Reviews with content warning for Grief - Us Against You

To start with the negative, i think that this book just had too many fake-outs and political machinations for me. The political machinations couldn’t really be avoided—they were part of the story that Backman wants to tell, and very necessary. I just found them boring. The fake-outs, on the other hand, felt distracting to that story. I think it made certain emotional moments feel cheap instead of impactful. That being said, this book does emotion and characters beautifully. There’s a really palpable sense of connection between the characters. And i think that’s really essential to the story of discord. Because you need that connection and that history if you want there to be stakes between warring entities. Once again, I’m at a loss for where this series might go in the next book. And I’m slightly worried about the fates of certain characters.

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dani794's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? Character

5.0

"People we love will die. We will bury our children beneath our most beautiful trees."

fredrik, you have done it again, constantly raising the bar for us all and doing it flawlessly. i’d say i’m surprised but i know who you are.

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miaetramontana's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-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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rhubarbpi3's review against another edition

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emotional tense 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

4.0

I quite liked this book! Not quite as good as the third, (I think?) but I love the writing style. The author does these beautiful repetition phrases and says like a theory and then a story and brings it back to this big idea that I quite like.

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kaelizaco's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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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mald626's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense 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

4.5

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annakh16's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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verafey's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense 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

4.5

This book had way more political aspects than the previous one in the series and still not quite sure if I liked that or not. This book was also very very sad and depressing for a long time and that was a bit too much for me. It took 300 pages to finally get to see some light at the end of the tunnel. I did really like the themes of (found) family and unconditional love, friendship, sexism/feminism and lgbtqia+. This book was definitely an emotional rollercoaster.

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