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A review by emmareadstoomuch
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman
2.0
Remember how I read this book? Because I sure don’t.
What stands out in my mind is that I was able to finish this book when I was finishing literally zero books. But like...don’t let that make you think it was easy. It was Not. Every page I read was a gargantuan effort. Most of this got done by me literally spending one (1) entire evening reading this book. And I only did it because I told someone I was going to be spending my night reading, and that made me feel pressured to do so.
I do not hate this book. Neither do I love it, or like it a whole lot. Or even like it a little bit. It just...exists.
I get what it was going for. And it’s admirable. It’s supposed to be all imagination-y, and isn’t-childhood-cool, and family is important and let’s all love each other and smile.
But it was mostly just really boring. All the characters were bland. And sometimes it went too far on the imagination front. And on the redeeming-characters front. (Not everybody is awesome, okay?!)
Also, this little girl (the main character) is a haaaaaater. (That’s literally a reference to a specific episode of a specific podcast I listened to today. In unrelated news, I am the biggest loser on the entire earth.) Like, every kid is a sh*tbag in her mind. I JUST DON’T LIKE THAT. If you’re going to redeem a weird, semi-neglectful grandmother and a guy who is literally called the Monster, maybe there can be a kid or two who doesn’t full-on suck?
But hey. What do I know.
Plus I normally really like reading Scandinavian-translated books (I am the worst) because I like the way it sounds when it’s English-ized. It still holds a nice poetic effect. But I didn’t get that from this? Maybe because the little-girl-main-character speaks English a lot. Dunno. Didn’t like it.
I have really pressed the boundaries of how much I can talk about this book, so…
Bottom line: It’s okay. Whatever. Read it if you feel like it? Who cares about anything.
-----------------
I FINISHED A BOOOOOOOOOK!!!!
and it was...good? it was fine.
we'll talk about it.
review to come
What stands out in my mind is that I was able to finish this book when I was finishing literally zero books. But like...don’t let that make you think it was easy. It was Not. Every page I read was a gargantuan effort. Most of this got done by me literally spending one (1) entire evening reading this book. And I only did it because I told someone I was going to be spending my night reading, and that made me feel pressured to do so.
I do not hate this book. Neither do I love it, or like it a whole lot. Or even like it a little bit. It just...exists.
I get what it was going for. And it’s admirable. It’s supposed to be all imagination-y, and isn’t-childhood-cool, and family is important and let’s all love each other and smile.
But it was mostly just really boring. All the characters were bland. And sometimes it went too far on the imagination front. And on the redeeming-characters front. (Not everybody is awesome, okay?!)
Also, this little girl (the main character) is a haaaaaater. (That’s literally a reference to a specific episode of a specific podcast I listened to today. In unrelated news, I am the biggest loser on the entire earth.) Like, every kid is a sh*tbag in her mind. I JUST DON’T LIKE THAT. If you’re going to redeem a weird, semi-neglectful grandmother and a guy who is literally called the Monster, maybe there can be a kid or two who doesn’t full-on suck?
But hey. What do I know.
Plus I normally really like reading Scandinavian-translated books (I am the worst) because I like the way it sounds when it’s English-ized. It still holds a nice poetic effect. But I didn’t get that from this? Maybe because the little-girl-main-character speaks English a lot. Dunno. Didn’t like it.
I have really pressed the boundaries of how much I can talk about this book, so…
Bottom line: It’s okay. Whatever. Read it if you feel like it? Who cares about anything.
-----------------
I FINISHED A BOOOOOOOOOK!!!!
and it was...good? it was fine.
we'll talk about it.
review to come