Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

115 reviews

astoriareader's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

SYNOPSIS:

• Ove is a 59 year old Swedish man, who recently lost his wife. His wife was the love of his life, and they were together for many years.
• Ove has lived in the same house in the same neighborhood for around 40 years. He’s a curmudgeon, and he likes to keep to himself.
• After losing his wife, he has been contemplating suicide. However, his suicide attempt is interrupted by his new, foreign neighbor, Parvaneh.
• “It is the leadin to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents' association to their very foundations.”

MY THOUGHTS

• I rarely cry when reading, but I shed tears in the epilogue.
• Backman skillfully juggles comedy and tragedy. He explores a lot of deep themes: community, the impact we have on others, grief, loss, loneliness, aging, healing, love.
• Expert level character development. I enjoyed Ove’s backstory & learning about why he is who he is. I also loved his love story with his wife.
• I felt for Ove throughout the whole story. He feels like your friend, and you get to know him throughout the book.
• So many wonderful side characters throughout the story.
• Satisfying ending.
• Loved Backman’s writing style. Admittedly, this is the first one I have read by him. I am definitely going to look for more by this author. 
• I loved the incorporation of the cat into the story, and I thought it was interesting to see how having a pet was clearly healthy & helpful for Ove.

TL;DR: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️cried in epilogue. beautifully crafted story with expert level character development.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Grief

Moderate: Death and Miscarriage

Minor: Terminal illness, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Fatphobia, and Car accident

alex1's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Cancer, Car accident, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Grief, Homophobia, Medical content, Miscarriage, Self harm, Death of parent, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Ableism

anastashamarie's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

☕ Never mind me, just casually sobbing over here. 

🐈 I had a long wait to get this one from the library, but honestly, I'm just going to go buy it (and probably the rest of Backman's bibliography) because this book hit me in a way nothing has since I was a teenager reading John Green. 

🏘️ This is an existentialist masterpiece. The writing is so simple yet so impactful. The characterizations of the whole cast are so well-rounded. It's heartbreaking and uplifting and just generally just so human. It's full of love and sorrow and so much hope. One of those stories that I think is going to stick with me forever. 

🖍️ Now, if you'll excuse me while I go back to crying my eyes out. We can talk more about it later. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Terminal illness, Miscarriage, Medical content, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Fatphobia, Death, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Infertility, and Misogyny

courtsport's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

A delightful book about a loveable curmudgeon. I liked the Beartown series more, but still very much enjoyed this novel by Backman. Though it would have been better without the fatphobic descriptions of his neighbour.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide attempt and Fatphobia

Minor: Homophobia and Terminal illness

moonsapphire's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Homophobia, and Terminal illness

pkc's review against another edition

dark emotional funny 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

5.0

This book is so beautiful. I love it when an author takes a seemingly unloveable character and fills them with so much heart, pathos and goodness that you can’t help but root for them. Backman even goes as far as to book-end the story with two halves of the same scene so that where the unsuspecting reader views the eponymous Ove as a grumpy, horrid man in the beginning, we have accepted his flaws (for the most part!) by the end. The cast of supporting characters is so beautifully drawn and I’d be so shocked if you didn’t finish this book in floods of tears. I sure as heck did.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Dementia, Child death, Car accident, Terminal illness, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Suicide attempt, Miscarriage, Outing, Pregnancy, and Suicidal thoughts

clareasday's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Car accident, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Terminal illness, Child death, and Death

espookita's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

My friends lent me this book and then had to bully me over the course of multiple weeks to actually pick it up and start reading. It’s not that I was expecting it to be bad, more so unrelatable and perhaps boring. I judged this book incredibly wrong. When I started reading this, (it took me about a month to read the whole thing) I read about 4 chapters in a sitting and had to put it down because this book brought me genuinely to tears every four chapters or so. It’s very simple, but its beauty is in its simplicity. Ove’s daily inspections, the drab Swedish winters, the heavy piles of snow, the sausage and potatoes for dinner every single day create this very easy picture of life to imagine that, while clearly Swedish, can also be found anywhere. Ove’s grumpy curmudgeonliness is a characteristic of old men worldwide. But there is such simple beauty. His loyalty to his Saab, his long-standing marriage that brought color to his life, his friendship with a neighbourhood cat. There is a profound amount of emotion within this book because it is not so much about adventures or stories, but about the way we humans live our lives and feel pain, fall in love, experience loss, and find our way through that grief to something new again. That is something valuable for everyone. There is not a single person I think who would not be able to gain something from this book. 100% recommendation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Car accident

Moderate: Cancer, Dementia, Terminal illness, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Outing, and Fire/Fire injury

ashteroid's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

5 stars except justice for jimmy, why was he written like that 😭

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Religious bigotry, Child death, Racial slurs, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Death, and Terminal illness

Minor: Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Islamophobia, Homophobia, Alcoholism, Racism, and Racial slurs

ericaw212's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

everytime i read a book by fredrik backman it is my new favorite book. didn’t make me cry as much as others by him but still perfect

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Dementia

Minor: Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Cancer, Gun violence, Homophobia, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Forced institutionalization, Infertility, Miscarriage, and Physical abuse