Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Britt-Marie Var Här by Fredrik Backman

5 reviews

shaleen64's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

Whilst I didn’t realise how football focused this book was, as a person who doesn’t really like football, it really didn’t matter because the story at its core is beautiful.

Almost every character in this book is lovable in the way only Fredrik Backman can achieve.

If you need an uplifting and funny story, with a little bit of sadness for relatability, this should be your next read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, and Death of parent

Minor: Medical content

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

bessadams's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Bullying, Infidelity, Violence, and Car accident

Minor: Medical content

katrinarose's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-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

3.5

I enjoyed reading this and flew through it very quickly. However, it took a loooong time for Britt-Marie to grow on me, she was very irritating for at least half the book. It was also a bit dramatic towards the end. But the kids definitely redeemed the character cast and I did like Britt-Marie’s journey to self actualization! Overall I enjoyed the trope done in A Man Called Ove better.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Medical content, and Death of parent

bexi's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Grief, and Alcohol

Moderate: Ableism, Cursing, Death, Infidelity, Blood, Car accident, and Death of parent

Minor: Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Misogyny, Violence, and Medical content