Tag Archive for: Translated

My Friends

My FriendsTitle: My Friends
Author: Fredrik Backman
Genre: Literary Fiction
Format: Audio
Pages: 436
Length: 13h 7m
Narrator: Marin Ireland
Rating:

My Thoughts

I don’t know what it is about Fredrik Backman, but he has the ability to tell a story with so much feeling and depth without it being boring or seeming contrived. He writes characters, situations, and the feelings of both better than any other author I’ve read. I love his ability to tell his stories in parts.

MY FRIENDS was a beautiful story about growing up, found family, resilience, and finding the silver lining in really shitty circumstances. It deals with hard topics like bullying, immigration, abuse, sickness, and grief. Even though the story is sad, it’s interspersed with laughter and happiness, and ends with a feeling of hope. There are also a lot of farts (iykyk). This one kept me guessing until the end and I loved taking the journey with the characters.

Beartown

BeartownTitle: Beartown
Author: Fredrik Backman
Series: Beartown #1
Genre: Literary Fiction
Format: Kindle
Pages: 496
Rating:

My Thoughts

BEARTOWN was a very hard emotional read. It was a thought-provoking story that deals with hard subjects like toxic masculinity, winning at all costs, and consent. The story’s sad but hopeful, and extremely maddening. At times, it was difficult to keep reading. Even though my heart hurts, it was worth the pain and sorrow. I absolutely had no idea that a book about hockey (but not really) would make me feel the way I did.

Backman’s stories are as good as they are because of his characters. Not only is he a master at writing emotionally charged stories, he’s also a master at writing a whole cast of round, complicated characters. The characters in BEARTOWN were no different. These characters were so easy to connect with because they felt like real people with real lives.