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szymek_w_rodawski's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Pregnancy, Suicide, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, Domestic abuse, and Homophobia
Minor: War and Racism
fantaiil's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I love his words, his characters and how he makes me cry while talking about humans and their inability of saying, what they want to say.
This book is about love, despair, kids, dumb choices, pizza, love, marriage, kids and their parents, money, capitalism, love and a bridge. It's about the connection between people and the irrational things we do, when we feel emotions that are to big to describe.
Backman is a magician. A magician of words and sentences and making one feel and cry and laugh and feel once again.
I wish, I could buy this book a thousand times and gift it to everyone I know.
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, and Mental illness
Moderate: Death, Kidnapping, Self harm, Murder, Blood, Violence, Grief, Addiction, and Abandonment
Minor: Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Classism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic friendship, and Gun violence
ellaticonstellation's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
My heart always breaks when parents and children struggle because of the cruel economy.
Anna Leah, Zara, Julia, Ro, Roger, Lennert, Estelle, the bank robber, you guys are the best bunch because instead of judging the “robber” you guys were pretty understanding. It made me reflect on my life once again.
Oh, I like the progress Zara had with Nadia (psychologist). Every character was distinct and also inclusive of queer people. As a mom, I empathize with Ro and the bank robber’s burdens. It’s really hard to be a parent. No one is perfect as we all know, but we should always be decent human beings as long as we can.
Oh, Jim and Jack were so relatable as a father, son, and colleague police officers. Jim also understood the bank robber because he knew how hard it was to survive and raise kids. Jack did learn a lesson or two about empathy. Great touch💙
Fredrik, you’re starting to be one of my favorite authors. More power💕 P. S. I heard that there’s a series adaptation of this book, I will watch it for sure.
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Alcohol, Infidelity, Forced institutionalization, Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, and Self harm
sierrabowers's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I would compare this book to “Normal People” but more funny. Still depressing though.
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, Gun violence, Addiction, Alcohol, Drug use, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Blood, Classism, Pregnancy, Mental illness, and Suicide
astareads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Mistä en pitänyt, ja mikä teki kirjasta itselleni vaikealukuisen, oli kerrontatapa. Se poukkoili sinne tänne, ei pelkästään juonen tarpeiden takia vaan myös sivuhuomioina, jotka osaltaan toivat syvyyttä tarinaan mutta osaltaan harhauttivat.
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Mental illness, and Suicide
Minor: Gun violence, Toxic relationship, and Terminal illness
hannalizzy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
for the first half of most of his books I’ve tried.
Graphic: Mental illness, Kidnapping, Death, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, and Grief
radfordmanor's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Grief, Suicide, Alcoholism, Child death, Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship
bookswithbreck's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Kidnapping, Mental illness, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Pregnancy, Addiction, Toxic relationship, Classism, and Drug abuse
Minor: Misogyny, Cancer, Alcohol, Dementia, Gun violence, Homophobia, Racism, War, and Xenophobia
wickedgrumpy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
"This story is about a lot of thing but mostly about idiots.
Reading this book feels like you are actively getting whiplash since it keeps tugging you in different directions, trying to keep the suspense/mystery. Because of this it takes forever for anything to happen and it never feels like anything has a natural progression. It's as if you take one step forward and then two steps back in a halting cadence.
Also, this book suffers from what I will henceforth call: Boomer-Humor. To elaborate, any chance to make a disparaging remark about the youths (TM) it is taken. This is all mixed in with the attempt to have meaningful personal stories about grief, loss, addiction, suicide (ideation/attempts) and tie it all up into one interconnected comedic bow, and in the end it is a jumbled repetitive mass of knots.
I thoroughly disliked this book. I will never read anything else from this author. I did not enjoy their prose, their humor, their character-building... No redeeming qualities. It was not for me. I can see where there would be some people who would like it, but I was not one of them.
Also, because I was curious -
Number of times the word idiot is used in the book: 60
Number of times Stockholm is used in the book: 74
This book takes place in Sweden, but not Stockholm.
Minor: Classism, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Addiction, Alcohol, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Cancer, Dementia, and Gaslighting
ellie_van's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide
Minor: Blood, Cancer, Classism, Kidnapping, Misogyny, and Toxic relationship