Review to come

I think what I like so much about this book is how realistically the story plays out. It’s not one of those books that pretends that abusive or absent parents will some day turn around and be better. It’s not one of those books about how the rich kid gets what they deserve. Instead it’s a book about trying and the importance of trying even when you think it doesn’t matter because it has an impact on you. It’s a book about the importance of civil engagement that is honest and speaks about something true in all of us. I know this will not be everyone’s favorite book, I know it’s got plot issues, but I still love it.

Ok so I don't know how to rate this book. There's a lot happening in it. I think my biggest struggle with this book is just how much is happening. I mean, the first book had a lot happening, too but I felt like it was better at containing itself. This, I felt, was almost unnecessary. If Backman had limited it to a few less characters, a few less stories, it might be better. There's new characters, new stories, some that last for very few pages that could have been cut. I don't necessarily think that it's a bad book, I just think that it's not that standard that I've come to think of as a Backman novel.

The trouble with these books is that, in an effort to make the stories short and simple, they gut a lot of the most interesting and important things about the women in question. It’s a perfectly ok primer but on the whole I wish they had limited the amount of women to better focus on said women.