Fredrik Backman is one of my favorite authors, and he does not disappoint with his newest title. This book is about four teenage friends, art, and finding your ‘people’ that make each day worth it. The depth of each character is Backman’s magic, and I will be thinking about these characters long after I turned the last page. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for this advanced copy.

Backman delivers another beautifully human story, full of heart, humor, and the kind of emotional gut-punches that sneak up on you. His characters feel like people you’ve known forever—flawed, loyal, and unforgettable. It’s a powerful reminder of how friendship can be our softest place to land and the thing that saves us.

backman does it again 🫶🏼 his books are just so full of FEELING and i especially felt all the emotions in this one. teenagers have a special place in my heart (i became a middle school teacher for this reason) and so naturally this book wrecked me 😭 our kids deserve better. while this book is heavy and heartbreaking, there is hope and love all throughout.

things i liked:
-i particularly LOVED christian’s mom. she provided such a special light that was so needed. 🤍 her character made me sob.
-all the characters and their dynamics felt so real. each trauma and struggle was treated with care.
-the teenagers felt like teenagers. sure, the way they talked is typical backman writing style, but their actions were spot on. the found family they created was so pure!!! friendship truly is love.

slight criticisms:
-dragged a bit toward the end/75% mark. i felt Louisa when she had a breakdown over everyone saying “it’s a long story” 😂
-if you aren’t used to his writing, this book may be odd at first- lots of time jumps. but push through, it’s great!!!!

anyways, i counted and i highlighted 31 quotes. that’s how much it spoke to me. i can’t wait for the world to experience this incredible story. 💌

my most heartfelt gratitude to Netgalley and Atria Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review :’)

If you know me, you know I love Fredrik Backman. I’m still working my way through his backlist, but I have yet to be disappointed. I was apprehensive when starting this one since I was seeing mixed reviews from Backman fans, but, luckily, this one did work for me!
Backman just has such a beautiful way of seeing the world and using that lens to connect characters in ways that pull at every heartstring. Every character is slowly fleshed out so even if you think you won’t like the character, you end up loving them because you understand where they’re coming from.
I also thought I knew what happened to some of the characters, but I was wrong, and I love when that happens while reading!

By the end of the book I did feel a little tired of the back and forth timeline (present to past), but that was one chapter from the end so it didn’t lose me too much. I also feel it could have been trimmed just a tiny bit. Some things felt a little redundant. Overall, this was still a solid Backman book for me and I’d recommend it!

As much as I loved A Man Called Ove, I cannot seem to get into any other books Fredrik Backman has written. What is wrong with me? I know he writes good books. Ive heard it from own friends. I felt like this book just dragged on. When I went to pick it up to read more, I would actually groan out loud. Maybe it's just me. I just found the book unengaging.

Friendship that shows up at just the right time is one of life's greatest gifts. The 4 teenagers found each other when life wasn't perfect and knew they needed to be each other's soft place to land. Their story, told in asides from the past, is sweet and hard but just what Louisa needed to feel less alone in this big world. She was one of them.

The publisher said it best; My Friends is "...an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a complete stranger’s life twenty-five years later."

Thanks @netgally and@atriabooks for the ARC!

Fredrik Backman delivers another heartfelt masterpiece with My Friends. Witty, tender, and deeply human, this novel captures the complexities of friendship and the quiet beauty of everyday connection. Backman’s signature empathy and humor shine on every page.

A moving, unforgettable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

"Art is what we leave of ourselves in other people."


NetGalley ARC

It all begins with a painting of the sea that isn't really a painting of the sea - but you'd only know that if you're the right sort of person who notices these sorts of things.

I want to say the book follows a group of teenagers from their carefree moments on their favorite summer pier to their adult lives 25 years later, but that isn't quite true. It's more a story of what happened then, and what is happening now, and all the ways they do and don't fit together. The ways that friendship and love endure, the ways that they change... and the ways that they don't.

This one reminded me a lot of his Beartown trilogy both in writing style and themes. I loved the found family here, the nostalgia for childhood and the way Backman contrasted it with the reality that many kids don't have pristinely innocent, happy childhoods. It's achingly beautiful and devastatingly heartbreaking. Running throughout the story is a common thread about the power of art, who makes it, who buys it, and what impact it can have.

Backman truly has a knack for writing incredibly profound things in accessible ways by weaving them seamlessly into a story. I bawl reading every one of his books. I laugh out loud reading every one of his books. They're the kind of books that live rent free in my head forever. The kind of books that remind me why I read. His books get under my skin in an incredibly rare for me way. I simultaneously want to devour them in one sitting and draw them out for weeks so I don't have to say goodbye to the characters. One of my absolute favorite authors, no question.

This will undoubtedly be a top 5 read of 2025 for me. It's a strong contender for my favorite book of this year. Read. This.


A huge thank you to the author and the publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Thank you NetGalley, Atria Books and Fredrik Backman for the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy of My Friends.
This is a beautifully written story of four teenagers that don’t quite fit into their world. They create such a strong friendship together that it brought me to tears.
A common bond is established twenty five years later between this group of friends and another isolated teen, Louisa. A painting, unexpectedly, falls into Louisa’s care. This painting is the focal point of the story. The two timelines intertwine together like a masterpiece.
The characters are so well developed that I felt I knew them inside and out. The dialogue is emotional and humorous. All of these teens and adults are terrific storytellers and I was immersed from start to finish.
I liked how each character explained their perspective and it was quite the puzzle to put together. I loved the compassion these characters had in caring for each other. Their main goal was to stick together and challenge the world. They learned so much from each other, especially trust and love.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story. It has been in my mind constantly and that to me is a sign of a great work of art. No doubt-five plus stars!

Extremely emotional and, dare I say, sappy. This was my first book by Frekrik Backman and, if his others share a similar tone and feel, it will likely be my last. The plot is excellent and original - as a young woman encounters a famous painter and comes into possession of her favorite painting of all time, the story flips back to 25 years in the past when the painter was growing up and spending time with his best friends as a 14-year-old. They would spend days of joy and fun together while also navigating tragic and dysfunctional home lives.

It feels like Backman is trying to make you cry on each page with repetitious phrases of sadness and melancholy. For some, they will eat this up; but it's not for me.

If you are a fan of Backman's endearing style you are sure to enjoy My friends.
Admittedly, I adore his writing but I struggled through much of this book. His novels are always fairly slow to unwind but this one just felt like a constant travel back in time . At times to hop to the past was abrupt, like mid thought.
My favorite parts are the dialogue and adorably loving sarcasm that the characters so freely share.
In my opinion, the main friend group is reminiscent of " Stand by me". Like SBM, the characters go through a period of self discovery and a strong sense of loyalty in the face of hardship. Difficult backs stories are lain bare: explaining behaviors without out right condoning decisions.
The final few chapters are by far my favorite. Old friends encourage and support a new generation of friends to trust and love one another.

Thank you Netgalley and Atria books for providing an ARC.

My Friends


Thank you to Atria Books, Fredrik Backman, and NetGalley for the eARC of this book. These are my honest thoughts and opinions.

This is the best book I’ve read since A Man Called Ove!

There’s something about Backman’s writing that makes it clear that he understands people. He sees the horrible, broken parts and looks deeper to find the love, care, and courage inside. This book will break your heart. But if you’ve read any other books by Backman, that won’t come as a surprise to you. Backman tells stories about every day people. One of the things that makes his books especially heartbreaking is that the characters are so relatable.

My Friends is the story of a group of childhood friends, the pain they endured, the bonds they made, and the short period of time that changed their lives 25 years ago. It’s the story of a teenage girl today who has lost the one person she cares about and that cared about her and who desperately needs to see the one thing that has always inspired her to dream of more. It’s the story of how art can be life changing and so can simple actions. It’s about grief, resiliency, love, laughter, and the best and worst of humanity. None of these characters are perfect, but what makes this book so beautiful is how human and real and flawed and wonderful they are.

There are some books that are so engaging and exciting that you binge read it in one sitting and then forget about it soon after. Then there are books that you have to take piece by piece and let it sit before you continue on, but the memory lasts. My Friends is definitely the latter. I’ll end this review with a friendly warning: Keep the tissues handy.

⭐️: 4/5

Thank you to @netgalley and @atriabooks for providing this eARC for my review!!

I feel like all books by Fredrik Backman have the same vibe, and that vibe is that they’re going to emotionally destroy you. The way that this story is told is meandering, and the book itself is a little meandering too, which makes it a little hard to get into at first, since you feel like you know where it’s going, but you don’t know how it’s going to get there, and you know you might not like the ending entirely because you know it’s probably going to be a little bittersweet.

I’ve always said that there are certain authors who you have to be in a certain mood in order to read and really enjoy, and Fredrik Backman is one of them. I’m not sure if I was entirely in the right headspace for this one, since it was a little hard for me to get invested in and want to come back and keep reading, but the way that he built all the characters in this book was really laudable, and regardless of whether or not my current mood was right for the vibe, that’s what kept me coming back. I read some other reviews of this one saying it’s “better than Beartown” which I think is categorically impossible honestly, so I’m here to say it is not, but it is still a very good book, full of emotion and feeling.

Overall, I found this to be a great story, and certainly I could see some people enjoying it more than I did, but for me, it just lacked the emotional punch of Beartown, although I feel like it was striving for that.

It physically pains me to say that I DNF this book.

I LOVE Fredrik Backman and this is a wonderful book but I was not in the right mindset to read it at this point in time. It’s a heavy book, though filled with moments that made me laugh out loud…much like Backman’s other works.

It’s not you, it’s me. I’m sure I’ll pick it back up in the future, but right now I just can’t do it.

🐠🪳🎨 My Friends by Fredrik Backman 🎨🪳🐠
Genre: General Fiction / Contemporary Fiction
Length: 448 pages
Pub Date: May 6, 2025
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the e-ARC of this book. The opinions stated here are solely my own.

Summary:
This is the story of four teenage friends, both 25 years ago, and today. Each has had their fair share of trauma, but they are brought together in their small town sharing the load of their lives through their adventures.

One of these friends paints a picture that eventually gains him world-wide fame, and the picture finds a way of finding a new friend into the mix in the present timeline. Through the story behind the painting, Louisa finds her home and own artistic voice. But there is SO much more to this than meets the eye...

Opinion:
Fredrik Backman literally brings me to tears in every single book. He just gets people and how their own lives, struggles, and friendships blend together to connect them. This ragtag band of friends' story is so beautiful, often traumatic, unfair, full of laughter, farts (Haha I loved that), and redemption. You honestly just need to read this one. I really love how he incorporated how art is a way toward healing and expression, and how it belongs to everyone. There are so many nuggets of wisdom in this book, but the best part was how these friends were able to share their experiences with others 25 years after 'the painting' and help change lives... and find their own happy endings.

My Friends is beautiful and moving. I enjoyed every single page.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced digital copy.

It is an overwhelming feeling to find a book this special. It's a love letter to art - a testament to the power of creation, especially as a tool of resistance as we choose to find the beauty and tenderness in a world that is so often cruel. It's an ode to friendship - how pure the love between friends is, how we carry our people with us always. It's about love and loss and daring to live, existing in the liminal space between unbearable grief and budding hope, and it is all navigated in true Backman fashion, which is to say with tremendous care and a deep understanding of the human condition. His writing style is so distinct and direct, but it’s something I appreciate so much about his work, that he is able to approach such large emotions in a way that highlights how universal they are, that what connects us all is our intimate knowledge of grief and pain and joy and love. As with every Backman book, I laughed and I cried, because no other contemporary author has the knack for wit and humor the way I think Backman does, especially when examining heavy topics through such a candid lens, but one that nonetheless lets the light in. It allows the reader to close the book with a sense of clarity, one that only comes after bearing witness to a story that reaches the most tender and vulnerable parts of us. This book has become a postcard for me, I will carry it with me always (metaphorically of course, it would not be feasible to constantly have a 400+ page hardback copy on my person at all times). Fredrik Backman, as always, I thank you for your brilliance, and I hope your pillow is cold and your coffee always brewed to perfection.

My Friends by Fredrik Backman is an exceptional, heartbreaking, humorous, very highly recommended story of friendship, art, trust, and finding your people. This is a masterpiece and certainly will be the best book I've read this year, perhaps even over several years. Admittedly, I am a long time admirer of Backman's work but My Friends is a life-list book.

An artist's first painting, “The One of the Sea,” is being sold and eighteen-year-old Louisa needs to see the painting for her own reasons. Her best friend Fish recently died and Louisa knows that the painting isn't about the sea, it's about the small group of friends on a dock in the corner of the painting. Circumstances result into her running from a security guard and crashing into a homeless man in the alley. Only he isn't homeless, he is the artist of “The One of the Sea” who calls himself C. Jat, and he is dying.

In the hospital later the artist tells Ted about Louisa and proclaims "She's one of us!" The us is the group of four friends, the friends in the painting from twenty-five years earlier and the ones he knew at fourteen and fifteen, when he painted “The One of the Sea.” These friends are Joar, Ted, Ali, and the artist. The artist, who had Ted buy his painting back, tells Ted to give the painting to Louisa and this leads to the two embarking on a cross country trip where she learns about the friends and how they saved each other from their bruising home lives and in school.

The dual timeline works perfectly in My Friends. The present day is Louisa and Ted on their trip while Ted tells the story of when they were teens in a working class neighborhood and how they helped each other survive. Louisa talks about how Fish helped her survive. The story is emotional and I was tearing up and openly crying throughout. Their interactions can also be humorous. These young characters went through so much. He points out that the world has spent thousands of years practicing how to puncture the lungs of children who are different.

The characters come to life under his careful, compassionate, and insightful portrayal. They are all fully realized individuals with vulnerabilities, strengths and weaknesses. These teens know that they can love and trust each other, which is a combination that can be difficult to find in life. They took care of their friendship and helped the artist survive being different while encouraging his artistic pursuits.

As Backman notes several times in the well-written narrative that, the most dangerous place on earth is inside us. He writes: No one can explain why some fourteen-year-olds want to die. Nature gains nothing from unhappy children, yet they are still walking around everywhere, without the words to describe their anxiety. Also that a "Lack of self confidence is a devastating virus. There is no cure."

There is a plethora of observations about what art is and there were so many quotes I saved. A few examples: Art teaches us to mourn for strangers, isn't chronological, is what we leave of ourselves in other people, and art doesn't need critics, art has enough enemies already. Art needs friends.

My Friends is a must read book that is sure to become a classic, on many lists of one of the best books ever, and a top book club choice. Thanks to Atria Books for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

The review will be published on Edelweiss, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

This was a different readfor me. I love Backman, especially Anxious People. My Friends was good. Backman's writing never fails, no matter the subject. He really can pull at your heartstrings. Not a new favorite, but a great read none the less.

This was my first Fredrik Backman book! It was a slower pace than I anticipated, but had great character development. It had such a beautiful ending with a compelling story. I'm so excited to read his catalogue now!