Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

115 reviews

allydee's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death, Terminal illness, Miscarriage, Homophobia, Fatphobia, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Car accident, Cancer, and Body shaming

craftysnailtail's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

This book was almost a DNF for me. I'm glad I finished it, but I honestly did not like it until I was at least 80% of the way through. I simply did not like Ove. I know you're supposed to grow to love him, but I didn't. Maybe that makes me a monster, and I can accept that. His curmudgeonly traits were fine and a little endearing by the end, but sometimes he was flat out mean. I can't get behind that. 

I'm also fairly convinced that Backman has never met a cat before in their entire lives. A cat that licks steering wheels passive aggressively, happily wears socks, and calmly sits on bar stools in cafes they've never been in before was so out of left field. The rest of the book is very realistic, so the cartoon cat threw me in every scene they were in. 

The use of similes to describe every single disgruntled expression this man has ever had in his life drove me mad as well, but that's clearly a personal writing style preference, so to each their own.

The overall message of the book is... nice. And I think it gives the reader a nuanced perspective of what it's like to be a senior that society seems to have given up on. But the road to get there was gritty and uncomfortable. I mean I was rooting for Ove getting what he wanted for the vast majority of the book because it felt like his right to make that decision. At least I appreciated the ending, though. I don't think it's a book I would recommend to friends, but it was different from other books I've read recently, so that made it worth it for me in the end.

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Fatphobia, Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Xenophobia, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Racism, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Car accident, Cancer, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

riordanfan's review against another edition

dark 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Fatphobia, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Ableism, Domestic abuse, Cancer, Drug use, Terminal illness, Outing, Pregnancy, Homophobia, and Miscarriage

izzykai's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

The story and the writing were great and I cried a few times buttt I found it hard to root for Ove because he was too unlikeable, too mean and violent. For that I gave it 4 instead of 5 stars 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, and Suicide attempt

sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

Maybe I would’ve enjoyed this years ago or in a different mindset but I couldn’t get past the amount of white man xenophobia, homophobia, ableism, fat phobia and toxic masculinity. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt

Moderate: Xenophobia and Fatphobia

Minor: Death of parent, Death, Animal cruelty, Misogyny, and Ableism

juliabuliagulia's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful sad slow-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

5.0

I’m not ok.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Minor: Pregnancy, Infertility, Homophobia, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, and Miscarriage

britbreeze's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Minor: Domestic abuse, Car accident, Dementia, Homophobia, Fatphobia, and Miscarriage

alex_bousquet's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.5

Ove is your typical curmudgeon but that doesn't stop the new neighbor parvaneh from doing everything she can to befriend him. Ove grows so much as a person throughout the story and even though he just wants to be left alone to die to be reunited with his wife he is still so helpful to his neighbors. Ove is kind but not nice. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Terminal illness, Body shaming, Cancer, Suicide attempt, Animal cruelty, Miscarriage, Dementia, Car accident, and Death of parent

foxmulders'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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Grief

Moderate: Dementia, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Death, Cancer, Ableism, Fatphobia, Homophobia, and Fire/Fire injury

atobin09's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

I wanted to read this before watching the movies (there was one made not long after the book and another with Tom Hanks). Wow. Just wow. I laughed, I cried, I sobbed. Old, crotchety Ove (pronounced Oo-va) very quickly reminds you of that grumpy neighbor everyone has that they still grow to really like, even love. I had a similar neighbor die right before I read this, so it quickly warmed my heart. I will read again often. 
If you want a wonderful audio version, J.K. Simmons IS Ove. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Death of parent and Death

Minor: Injury/Injury detail and Xenophobia