리뷰
First, I breaks my heart to rate this 3 stars, but I just can't give it 4. As a preface, I've read the following books by Backman in this order: Anxious People, Beartown, Us Against You - and I've rated them all a solid 5 stars. In fact, I own all his books and the reason why I haven't read The Winners yet is because I'm not quite ready to get my heart broken. I digress. So I chose this book of Backman's to read next. I loved Granny in this book for the most part and she reminded me of my own Grandma. So that made me happy. I liked Elsa but had a hard time wrapping my head around an almost eight year old being as intellectually advanced as she was. Perhaps it would've been more realistic and less stressful to my psyche if she were 10ish. The character development in this book was fantastic. However, I was aware of Brit-Marie's future considering she has her own book, but I still didn't care for her until, like Elsa, the ending. The way the characters all came together was unique, in a sort of gut-wretching yet hilarious way that only Backman can deliver. The reason why I didn't give this book the 4 stars that it may have very well deserved was that frankly, I was consistently bored. The fairytale parts weren't intriguing, albeit an integral part of the story. That being said, the last 40ish pages were phenomenal and of course, a tear-jerker.Overall, do I recommend this book? Absolutely.
The first time I tried reading this book I DNF'd it, maybe it wasn't the right time to pick it up. This time, the story was completely different. I laughed, giggled, cried, cried harder, devoured the last hundred pages, kept crying even harder.I loved the characters, their back stories, their personalities, and how one is putting everything in order with each letter. I wish everyone visits, or try to visit, the Land-Of-Almost-Awake at least once, and see y'all in Miamas telling stories for ten thousand eternities of fairy tales.
incredibly charming so many good quotes 5 stars because as Granny would say; "whoever disagrees needs their head examined." :,-)
"It’s difficult ending a fairy tale. All tales have to end sometime, of course. Some can’t finish soon enough. This one, for example, could feasibly have been rounded off and packed away long ago. The problem is this whole issue of heroes at the ends of fairy tales, and how they are supposed to “live happily to the end of their days.” This gets tricky, from a narrative perspective, because the people who reach the end of their days must leave others who have to live out their days without them.It is very, very difficult to be the one who has to stay behind and live without them." Fredrik Backman can make the most regular , daily , humane matters into something magical and in that regard he is a superhero and I'll always pick up his work because everyone needs a superhero in their lives. Also I miss my Grandmother. Gonna cry brb
Four stars is the lowest rating I've ever given to a Fredrik Backman book. Looking back on listening to this audiobook, it's so easy and tempting for me to say I loved it. Because I did, for the most part. Backman is a genius and can make you care so, so much about his characters, regardless of whether you'd like them as people or not. The book went off the rails a bit for me in the middle, because we were spending A LOT of time talking about The Land of Almost-Awake, and I just didn't get it. I understood that this fictional world was a place for Elsa to escape to when her grief or fear became too much for her. There was just a section of about 3 hours where we were there and talking about it *too much*. Everything that was happening in Elsa's reality was so emotionally-charged and interesting, that I was disappointed every time I had to leave that world for Miamis instead.All of that said, the ending really brought this home for me, as his books so often do. This book is, in the end, heartbreakingly beautiful, and I recommend it without reservation, despite the bits that didn't totally work for me.