Loved it! This was HILARIOUS with a great message buried under the pile (<get it, LOL) of humor!
The descriptions were great, I laughed out loud for most of the scenes where Lucas had to talk to people, and it's a super quick read. Loved the overall message and outcome of this :)

A cute short story by Fredrick Backman about living life saying "No", then finding the fun, complications and friendships in saying "Yes." It's a quirky quick read by a must for fans of Backman!

The Answer is No by F. Backman is a witty and fun short story. I greatly enjoyed reading this gem of a story.
Blurb: Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone? Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.

Fredrik Backman is my favorite author and I was so excited to read this short story! It did NOT disappoint. I loved it so much. It was his usual mix of laughing out loud and crying with how beautiful his prose is. This is definitely a story that I will be re-reading and adding so many quotes to my journal. Everyone should take the time to read this short, wonderful story. I wish I could give it 10 stars! I received a free copy of this book from netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

I knew I would love this because I am pretty familiar with this author. It’s short and sweet and I laughed basically the entire time. Just a fun, quick story about a guy who just wants to be left alone and doesn’t get his wish. Backman has a way of making readers care about all the characters mentioned which is what makes his books so memorable. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and would tell check it out.

Thanks to NetGalley for the arc.

Brilliant.

You really must read it.

The perfect short story, I don’t know how Backman gets so much in, in such few pages.

Lucas wants to be alone, but others won’t let him be. And so begins this novella which is full of a nice mix of absurdity, manipulation, and meaningful parts.

Perhaps the quirkiest book I’ve ever read, this story was a delight! The search for happiness is different for everyone, as shown here, and Frederick thinks he knows it all! But does he?!? I read this in about 30 minutes and loved it!

"...not now Linda!"

The story follows Lucas, who prefers a simple night of video games, wine, and pad thai, with peanuts as a must-have snack. He prefers solitude but is thrown into chaos when the apartment board demands to see his frying pan after finding it left outside. The situation escalates hilariously, showcasing Lucas's struggle to maintain his alone time in a world that keeps intruding.

This short read was absolutely hilarious! I recently discovered this author and already have a few of his books on my TBR list. It has been quite some time since I found myself laughing out loud throughout an entire book.

This satirical novella brilliantly captures the essence of unnecessary life happenings. The underlying message is crystal clear - if you're not happy, it's time to make a change by removing something that is making you unhappy. While this story was unlike anything I've ever read before, it was impossible not to chuckle and ponder the deeper meaning hidden between the lines.

The character development in this novella was superb. Lucas, the protagonist, was incredibly likable and relatable. The other characters provided a perfect balance of head-shaking moments and chuckles.

Overall, this book was a delightful and comical read, offering a much-needed break from the everyday hustle and bustle of life. I highly recommend this quick and entertaining novella for anyone in need of a good laugh.

Thank you, Amazon Original Stories for the digital copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Maybe because of its short form, this story lacks most of the depth that makes, say, A Man Called Ove so moving. The characters are cartoonish (to the point of three being imagined as a three-headed beast) -which maybe is the point? Either way, superfans will probably like this, but sweet as it is, I think this is a pass for the casual fan.

“If you ask people what they think, they start thinking and that’s how war starts.”

Backman does such a good job of developing personalities within his characters. You will feel like you personally know them. In fact I’m betting you’ll definitely know at least one person who reminds you of each of his characters (that goes for pretty much all of his books).

The narrator selected for this book wa sa perfect fit.

𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗗 𝗜𝗙...

🙅You want a better understanding of what traditional pad thai is
🚫You have an aversion to HOA types
🙅You’d rather be playing video games
🚫You like differentiation between a pile, a hill and a mountain
🙅People exhaust you
🚫If you like heated debates about whether or not angels are real

If you liked A Man Called Ove, you’ll like this one. It gave me similar vibes.

Interesting novella! Full of Backman’s typical dry humor with sprinkles of wisdom! I didn’t find it super enjoyable, but it was a cute quick read.

I loved this story and it's quirky characters. It made me laugh out loud and it was deeper than I thought it was going to be. I'll definitely be reading more Fredrik Backman!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Such a fun short story, I really enjoyed it a lot and am looking forward to reading more books by Fredrik Backman.
Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for this advanced copy! This short story perfect encapsulates so many feelings I have about the world. I laughed out loud many times. Backman understands the human condition like no one else. “love isn’t powerful enough. But spite? Spite can change the world.”

Lucas is happy with his life that consists of video games, wine, and pad Thai. When his doorbell rings one day, his solitude is never the same.

This was a cute and fun novella that I found humorous at times, but the end just didn’t do much for me. I had high expectation’s throughout but it didn’t completely follow through. It is funny, but in an outlandish way.

“Being smart is the worst thing one can be in modern society. All it ever means is more work.”

The Answer is No comes out 12/1.

Thank you Brilliance Publishing and Amazon Original Stories for my new favorite read from Fredrik Backman, The Answer is No. With hints of Ove and Anxious People, and the expected warmth of sneakily charismatic and endearing characters, The Answer is No is a big Yes!

The audiobook narration is excellent, capturing the tone of Lucas and his inner thoughts about other people versus the joys of a quiet life with a fridge always full of food he wants to eat, and a preference for pad Thai (rather relatable vibes if you ask me!). and the story of Lucas, the mystery of the frying pan, and the girl in the green is filled with the usual Backman warm fuzzies, self-growth, and insight into humanity and human relationships.

This book was exactly what I needed right now. It was heartwarming and hilariously funny in equal measure. Lucas is a bit of a grump and a complete loaner. All he wants is to be left alone to play video games and eat pad thai, and that's exactly what he does until someone leaves a frying pan on the floor next to the recycling room…and then all hell breaks loose for Lucas.

The characters were caricatures in the best way possible. I loved how Lucas identified everyone by their clothing colours. The antics of the board animal and the other residents reminded me of old comedy sketches like Abbott and Costello’s Who's on First. What an excellent pallet cleanser this short story was. I highly recommend it to anyone who needs a good laugh at the moment. All. The. Stars.

Oh, I love the way Fredrik Backman writes about life and relationships with other people. There is just so much care and understanding in his works, even if they sometimes do tend to get a little odd. I know his humor is a little weird but it really fits my sense of humor; especially reading the e-book with the audiobook narration. The narrator really delivered the lines in the best way.

I'd say this one is the one that the side characters feel more like caricatures than in other previous books in how they act and especially react. But between the weirdness, there is so much to read and to feel. Fredrik Backman is a master in crafting engaging characters that make us feel the best feelings even when touched with a little sadness. He makes the points of the book so effortlessly and beautifully (I think there are some but I really liked the one about needing a break).

I really enjoyed following Lucas; it was fun following the only "sane" character and slowly understanding what really "other people" mean in his life. And I really liked the story with the woman in the purple dress and the woman with the green shirt.

Thank you Netgalley, author, and publisher for the ARC.

Fredrik Bachman’s stories are filled with quirky characters, some of them initially grumpy or lonely, but, always in the end, delightful. In this short story we meet Lucas who sort of runs afoul of his apartment board members when they are looking for the person who abandoned a frying pan outside the building. He doesn’t know, but that doesn’t mean he can just shut his door — soon he’s the President of the Pile Committee and the frying pan has collected new friends to the point that there’s a junk “hill” instead of a lonely pan.

I won’t write more except to say that you’ll end the story of Lucas and the junk pile with a big smile — something Bachman can always coax out of the reader. 5 stars!


Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO No mentions of green eyes, but lots of green shirts.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO We never get to know what kind of tree the board decides on the commemorate the pile.

Thank you to Amazon Publishing and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy!