It usually takes me until the 30% mark to get used to Backman’s (slow, meandering) writing style, and then until 50% to enjoy it. I would say my enjoyment with this one started at around 65% which was unfortunate. I didn’t have a BAD time but it certainly wasn’t compelling. Once we got to the interconnected parts and how the fairytales related to real life I enjoyed it. It was also interesting to have already read Britt Marie Was Here prior to this book, she plays a much more prominent role than I anticipated. (I didn’t think Backman wrote books in the same universe like this, so that was a pleasant surprise.) 

I did not enjoy that Elsa had a name for everyone (even if they’re fanciful nicknames) except “the boy with the syndrome” and “the mother of the boy with the syndrome.” Why were they the only two unnamed people? (I think maybe “the woman with jeans” remained unnamed throughout too.) Why was that one characteristic the entire extent of those two individuals? 

Excellent, no notes. 

Phenomenal

Felt like I was reading a white woman’s take on a Latina FMC and didn’t enjoy it. Couldn’t find any mention of the author’s race/ethnicity in interviews or online. 

Also it was awkward/weird how many times Brody described himself as a “bad boy.” 

This was perfectly fine which I was quite taken aback by since the second book in this series was one of my top 15 books of 2022. And to have this be just ok was a huge let down.

The writing felt much more “tell” not very “show.” It was a lot of exposition. At one point Lila finds a hidden note and literally thinks to herself: “A hidden note usually means someone has something to hide.” (This is not a direct quote, but a fairly accurate paraphrasing imo.) 

Bc everyone involved in the murder plot was new (cousin Ronnie, the winery partners, the investors), I didn’t really care about them. I was not invested in either clearing their names or implicating them bc I simply didn’t know about them - they were introduced so briefly and sparingly. 

Also, why would these new people confide so heavily in Lila, a complete (yet friendly) stranger? I was baffled by how much they disclosed to her at almost every turn. 

It seems like Lila was fully over her PTSD, as if it had never existed, and had forgotten all of her previous emotional breakthroughs too. This novel felt much more surface level, just a basic mystery without the heart of the previous two. 

And what was going on with Jay? The first two were fun in this department bc there was a brief love triangle possibility, there was flirting, there were some emotions. This one has none of that. Jay was just…..there. He was nice, he occasionally helped Lila out but they never flirted nor did their relationship progress in the slightest. 

And, my final note: idk how Lila or Tita Rosie are staying in business with the amount of free food/drinks they give away. It was constant and always thoroughly described. 

Made it through halfway and just realized……I wasn’t enjoying it. I quite enjoy memoirs usually but this one was different than any I have read before. I think because the author is a journalist, this was written in the style of an exposé about her family and their secrets rather than a reckoning/exploration of the author’s life/feelings. Not a lot of personal reflection and an at times bitter/blunt tone. (The bitter tone is obviously valid as she had been through quite a lot but it didn’t contribute much to the book other than me not finding it enjoyable to read.) Also it was written in a very nonlinear way which was hard to follow. Sometimes a paragraph would be written about her time in elementary school and the very next paragraph would be her in her twenties. And because the whole premise of the book is something about family secrets (perhaps that her biological family is not who she thought), I was impatiently waiting the whole time to get into that aspect, but even 50% in that was rarely mentioned so I still don’t know the full situation. A friend recommended I read this and I will be asking her the spoil it for me since I will not be finishing.