Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

My Grandmother Sends Her Regards And Apologises by Fredrik Backman

12 reviews

alynnhays's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny medium-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

4.5

P L O T
Elsa is tasked with distributing apology letters from her late grandmother. The tone is definitely sad, though the story is not about loss but rather about unexpected connections when you get to know someone past face value.

T H E   G O O D   &   T H E   B A D
“It’s been a long time since I had such an amazing reading experience. You almost never do, once you grow up, things are at their peak when you’re a child and then it’s all downhill from there… well… because of the cynicism, I suppose. I just wanted to thank you for reminding me of how things used to be.”

I highlighted several quotes and found the book to be a beautiful story. However, I'm not sure if I could claim I enjoyed it because of the emotional tone. The nostalgic feeling Elsa brought to the story was uplifting, her belief in fantastic ideas and the exciting and creative things her Granny came up with to make her feel special, but it also made me feel sad. It reminded me of the fear of being misunderstood and the fear of losing the few people who truly understand you. There is no doubt that the book was wonderful, but it was also a challenging read emotionally.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief and Death of parent

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Alcohol, and War

sweetandspicy's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Cancer, Infidelity, Violence, Kidnapping, Stalking, and War

A very sweet and relatively light-hearted book. The narrator being a child added a fun adventurous dimension. The last quarter or so is when it really picks up and becomes harder to put down. I would recommend to a friend :)

james1star's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Read this for my Bookish World Cup (video link: https://youtu.be/hV87o_hJqKI?si=lsQjjW_YXGSWreM-) but if not I’d definitely of DNFd this book.

I don’t think the story or character are anything particularly bad but the writing’s extremely dense and overwritten. We follow soon-to-be-eight year old Elsa via a third person perspective and her relationship with her wacky granny. Their bond is so strong and clearly important for Elsa given an up-and-down family life and bullying in school, he grandmother tells her stories which were nice to start. Not long into the book, we find out granny has cancer and sadly dies but not before instrumenting an adventure for Elsa embark on. Via letters to other characters in the real world, she gets to understand the past lives of her granny and I would say the piecing together of the story was certainly the best part of this book. It was a rewarding reading experience to some extent but… 

…It is just so dense that on the whole I was left very unfulfilled and slightly irritated after finishing this. So much of the book is filled with repetition after repetition of the same messages, names, and in many ways mini plot twists/turns that after a while you do see coming. Backman goes on far too many tangents including mountains of unnecessary detail and storytelling that was okay to start but became extremely monotonous as the book went on. I had a similar issue in reading ‘A Man Called Ove’ but at least in that we were following characters that I cared for (take a moment of appreciation for Sonja) and it wasn’t that bad. But here… ugh I dunno I didn’t find a lot of what occurred all that realistic and I feel the formatting took me out of the story. This could’ve been helped had Backman chose first person POV from Elsa but then again I don’t think he truly grappled with a child’s understanding all that well. 

Overall, this was fine. I liked how things fitted into place but was certainly overwritten. Not the best from Backman. 

Note: no chocolate for dogs! Or much else they give them tbh. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Death, and Grief

Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Alcohol, and War

fkshg8465's review against another edition

emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

The only reason I finished this book was because I was foolishly convinced it would get better, and only because it was written by Frederik Backman. I don’t love the protagonist, which is terrible cuz she’s a child and I believe all children should be loved. I was constantly distracted by Britt-Marie because I kept wondering if she is the same character from Britt-Marie was Here (like did she get a new job in between books???). And there were other issues. I’ll stick to his books with characters who are at least in high school.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

sea_tea_books's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad tense

4.0

So much trauma, blanketed by comedy and fantasy, told from the perspective of a young girl. 
It was interesting how each character evolved, their backstories slowly unraveled in bits and pieces, through stories and fairy tales.

[Audiobook: I thoroughly enjoyed Joan Walker's narration of the audiobook. I probably would have DNF if it weren't for her storytelling.]

My heart broke when the wurse died. 💔😭

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Stalking, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Murder and War

fluture's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad medium-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

4.75

Such a light-hearted and inspiring book. I don't know how to explain my feelings the moment I finished reading this book. This book somehow can be a reminder for us to fully appreciate little things in life and live to the fullest. There's no wrong in questioning stuffs. Everyone carries secrets and pain in their life and they have the right to do what they chose to do—choosing how they cope with it. There's no right nor wrong in this world. Everyone just tried to survive.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Blood, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

mel_j's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, and Alcohol

Minor: Blood

embla_v's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful

3.75

En ganska bra bok som jag läst pga skolan. 

Boken handlar om en 7-åring vars mormor dör vilket leder till att flickan skickas ut på en skattjakt. En jakt efter sanningen om alla hon känner och framförallt om sin mormor. 

Rekommenderar till all som gillar Backman böcker. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Cancer, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Stalking, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, and War

madisonfrank's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring reflective sad fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Domestic abuse, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and War

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

theonlybaillie's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Grief

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Cancer, Mental illness, and Pregnancy

Minor: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Stalking, Death of parent, and Alcohol