against another edition

reflective sad slow-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt

Moderate: Sexism, Racism, and Grief

finnifinn's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Car accident, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Sexism, Cancer, Death, Homophobia, Islamophobia, Terminal illness, Pregnancy, Racism, and Forced institutionalization

The book contains a lot of sensitive topics, but many are brief and all are handled very sensitively and appropriately.

james1star's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.75

Agh this book was something. Quick plotline is we follow Ove who is ‘grumpy old man’ who has decided to die after loosing his wife and job but then things put a halt to his plans and Yhh that’s all I’ll say as I don’t want to ruin anything for readers. 

It was so good!! Oh my goodness!! I absolutely loved this story - it was so emotive, sad, happy, sweet, tender, annoying, tense, lovely and just everything. Perfect character analysis which is followed throughout where we start not really liking Ove but as every paragraph goes on you fall in love with him, such a turnaround. And the plethora of side characters are so diverse, lovable, real and have in depth characters analyses too. My favourite character would 100% be Sonja, no doubt about it (unintentional ABBA reference) who was just pure loveliness, the sweetest, most caring and amazing woman with such a positive attitude, wow!! Ove is certainly problematic at points but this just makes him so real and Yhh everything in terms of plot and character studyness was exceptional. 

My only qualm and why I dropped it slightly below the full 5 stars is I didn’t exactly love the writing style, I personally felt there was far too much repetition of names (Ove is written at least every 5 lines on every page for example) and other things, topics and the like but it definitely readable and enjoyable but only a slight issue. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Death

Moderate: Dementia, Miscarriage, and Bullying

Minor: Car accident, Homophobia, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, and Racism

vniasf's review against another edition

I am extremely sensitive when it comes to animal abuse, I get anxiety attacks from it. When it happened the first time in the book I thought it was also the last, I even ripped the pages out. However, there was more abuse and I could not take it. (Yes, I did forget to read the content warnings because I did not know where they were.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Racism, Pregnancy, Grief, Death of parent, Death, Cursing, Blood, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Miscarriage