river69rat 's review for:

The Winners by Fredrik Backman

4.75

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

---

Absolutely devastated to not be able to give this book 5*, but it just took too long to get to the big moment and then felt super rushed when tying up all the lose ends. The journalist plot was almost entirely unnecessary and was the worst part of the book. The additional characters of Johnny and Hannah were good, I liked them, but it was so hard to care about them and their FOUR children when I really want to be reading about Benji and Maya and Ana and all the other original characters. I mean I stilled cried like a baby at the end, still loved the writing. Just that the book spent way too much time on new characters when realistically we're here for the OGs.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Violence

Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence