Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

23 reviews

acobbva's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, and Suicide attempt

liesthemoontells's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing sad 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

2.0

I read this book for book club. It was fine.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Classism

lonelylooper's review against another edition

emotional funny 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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Cancer, Death, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal death, Cursing, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Infertility

meaghanslibrary's review against another edition

While I have heard this had a happy ending, the book was too triggering for me.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

craftysnailtail's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.5

This book was almost a DNF for me. I'm glad I finished it, but I honestly did not like it until I was at least 80% of the way through. I simply did not like Ove. I know you're supposed to grow to love him, but I didn't. Maybe that makes me a monster, and I can accept that. His curmudgeonly traits were fine and a little endearing by the end, but sometimes he was flat out mean. I can't get behind that. 

I'm also fairly convinced that Backman has never met a cat before in their entire lives. A cat that licks steering wheels passive aggressively, happily wears socks, and calmly sits on bar stools in cafes they've never been in before was so out of left field. The rest of the book is very realistic, so the cartoon cat threw me in every scene they were in. 

The use of similes to describe every single disgruntled expression this man has ever had in his life drove me mad as well, but that's clearly a personal writing style preference, so to each their own.

The overall message of the book is... nice. And I think it gives the reader a nuanced perspective of what it's like to be a senior that society seems to have given up on. But the road to get there was gritty and uncomfortable. I mean I was rooting for Ove getting what he wanted for the vast majority of the book because it felt like his right to make that decision. At least I appreciated the ending, though. I don't think it's a book I would recommend to friends, but it was different from other books I've read recently, so that made it worth it for me in the end.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Cancer, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Racism, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Dementia, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

mel_j's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

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

3.0

This was sad. And hopeful. It made me cry – but still, there are very questionable (xenophobic, mysoginistic, ableist and fatphobic) things uttered by Ove.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Ableism, Cursing, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, and Pregnancy

Minor: Addiction, Miscarriage, Abortion, and Toxic friendship

iwishihadmoretimetoread's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring lighthearted 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Death, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Cancer, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

notjust_irene's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

4.5

Ok, so I really loved this book, but there were a couple of issues that prevented me from giving it 5 stars.
It didn’t take away from the reading experience as such, but it did make me frown a couple of times because it was quite unrealistic.

- the amount of drama Ove has to go through during his lifetime is a bit much and at one point I almost rolled my eyes as another blow was delivered to Ove’s happiness.
- Neither Ove nor his wife have any relatives they keep in touch with? None of his wife’s friends check up on Ove after her passing? Sure… maybe the author wanted to make the story flow a bit easier or emphasise the loneliness of Ove, but it wasn’t very realistic. 
- the cat that goes along willingly into the car and bars, yes, these type of cats exist, but they’re extremely rare and their owners keep them on a leash. Also, it’s not typically something those cats do for people they’ve only moved in with two days ago. That’s why every cat owner knows to keep their nee cat inside for the first weeks to let them adapt.
- he’s 59 in the year 2015, works for a building company yet doesn’t grasp the concept of an iPad or any digital medium at all? Come on!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

meganders22's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring 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

5.0

A book that makes you think about life’s challenges, and how your life impacts other people. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Homophobia

stephbernoth's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-paced

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

1.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Body shaming, Cancer, Homophobia, Infertility, Racism, Terminal illness, Violence, Medical content, Dementia, and Religious bigotry