7.15k reviews for:

My Friends

Fredrik Backman

4.54 AVERAGE

therapybard2021's review

5.0
emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

Backman has a way of writing his characters in the exact way most humans feel to me: incomprehensible yet endearing. I don't understand how he keeps doing this. I was sitting there sobbing not even 1/5 of the way into the book and knew this would be 5 stars unless something awful happened and Backman  did something so reprehensible that I'd have to dock it points. He didn't. Are there things I'd want to change if I was the editor? Yes, but that's true of every single good story. Nothing can be this ambitious, this heartfelt without that. Only boring stories leave me with no notes.
Even so: Characters? A+. Plot? A+ Writing? A+. The structure of the story threw me off sometimes but I get Backman's vision. He wanted the story to feel like the ramblings of a mourning 40 year old telling his life story for the first time. I think me being confused and thrown off was the point.
Anyway, this book broke me in the best way and now I want to go make some art. Not like drawing but writing.
I wonder if A Man Called Ove is Backman's The One Of The Sea. I wonder if this is his skulls spraypainted on the back of an old church.
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christinamonroe's review

4.0
challenging emotional funny reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

emmareed13's review

4.75
emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
emmalong's profile picture

emmalong's review

3.0
reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

i love Fredrik Backman's storytelling and his showcasing of the human spirit, how beautiful it is to be alive. this book focused heavily on art and what it means to us. all things i normally love in a book, but it felt slightly more forced in this than in his other books i have read (Anxious People, Beartown, A Man Called Ove). the characters were pretty solid but felt a bit caricature-y. everything felt a little too beautiful and these thirteen year old kids are constantly feeling and vocalizing feelings most people don't have the words for until they are deep in their twenties, so it didn't feel believable that i was hearing about a bunch of children. i also really did not love the present tense storytelling trope or the main character of the modern part. overall though, the story was sweet and the moral was good enough to have continued to read it, but not my favorite Backman by far. 
adventurous inspiring reflective 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
readwithanne's profile picture

readwithanne's review

4.75
emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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layna2580's review

4.0
emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

chelsies39's review

5.0
adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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: Complicated
ibumble's profile picture

ibumble's review

4.0
emotional hopeful 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
emotional hopeful sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No