Frederik Backman's books always have flawed, imperfect characters that you grow to love. My Friends is no exception. The story starts with a character commonly called "the artist" who meets Louisa and they form an instant connection over art. The artist has found a connection with Louisa that he shared with his friends from his teen years. He has one wish, for his friend Ted to give her his first painting. The painting was all about the friendship between the artist, Ted, and his other two childhood friends Joar and Ali. The story is flashbacks of their childhood together and Ted and Louisa in present day.

My Friends is another beautiful story about friendships, love, found family, loss, and grief. The story juggles the present day friendship forming and the bonds of childhood friends. It perfectly captures the freeness and joy of childhood as well as the harsh reality of facing adulthood. All of the characters have faced various hardships but the focus of the book is living in the joy. It captures the feeling of summertime fun and playing all day with your friends only for the bittersweet end of summer.

Frederik Backman always writes such amazing characters. They have heart & humor and are the type of person you wish could be your friend. Louisa and Ted's friendship was one of my favorite parts of the book. Ted is so shy, quiet, and reserved, but his friends bring out the fun and playful side of him. My Friends is a book I will remember for years to come.

I love love love loved this book. It was sad, it was funny, it was emotional, it was hopeful it was everything I wanted in a book. 10/10

Mr. Backman could write a grocery list and I would fight to get to the front of the line to read it.

An emotional masterpiece full of quirky, anxious humor. Exactly what I expect and love from one of my favorite authors!!!

4.25

What would we give to experience the type of deep friendship & love that these kids shared?

With Backman’s happy/pensive/meloncholy writing style, I enjoyed the setup for this story: 1 friend telling the story of their friendship/one summer to a lonely girl who is “one of us”. Breaks your heart a bit while giving it a squeeze.

Many thanks to Netgalley and publishers for providing my review copy of My Friends by Fredrik Backman. FB is one of my all time favorite authors and while I usually tend to love his quirky and heart wrenching writing, this one almost missed the mark for me. I did enjoy it but I didn't find it as gripping as his other stories. Still a great read!

I don’t think this book was for me, but I can see why others will love it. In true Backman style this was full of life lessons, gut punching quotes, and a plot that’s a little quirky but could be real. I felt like the story went in circles and some if the sentimental moments felt forced.

Can Fredrik Backman do no wrong?? I will seriously read his grocery list. Granted, his writing style might not be for everyone, but I just adore it.

My Friends is a story of four friends and a girl connected to them in a curious way. I went into this blind and didn't really know what to expect but it thoroughly exceeded my expectations. The combination of Louisa's current story and the backstory of Ted and his friends and the painting that brought them together makes for a tale that is full of emotional twists and turns. I spend most of the book fairly certain where it was going to lead, only to be proven incorrect more than once, but in the best ways.

Another five star read from Backman.

I knew when I saw this book was available I needed to read it. There is just something about Fredrick backmans writing that draws me in. He writes so beautifully and emotionally.
Louisa is an aspiring artist and she unexpectedly becomes the owner of a famous painting. We follow her on her journey as she finds out the true meaning behind the painting.

Fredrik Backman is one of my favourite authors and I loved his newest book My Friends! These characters all tug on your heartstrings as we learn about their journeys and root for them as they grow. There are so many quotes that I have highlighted, this book will hold a spot on my favourites shelf. Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada, Atria Books and Fredrik Backman for the gifted eARC! If you haven’t had a chance to read any books by Fredrick Bachman yet, this is the perfect time to pick one up! Enjoy!

A Bachman book will always hit me right where I need it. This is an absolutely gorgeous book. Thank you!

There are some books that I don't want to read because I know I am going to love them so much that I will want to start all over again with the book. This is "My Friends"....I love all of Frerik Backman's books and didn't think he could beat the Beartown series but here it is.

Found family! The best! The story is lovely, heartbreaking, hopeful, funny (tears in my eyes funny), sad (sobbing sad) and heart filling! Backman's writing style is easy to read with so many beautiful nuances and lines. You want to write them all down or commit them to memroy because they are stunning!

If I could give this book all the stars in the world - I would. If you read one book this year - make it be this one!


Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher Atria for giving me an E-Arc.*

Have there ever been books you’ve just had to pause because it wasn’t the right time to read them?

This one was honestly a struggle for me. I’ve been trying to read it since it was published. I’d read a few chapters, lose interest. Pick it up again and fly through a few more chapters, then lose interest.

It’s a slow, reflective kind of book. I love how lyrical and poetic it was at times. The characters were so distinct. They felt like real people. The way things are revealed almost like a mystery with Ted’s storytelling keeping things compelling.

This one was really well done and I’m glad I finished it. I wish I read it at the perfect time. It would have easily been a 5 star read if I had been in the mood for it.

I never skip a Fredrick Backman book. He writes complicated characters who face tragedy and joy sometimes simultaneously. This story was no exception. The characters face loss, loneliness, and the enduring power of friendship, old and new.

My Friends by Fredrik Backman is an absolute masterpiece. I loved A Man Called Ove, so I knew I had to pick this one up—and ended up enjoying it so much that I read it both on audiobook and in print. Backman’s writing is such a rare gift: a slow burn that’s deeply satisfying, drawing you into characters you can truly see and feel, while capturing the human experience with remarkable poignancy. When I reached the final page, I let out a long exhale and slowly closed the book. His work is to be savored. So, so good.

Thank you endlessly for this ARC and the chance to review it, even though this is later than late. Despite the fact that I was wholly disappointed by it, it still meant a lot to see that I was approved to be one of this book's early readers.

I think that this book has a huge problem with pacing/structure, and my firm belief that Louisa's entire arc could've been condensed and tacked-on at the very end. It was more engaging learning about the artist and his friends, the story of the painting, and Backman's emotional pontificating about the power of art itself, than an annoying teenager antagonizing one of the central characters of this life-altering friendship. The life-altering nature of that friendship itself I had to question. For some reason, I found it wildly implausible that these three characters - the artist, Ted, and Joar - like became instant best friends. Think insta-love but more platonic. While that didn't do much for me, I felt the emotion that Backman was attempting to imbue these interactions with, even when I felt that the emotions came off a bit forced, like he was trying to get me to feel instead of letting the scene articulate those emotions themselves. This is the same problem that I had with Ocean Vuong's new novel. It sometimes felt like Backman didn't trust me as the reader to experience these emotions, something I felt Anxious People and Beartown did an exceptional job doing, letting emotions feel both stated and understated. I don't know if this is indicative of a new publishing trend to take a hammer to the reader's brain to make sure that they GET IT, but I don't have the stomach for it, especially in a book in which the first 16 chapters spin aimlessly in the mud of a plot. All of the characters in this book are flat stock characters, and I really wish authors found better ways of writing alcoholic parents. Take a page from Moshfegh's Eileen, would you please? Not all alcoholics are abusive, evil, and vile people. Again, I could excuse this if the surrounding characters weren't literal sheets of paper flapping in the wind. Joar is so stereotypical and one-note that Backman had to kill him to make the relationship between Ted and the artist, C. Jat, have some sort of tension and resonance as the book tries and fails to pull itself out of the mud it's stuck in.

If Backman is serious about this being his final book, I hope he pulls a Final Destination and releases another book to make up for the messy slog of this one. My actual rating is more like a 1..25/1.5 but there are no half-star ratings on Netgalley unfortunately.

Again, thank you to Atria and S&S for letting me review this book and granting me access to the ARC. Y'all are too kind and generous

Another wonderful book by Fredrik Backman. I absolutely love this author's ability to create a story filled with the complexity of difficult childhoods, broken characters, friendship and love. This book was both heartbreaking and heartwarming and I didn't want it to end. Thanks #NetGalley

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

5⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Seldom does a story capture the full spectrum of human emotion so completely. My Friends has a masterful blend of heartbreak and hope, friendship and grief. Backman is a gifted storyteller and has gifted us with a tale that will linger in your mind and heart.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this novel. Amazing doesn't begin to capture the depth of this novel. The characters attach themselves to your heart right from the start as you feel the journey with them. You're not just a reader. You become their friend. A MUST read!

Fredrik Backman has managed to delve into the depths of what it means to be human - both good and bad while simultaneously delivering a story with characters that had me laughing out loud.

My Friends is a story about childhood, friendships, the simplicity of being young and the heartache of having no control over the people who are the adults who are supposed to care and protect their children. One thing that I absolutely love about all of Backman's stories is that they are written in a way that makes them unique while also being universal at the same time; there aren't specific locations, or dates making them timeless but still enough setting that it feels like the reader is a part of the story. Spending majority of this book referring to Kimkim as "the artist" seems to that timeless element because as a reader I found myself able to picture Kimkim as an artist in my own life up until we got more of his backstory towards the end of the book.

As a neurodivergent person, I always love Backman's books because their a distinct personality in his writing style that feels relatable yet his stories never explicitly state any character differences. The quirkiness of the characters is always considered reasonably normal/accepted which is exceptionally refreshing when it doesn't always feel that way in the real world.

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