Reviews tagging 'Death'

My Friends by Fredrik Backman

156 reviews

ngerling's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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I have a love/hate relationship with this book. It was SO difficult to get into. It was highly recommended to me and maybe that was part of the problem. Also, reading the description of the book doesn’t truly tell you what it’s about. I didn’t find anything to connect to until p. 177. From there until p.425 there were a few other sentences and paragraphs that knocked me around, made my heart beat faster, made my heart slow down, made me sad, & made me happy. It is not a book I would recommend or read again, but a few things will stick with me. They definitely aren’t the uplifting things that so many others wrote about the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail

ncholmes2022's review against another edition

1.5

challenging dark emotional funny sad tense

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This was my third Fredrik Backman book. I wanted to love this book, but it frustrated me so much! It did have excellent prose, likeable characters, and important themes. But it also had too much cursing, too many fart jokes, and too many bad things happening to the characters. At first the sad themes were relatable, but by the middle it felt too heavy-handed, and by the end it felt like emotional manipulation. The term trauma porn comes to mind.

The book started losing me when the janitor died the very day after meeting the artist. The worst part was being led to believe that Joar was going to die throughout the entire book! I was so mad when he was alive! That felt cruel, manipulative, and unnecessary to have the readers bracing themselves for his death.

The characters also fell into stereotypes--

Ted the nerd, Joar the jock, Kimkim the queer tragic artist, and Ali the girl!

--and their dialogue felt unrealistically sappy, even for teenagers with a trauma bond. I would not recommend this book to others, and at this point I am not sure whether I will continue with the author.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Abandonment, Classism

The book started losing me when the janitor died the next day after meeting the artist. We were led to believe that Joar was going to die throughout the entire book! I was so mad when he was alive! That felt cruel, manipulative, and unnecessary to have the readers bracing themselves for his death.

ajenks527's review against another edition

4.25

emotional funny hopeful 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse

Moderate: Terminal illness, Violence, Death of parent

Minor: Sexual assault

franklola's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional funny 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Grief

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Death, Alcohol

Minor: Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent

beate251's review against another edition

3.75

dark emotional hopeful 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

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The frame of this story is 39 year old Ted and 18 year old Louisa on kind of a road trip, mostly on an endless train, to try and sell the very expensive famous painting by artist C. Jat, who was Ted's friend and just died after an illness. Louisa is an escaped foster kid who still grieves her friend Fish who died of an overdose. While travelling, Ted tells Louisa about the summer when his group of friends that also comprises Joar and Ali, were 14 and when this first picture, that would make the artist world-famous, was conceived.

None of the four friends had great parents. Especially Joar's old man who was a violent drunk. There is a lot of drug and alcohol abuse, bullying and violence in their youth, and I felt it was too much. The artist, who didn't get a name until the end, was probably on the spectrum, and his parents didn't understand how special he was. The author is trying to uphold the tension of something awful to come, but it takes most of the book to get there and I didn't find it awful at all, but I felt manipulated by the way the scene was described, making us think something happened that hadn't.

I find it very difficult to review this. I can objectively see that it's well-written, and I usually love Fredrik Backman's books but this didn't capture me. It is too literary and felt like a cross between a misery memoir and a dissertation about art. We get so many observations about what art is, it's this, it's that... The art stuff didn't interest me, and all of the protagonists had had a difficult childhood, as if you needed that to appreciate art. The author introduced random side stories, like what was Christian doing in there?

The short chapters make it very readable but the middle seems drawn-out. I liked Ted and Louisa but didn't care all that much about the others. If you like stories about art, friendships and found family, this might be for you, just don't expect this to be funny and light-hearted like A Man Called Ove.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape

detective_dipstick's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Car accident, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Child death, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Terminal illness

Minor: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Cancer, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Sexism, Excrement, Medical content, Kidnapping

jacquelinebrtls's review against another edition

4.0

emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

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i cried 30 pages in, i cried many times in the middle of this book, and i cried at the end, too

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol

oliviarleblanc's review against another edition

4.75

dark emotional 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

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This book was so beautiful. I definitely loved it. Extremely sad, but beautifully written. I don’t want to give too much away, but I definitely recommend. The only reason jt wasn’t a 5 star from me is because I thought it started to get a bit slow at times, but the story was great.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Abandonment

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Physical abuse

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Murder

lng425's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 48%

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It is well written but it was very sad, focused on death/end of life, and it wasn’t what I needed to be reading at the moment. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death

oceanwriter's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

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How do I even begin talking about my experience reading this book? How am I going to sum up all of my thoughts and feelings in a few short paragraphs? All while avoiding spoilers! 

For Louisa, it starts with a postcard. That postcard brings her to an auction on the eve of her eighteenth birthday. Getting thrown out of that auction changes her life. For Ted, he’s just trying to go home. But sometimes home is with your people rather than a place. Instead of his people, he gets stuck with Louisa. 

Twenty-five years before, there was a group of friends that inspired one of the most famous paintings in the world. To most people, the people rich enough to afford it, it’s the ocean. But people like Louisa are able to see the laughter. Now it’s up to Ted to tell her the story.

I loved all of the characters so much. Their highs and lows felt so real. Their loyalty to each other? Unmatched. Despite their varying personalities, there’s a quality that binds them. As the reader, I felt drawn into the group myself, even if just as a quiet observer. The setting also added a layer of desperation. These friends are growing up in various forms of suffocation, and yet they find a little bit of freedom by the sea (and with each other).

There is so much more to this book. I could write a complete essay about it and yet I’m finding myself at a loss for words. How Fredrik Backman was able to capture the entire essence of childhood summers through words on a page, I will never know. But he did it. And I’m so glad. I have no idea how any book is going to top this one for me this year, if ever.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Grief

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Violence, Death of parent, Abandonment

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts