I really wanted to like this more, but I think Backman failed here with what he succeeded with in A Man Called Ove, balancing emotional depth and humor. In fact, by trying so hard to balance them, he failed at both. The stupidity of the characters drove me insane. They all felt like over-the-top caricatures with no emotional depth or character arc. I think there wasn’t a core focus for this book plot-wise, and a character driven story works, but this was in too many places at once, leading to there being no true emotional heart, when it should’ve been about anxious people.