I'm of two minds with this book. On the one hand, I cried for like literally half the book which I always appreciate (I'm very much a crier and enjoy that). But on the other, I didn't actually think it was that amazing. It hit me in the emotions, but I had so many issues that I couldn't decide between three and four stars. Went with four just because I do enjoy a book that makes me cry and I will be adding this to my list of books to reread whenever I want a good cry (right up there with Ribbons by Laurence Yep and PS I Love You by Cecelia Ahern).

In terms of issues, Ove is a terrible person. I understand that he's dealing with his grief and the whole point of his character is that he's supposed to be a crochety grump, but it wasn't amusing to me. He's actively a terrible person, and he was that terrible before the grief. Like you don't get along with your neighbors and grumble at them when they interrupt your day asking for help? Sure. Don't like the random stray cat so you shoo it off your property? Fine. Scream at service workers and say disgusting things about a dude being fat? Nope can't do it. This book would've worked better for me if he'd been a likeable grump who just wanted to be left alone, but there's a line that was crossed. You're kind of supposed to come around on Ove and start seeing him in a better light and I didn't. He was awful.

The emotion also felt very superficial to me. Like Backman succeeded in making this an incredibly sad book and I cried, so I'm not saying he failed at the emotion, but it felt so hollow. Some books make me cry because the story has so much depth and the characters become real to me, and some books make me cry because the rely on cheap ploys. This one was the latter. It was very reminiscent of the first bit of Up with the dude and his wife. Like yeah it's super sad and I'm going to cry, but I feel nothing for the book now that I'm not actively reading it.

I devoured this all in one day. I was absolutely here for the sadness and the grief, and apart from being a little contrived, I think he did such a good job portraying that. I want to be sad when I read something sad and I want to feel what the characters are feeling, and that's exactly what happened here. I was all in and didn't want to stop.

Overall, definitely worth it, but I don't think it quite lived up to the praise for me. I'd previously read Beartown by Backman which I wasn't a fan of at all, so I think maybe after this I'm done. Like I read the one I needed to read and I'll let him go out on a high note for me. If you like stupidly sad books about grief, I recommend it, but keep in mind it's pretty contrived if that's going to irk you.