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defiantturtle's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol, Death, Toxic relationship, and Murder
Minor: Infidelity and Death of parent
_pauline's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.75
This combines elements from a man called ove (main character), beartown (small town/village setting, sports, characters) & anxious people (funny, robbery ), but I don’t think it’s boring or repetitive even if you’ve read his other books.
it went from “low stakes story with a premise & MC similar to ove“ to “simultaneously heart wrenching & funny“ to“you did not seriously just kill off one of my favourite characters“
it went from “low stakes story with a premise & MC similar to ove“ to “simultaneously heart wrenching & funny“ to
Britt-Marie finds it extremely impolite for Somebody to interrupt her in the midst of dying.
'I was waiting here for you to stop looking deceased. Got hungry, you know, so I had a bit of lunch'
Some people had pulled Britt-Marie out of the car; she doesn't know who, but she knows that her mother, silently furious, never forgave them for saving the wrong daughter. Maybe Britt-Marie didn't forgive them either. Because they saved the life of a person who from that day devoted herself to just walking around being afraid of dying and lying there stinking.
Next to the plate she put a note, written neatly in ink: 'Out on a date. Or a meeting. Or whatever it's called nowadays. No need to put away your plate when you have finished, it's no trouble at all for me.' She wanted to write something about how she hoped the rat would find someone else to share its dinner with, because she did not feel the rat deserved to eat alone. Loneliness is a waste of both rats and people. But her common sense ordered her not to get involved in the rat's personal choices about social relationships, so she left it at that.
'If something happens to me can you promise you'll look out for Omar and Vega and make sure they're all right? Can you promise me you'll find good people to look after them?' …
He has made her promise that she won't sit up all night waiting for his car to come back. But she does it anyway.
I‘m not sure how to feel about
character ranking:
- vega
- the rat
- ben (pirate)
- britt-marie
- sami
- sven
- the white dog (SO close to being a ts reference he just chose the wrong colour)
- unemployment office girl
- somebody, max, the other kids
- everybody else
- literally anyone
- kent (though he did change for the better)
my current ranking of Fredrik Backman’s books:
- the winners (5⭐️)
- beartown & us against you (5⭐️)
- anxious people (5⭐️)
- britt-marie was here (4.75⭐️)
- a man called ove (4⭐️)
If you want to get an impression of his sense of humour, watch the speech he gave at the Simon & Schuster centennial (Fredrik Backman on Creative Anxiety and Procrastination)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Death of parent, Alcohol, Murder, and Infidelity
Minor: Car accident and Vomit
pastlifetragedy's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
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
4.75
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Toxic friendship, Murder, Vomit, Cursing, Car accident, Classism, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Death of parent, Infidelity, and Child death
sandysmith's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
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
4.25
I do like a Fredrik Backman book. Britt-Marie has Ove like tendencies. She has OCD, cleans as a coping mechanism, and says what's on her mind, and she has no filter. She is a 63 year old who unexpectedly moves to Borg, a small village where she is the caretaker for the community centre, that is scheduled to be demolished. She becomes the children's football coach. Another one that creeps up on you makes you think, thought provoking funny, sad and is unbelievably wholesome. Great stuff
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Death, and Grief
Moderate: Infidelity, Death of parent, Child death, and Violence
bookish_slagathor's review against another edition
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This book gave me some serious emotional whiplash.
One chapter I was smiling, next I was bawling my eyes out, confusing the hell out of my fiancée and my cats.
This was my first venture into Backman’s books and I can already feel that I will have a wonderfully toxic relationship with his books where he makes me smile, laugh, promising a wonderful but somewhat bittersweet time and then unexpectedly stabs me in the heart repeatedly.
And I will keep coming back, wanting more.
Backman’s prose is truly something else. I can’t say if this is true of him in general, so anyone who has read several of his works feel free to add your two Swedish kronas, but he takes mundane people and pretty depressing concepts and uses utterly absurd humor to make it seem less… well, depressing as hell.
The only reason why I didn’t give it five stars is the somewhat open ending, which in general I am not a fan of.
Still, definitely a book I would wholeheartedly recommend to anyone okay with being hurt by words.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Alcohol, Infidelity, Death, and Alcoholism
Minor: Emotional abuse
trekkifulshay's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Infidelity
Minor: Death
tinytrashqueen's review against another edition
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism
Moderate: Infidelity
ericaw212's review against another edition
reflective
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? Yes
3.75
i love all of fredrik backman’s books but this was not his best one. it felt like a combination of all his other books and it took too long before britt-marie became likeable
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident
Moderate: Child death, Alcoholism, and Death of parent
Minor: Vomit, Gun violence, and Infidelity
bessadams's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, Death of parent, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Grief, and Death
Moderate: Infidelity, Violence, Car accident, and Bullying
Minor: Medical content
avasbookmark's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Car accident, Death, Death of parent, and Infidelity
This was a perfect book. All the warm fuzzies 🥰