I found this book thought-provoking and insightful. The subject matter and the tone are understandably sobering and the translation is a bit clunky and I nearly gave up early on, but it's worth a read and I'm glad I persevered.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

This is a book for our times, highlighting the effect of climate change on mental health. Not just an autobiography of a young woman who has become a hero to many, young and old, but the story of a family overcoming crisis. It is a testament to the true power of listening to our children and supporting them, not only in their health, education and wellbeing but in their passions. This is a truly touching book.

This is a really thought-provoking read, hopeful and disconcerting in equal measure. It's hard to think of what we're doing to the earth.

Real life fight, I have really enjoyed reading this story of Greta and her family the battle through everyday life living with two children on the ADHD and autism spectrum, having to watch your child not eat and battling an eating disorder but coming through stronger and braver than imaginable. Holding down a job and fighting health and school systems for what is right for your children this is true resilience .

I'd give this book 3.5 stars. This is subject matter that interests me, and I enjoyed the glimpse into family life, particularly concerning Greta and her journey up to the school protests. This was where the book was its strongest, and I liked the ending chapters the most where they gathered real pace. I found the book as a whole a little hard to get into, however, the narrative chopped and changed and the voice was quite distant, for me. For those reasons, it was hard to really sink into, and I found myself dipping in and out, and skimming certain chapters where the pace slowed. A fascinating insight however into this family and the climate crisis every one of us is facing.

I found this book fascinating. It’s a family memoir, mostly written by Greta Thunberg’s mother, and offers an in-depth background story to Greta herself and the whole family. From early on both Greta and her sister had mental health issues, and these issues dominated – and I assume still dominate – the family dynamic. It’s not a conventional autobiography, but is honest and insightful and answers a lot of questions about how Greta apparently quite suddenly burst upon the world stage. I don’t think you can really understand Greta (or her family) without reading this book. I don’t deny that it has its stylistic faults, and can feel both episodic and repetitive at times. But I don’t think that matters. In fact it’s all part of the story. I certainly found myself reacting quite strongly to certain incidents, certain decisions, but then books should make us think and question our assumptions. Well worth reading.

It is impossible to say anything bad about this book, we all know by now how our world is in trouble and action is needed desperately.

I found some essays more interesting and pertinent than others, but all had merit.

Cannot say much more!

I struggled with this book, probably because of the translation. I couldn't finish it unfortunately.

A very peculiar book, which has been unusually translated, and was as a result quite hard to read. It was a shame, as I was very keen to read what is at heart a fascinating story.

I really wanted to like this book but struggled with it. I think perhaps it was just not for me but I just could not get into it. Although I'm sure if I could have carried on with it It would have turned into a great book. Sadly not for me!

It's a troubling time for the planet - that we know. I don't think I could have picked a better and more profound time to read 'This House is on fire', a family memoir by blah blah blah.
As I write this, the whole world is seemingly in quarantine, lockdown, and self-isolating. As thousands die of COVID-19, the fall-out is still in front of us; but is the pandemic and echo disaster, or something the scientists have long predicted?

Since late 2018, you would've had to have lived a very sheltered life (ironically) to not know the name on young eco-warrior Greta Thunberg and her 'school strike for climate change' movement. Now a familiar face on the world stage, young Greta has galvanised a massive youth movement, caused world-wide headlines and raised an again, the very important issue of the planet's destruction. It's undoubtedly an apocalyptic issue in terms of survival (sounds familiar, right) so why all the COVID headlines, yet still so little about climate change? Its a worry of mine and one that Greta took to the world stage, by protesting outside Sweden's parliament building, and seemingly on her own?

The Swedish spawn of an actor and very famous Swedish opera singer, the cynic in me would suggest that this is 'pushy parent' syndrome, but, reading into Greta's story makes me think otherwise. Aware of her seismic campaigning, I wasn't aware *spoiler alert* of Greta's autism diagnosis, battle with anorexia, nor the diagnosis dilemma's that this caused the family. The book is undoubtedly a manifesto for climate change, and it's unapologetically stated as such, at the beginning of the book. Yet, as the parent of an autistic daughter myself, I cannot tell you how enlightening and inspiring this book is.

If you're a climate denier, capitalist or frequent flyer, I wouldn't bother but its certainly a book for those interested in the worlds troubling climate, and a bonus for anyone struggling with neurodiversity diagnosis.

A fascinating family memoir and climate change manifesto

gogglebooks 8/10

Although I haven't finished this book (yet!) I'm reviewing it, and giving it the rating that I have, because the formatting is so bad, that it makes this book difficult, if not IMPOSSIBLE to read & follow.

If this book read like an organized book, then I would DEFINITELY have given it 5 stars. I mean, I get that this is a "galley" copy, an uncorrected proof version of the book. But the amount of formatting issues and other problems has made it virtually UNREADABLE!

In all honesty, even before I started reading this book, I was hoping (and really wanted) to give it a good rating. Especially since, I'm a big fan of Greta Thunberg and very interested in the subject matter of this book

But this book is in such dire need of proofreading & editing that I am struggling to get through it.

That being said, I did like the content (of what I could get through, at least) enough that I'll borrow it from the library when it becomes available, and if (hopefully) the formatting has been corrected by then, I might consider buying it!

From the book description I expected much more about Greta and their family life and less on climate change. It almost felt like 2 different books - one detailing their lives and struggles and the other dealing with climate change issues. I found it difficult to really get absorbed as it changed between the two.

When I picked this book I was expecting it to be purely about the climate crisis we find ourselves in. This featured heavily but it was centred around the life of the Thunberg family, their autistic children and their fight to get them the support they needed. This insight into how this led to the climate strike movement and the worldwide impact this has had was fascinating. This book wasn't what I had expected but was a very readable and accessible text on the climate and how one teenager is changing the world. I highly recommend this book, especially if interested in climate change, the phenomenon of Greta Thunberg or bringing up children with complex undiagnosed needs.

Before I read this book I didn’t really know much about Greta’s life beyond climate change campaigning. The sections of this book that were about Greta, her sister Beata and their parents were really interesting and totally absorbing. I found some of the climate change sections were sometimes too detailed and felt like I was reading 2 different books mixed together - one being a family biography, the other a science book.

This book is made up of two parts, the first focuses largely on Greta and her younger sister, Beata's neurodivergent conditions and the second part is about the climate crisis. I found Greta and Beata's stories interesting and relatable, I'm an adult recently diagnosed with autism and I know from personal experience how difficult it can be to get a diagnosis, let alone any kind of help. The family clearly have been through so much in trying to get the sisters diagnosed and it's obvious from the writing that Malena and Svante care very much about their children. I hope that people can gain some understanding of neurodivergency from this book, especially in the way the conditions present so differently in the two girls. I know there's speculation as to whether Greta Thunberg's parents are exploiting her and pushing her into climate activism, but I don't believe that they are and I think this book portrays that well. Autistic people hyper focus, we obsess and one of the wonderful things about us is that our interests cannot be forced. The things we are passionate about are completely our own doing. The second part of the book that focuses on the climate crisis wasn't as easy for me to take in and I think I'm going to need to refer back to the book often because there's such a lot of information to acknowledge. I do definitely feel like I've learned from it though and would recommend the book to anybody who really does care about the climate crisis in a real and not performative way.

I found this to be a very moving and impressionable book on the current climate crisis. It was hard to get into, and sometimes I did feel like the language used was beyond my understanding. Here I felt it may have missed its mark, the point to me seeming to want to get people involved. It was also somewhat aggressive in its message at points. I understand it has to be, it's a crisis, but at the expensive of losing people who may just be naive to the extent of the issues. The book touches on the issues of media, and even scientist, bias, and acknowledges but often fails to see the impact this may have on the general public. It only really touched on Greta towards the end, which was nice as you get a well-rounded view of the entire family and the efforts they are making. Though it did seem that she was the centre of their world, without really going into much interesting detail until the last 10% of the book. Nevertheless I enjoyed it!

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The book was a good solid read, but difficult to get into. The start was more to do with the mother with the story of the family. I supposed you need this to provide a foundation with what is to follow. Personally I found it hard going and may have considered starting at a different point. The background could have been covered in retrospect.

A difficult book to read but I’m glad I did. The book relates the terrible years the family had to cope with their oldest daughter Greta suffering from several medical problems and trying to obtain a diagnosis for her condition then realising their younger daughter Beata has been suffering as well and upset at all the attention has been on Greta. My own granddaughter is selectively mute and has Asperger diagnosis. The family has been on a rollercoaster ride with her and a lot of it is reflected in this book. The way Greta has developed since she has become such a leader in climate change and the way she has dealt with bullies all her life is well documented in the book. It has affected the whole family and the way they have all coped to pull together makes for an interesting book. I can only wish them well for the future and say they are an amazing family.

This book was written by Greta Thunberg's mother who was an opera singer/Eurovision entrant. It is a mixture (literally) of family biography and climate change information. I found the writing quite disjointed and was frustrated by the lack of proper sentence structure. While Greta and her sister have significant issues one can't help feeling that the parents have indulged their children and are living though them. Greta's father took her along to a conference for adults, before she became high profile.. and the younger daughter has been launched into a music career at the age of 15. I have no doubt that Greta is passionate about climate change but she is not being encouraged to live a more normal life - attending school, having a social life etc and I do wonder about her mental state. There seems to be a lot of anger in her mother';s writing.