Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

بریت ماری این جا بود by Fredrik Backman

4 reviews

angorarabbit's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

TLDR: Exceeded expectations. It is better than the blurb suggests.

Three chapters in I was sure this was another male author’s attempt at writing a funny-middle-aged-lady story. Including funny characters like you find in funny little villages. Another chapter was enough to convince me to stick around a while and see what happened. Slowly you learn about what brought Britt-Marie to this point in her life. Slowly you learn that the funny village people have had not so funny lives. There are profound thoughts about grief folded into the funny bits. 

 

Against my will I started to smile and then giggle with Britt-Marie. At the end I had an acute allergy attack that required the use of a not insignificant amount of paper handkerchiefs. Mr Backman has learned that a feel good ending needs tragedy to spice the joy and he wrote it in the perfect way.. 

 

Mr Backman gets points for his portrayal of women at different places in their lives and for not allowing his male characters to overshadow them. He also gets points for a boy wanting his hair to look nice with his date with another boy the perfect normal thing that it is; and his portrayal of Beck and Somebody’s struggles with disabilities and their importance to their community. Fiction has improved over the decades in its portrayal of the lgbtqaa* community but it is still rare for me to read a book with a character with disabilities for some reason of other. 

 

I wish Britt-Marie, Vega, and Omar all the good in their fictional world. But something in me hopes that Kent continues to visit Borg to play soccer. And maybe afterwards stops at the pizza place/car mechanic/post office/ bodega to watch the game and have a beer with Sven. There is a lot the two of them could learn from each other.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Gun violence, Infidelity, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicide, Excrement, Vomit, and Medical content

lhodgson26's review against another edition

emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.0

For the first quater of the book I couldn't connect with the characters especially Britt Marie, however I was then rooting for them all and really wasn't prepared for all the emotion towards the end. As the story is about community and how football can unite a community in any circumstances no matter how rich or poor they may be or their gender or their age or how much pain they may be going through. It was heartbreaking when Sami died as he sacrificed himself for his friend who helped save him as a child by helping to remove his father but then got trapped in a circle of debt and dangerous habits. I liked how a love triangle between Britt- Marie and Sven and Kent was protrayed but we never got the answer and we hope she choose herself and went to Paris. I really liked Banks character and all the other characters too and the importantance of how sport is way more then just a game.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse and Murder

knunderb's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

I thought I would.hate the ending right up until the end. This book is a beautifully written picture of the effect someone can have on a community. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, and Death of parent

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Murder

nrogers_1030's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Infidelity

Minor: Child abuse