A review by noerlund
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

Don’t know about this rating. Some parts of the book I really liked - some parts I really didn’t. I did like Oscars character and point of view - especially his friendship with Mr Black. But part of the ending

(digging up his father’s grave)

kind of ruined it a bit for me. Why was that bit necessary? However I did like that the story didn’t have a typical happy ending,

and that there wasn’t a deeper meaning behind the key

The other POVs (Oscar’s grandfather and grandmother) really didn’t do anything for me. I just found it boring and kind of annoying; why was we supposed to feel so sad for his grandfather;

yes, Anna died, but seriously - he just decided to stop talking and ran away from his family and unborn son?

Overall not a completely bad read, but far from a five star read too. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Abandonment, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Violence, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual content

Minor: Self harm