Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises by Fredrik Backman

51 reviews

alessandravaron's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

• 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Grief, and War

Moderate: Child death, Death, Mental illness, Stalking, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and War

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Cancer, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Sexism, and Medical content

hilwithonel's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

I don't recommend listening to the audio version while grocery shopping unless you like crying in public.

In true Fredrik Backman fashion, this book gives you a group of characters to love, laugh with, cry with, and watch grow. The story is told through the eyes of an 8 year old girl who loves Harry Potter and fairy tales adding a magical quality. The story was compelling. Each character more special than the next. Each characters storyline intertwined with the others allowing for an interesting, emotional story. If you love Fredrik Backman, I highly recommend.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, and Mental illness

Minor: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, and Violence

the_bookworm's review

funny reflective sad slow-paced

• 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, Death, Grief, Pregnancy, and War

_danika's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

• 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Cancer, Terminal illness, Grief, and Car accident

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Pregnancy, and War

soygirlsupreme's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Violence, and Grief

Minor: Cancer, Child death, Death, and Physical abuse

sonygaystation's review against another edition

adventurous funny reflective sad medium-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? Yes

4.0

Took me a while to read and that's partly because I'm somewhat in a slump, but also partly because this takes a bit to get into. SO worth it when it does and I'm pretty certain at this point that Backman never misses with any of his books. He's so insightful and somehow manages to write a child who acts like a child, even if the things she says sound older at times - what I liked best about Elsa is how much you could see her mom and grandma in her characterization (impressive writing on Backman's part omg). I really felt for Elsa, who's just lonely and lost and struggling to come to terms with the feelings of being left behind. This book is about loss without feeling like there's overwhelming grief, and I think anyone who's lost a grandparent can get something out of this. I remember losing my grandpa to cancer, and while at 18 I was considerably older than Elsa when it happened, it definitely cemented my closeness with my grandma and some of my favourite memories ever are the ones I spent with my grandpa. Out of the four Backman books I've read, this rotates between third and fourth place because there were a lot of characters to keep track of when listening via audiobook and sometimes the fairytale didn't land for me the way I wish it would have.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Grief

Moderate: Alcoholism and Cancer

lilcoppertop's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious 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

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Child death, Infidelity, Mental illness, and Death of parent

althea_reads's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

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

5.0

What I liked: I honestly LOVED this novel! Being told from the perspective of a 7-almost-8-year-old girl who loved words and stories and research? It was a lot of fun and super charming. Took a little bit of effort to get used to Elsa's train of thought, but it was well worth it in the end.

What I didn't like: I haven't really thought of anything I didn't like about it, if we're being honest 🤷🏽‍♀️ 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Cancer, Death, Mental illness, and Violence

Minor: Child death

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

challenging mysterious sad slow-paced

• 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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Cancer, Death, Blood, Grief, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Violence, Medical content, Stalking, and Death of parent

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

whatellieread's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective 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? Yes

4.25

This was gorgeous. This is my second Backman novel, and I loved it - not as much as A Man Called Ove, admittedly, but still an awful lot. Backman has a real knack for writing the most beautiful and real characters, and I'm a huge fan of that. 

While at times it was a little difficult to keep up with the Land-of-Almost-Awake, I loved the way Backman used this to let us see both the imaginary world and the real world - and the parallels between them - through Elsa's eyes. 

Fredrik Backman is fast becoming a favourite author of mine and I'm looking forward to picking up another of his books.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Cancer, and Death

Minor: Violence