Fairy tales

I think this is one of his youngest characters and it was fitting that she had this “other” world she fall back on… I didn’t love that part of the book, but it also didn’t affect how I felt in general about the book.

I loved the fairy tale aspect of this novel. Elsa is only 8. She’s “different.” Her grandmother created a world in which she could cope. And couldn’t we all use a little fairy tale when reality gets to be too much?
Fredrick Backman just has my heart. ❤️

I agree with Patty Carroll. It’s different from other Backman books because the main character is a 7 year old child who is “different” and every child needs a superhero. I did enjoy the fairy tale and as typical of Backman’s writing it took me half way through the story to see how it connected.

It took me a minute, but as the story progressed, I loved the fairy tale aspect of the story. It gave Elsa a connection to each of the characters her grandmother sent her to learn more about, in a context she could understand. Once she saw where they fit in the fairy tale, who and how they were became more clear… both to Elsa and to the reader.

Honestly I’m still not sure if any of the magical stuff was true or just an kids imagination and there was just a big dog & people her grandma “rescued” from other countries?? 🤷🏼‍♀️ So I was like is it just a big dog eating buckets of chocolate & cookies or some huge magical beast!?!? It was a hard story to put imagery to in my head that’s for sure.

I attempted this book, got 50% in and gave up.  I have only give. Up on 6 books in the last 600 so I don’t often do that.

Maybe it was the fairy tale aspect?  This is my second book from the author- I read Anxious People in January and also struggled, but finished.