I didn’t love it, but it’s not a bad book. My biggest complaint is that I think it’s trying so hard to be profound and poignant that it ends up kind weird and overbearing. A lot of the characters are almost a caricature which breaks any illusion of realism. Which is all totally fine because I think it’s all on purpose, but this book is just not really for me.

My Friends by Fredrik Backman is a quiet, layered reflection on grief, love, and the complicated beauty of friendship. His writing is as introspective as ever, with moments that feel like someone reaching across the page to hold your hand. It’s less plot-driven and more like sitting with someone as they try to make sense of everything they've lost and everything that still matters. If you've loved his previous books, especially Anxious People or A Man Called Ove, this one will hit you in a different, softer way.

It seems like the only backman books I really enjoy/love are his Beartown serried. I didn’t love anxious people or a man called over when I read them. My Friends was also just okay to me. His writing style is VERY good. He has such a way with words and turning them into human emotion that so many people resonate with. I just don’t seem to connect with his books like I want to.

So many people have loved this book, so if you want to read it, and have loved his books in the past, I say still give it a chance! Just because it didn’t work for me doesn’t mean it won’t work for you!

This book completely consumed me. Like all of Fredrik Backman’s work, My Friends stayed with me long after I turned the last page. It was so beautifully written, raw, tender, and full of emotion. I could see every scene play out in my mind like a movie I didn’t want to end. Backman has a way of capturing the depth of human connection in a way that feels both intimate and universal. Absolutely unforgettable.

Fredrick Backman never disappoints! Told in the present and flashbacks, we meet the artist and learn about his friends and the summer he created a life-changing work of art. Funny, beautiful, full of heart.

Thank you so much @AtriaBooks for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest and unbiased review (Release Date | 06 May 2025)

SYNOPSIS | Louisa is an 18-year-old orphan who is grieving the loss of her best friend (Fish) when she breaks into an art auction in the hopes of seeing a world-famous painting. After this, she meets Ted who is a 39-year-old man grieving the loss of his best friend ('the artist'). As they travel to his hometown, he begins to tell her the story that led to the creation of the world-famous painting.

WHAT I LIKED:
- Backman's writing style (& his ability to bring humor to heavy topics) is impeccable
- such a heartwarming yet gut-wrenching story chock full of quirky characters that you can't help but fall in love with
- I don't annotate books but ooof this story had so many perfect quotes & moments that I wanted to remember later
- the fact I laughed out loud, shed some tears and somehow managed to feel nostalgic about a childhood summer that I never experienced
- "I love you and I trust you"

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
- that I have to wait to get my hands on another Backman story!

I absolutely adored My Friends, the latest book by master storyteller Fredrik Backman. And as much as I loved the book, I loved the character of Louisa even more. As with all of Backman’s stories, the characters come alive adding multitudes to the plot, theme and story. So few authors today can so beautifully pen humanity and give life to their characters so thoroughly and naturally. Thank you for such a great book that I will recommend highly throughout the year.

Every once in a while, a book comes along and takes hold of your mind and heart. My Friends by Fredrik Backman has done that to me. This book tops the list as my favorite Backman novel. It's still early in the year, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is the best book I read this year. If you couldn't tell, I loved it. I am not sure there's an author out there who writes such real and complex characters the way Fredrik Backman does. Everything just worked with My Friends. The dual timeline, likable characters, unlikely friendship, pacing of the story, heartfelt and funny. It's a story you want to race through, but also read slowly to savor it. Well done. Happy Publication Day to @backmansk!

It was a pleasure and an honor to read an advanced digital copy. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher.

Fredrik Backman writes like an irreverent Mr. Rogers for grown-ups.

His author’s voice speaks directly to our inner misfit:
“Think you’re a misfit that life has stomped on? Welcome to the neighborhood. We’re all underdogs here, so make yourself at home.”

If you’re looking for a linear storyline, My Friends isn’t it. The story goes forwards, backwards, sideways, slips into offshoot corners, then boomerangs back.

Backman paints the story like a mural. At its center: the raw coming-of-age backstory of a world-famous artist and his three misfit friends; and the struggling 18-year-old girl who becomes integral to their story 25 years later. The mural also includes pops of side scenes and characters. Whether they’re enhancements or distractions is in the eye of the beholder.

Backman wraps even life’s hardest moments in the comfort of a Mr. Rogers cardigan sweater...with the unexpected humor of a whoopie cushion tucked in the pocket. It’s a beautiful day in his underdog neighborhood.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you Atria for giving me early access to this beautiful book (even if I am delayed in reading it). Fredrick Backman is an interesting writer. He has a unique style that can be a little complicated to engage with at first. However, it’s this style of writing that somehow makes is books so beautiful. This was no exception.

My Friends is a story of chosen family and the friendships that leave a mark on your heart no matter how many years or miles separate you. It’s about our memories and the way that simple moments or masterful paintings can equally change you. In this story, one lost friend, Louisa, unexpectedly finds her way to the friends that inspired her most beloved painting. It’s through their stories that she learns that life is full of heartbreak and resilience and her own is just beginning.

I knew from the first few chapters that this book had the potential to break my heart and I was right. It took me some time to get back into the groove with Backman’s writing style but once I did my heart connected deeply with the characters. I found that each character was described with such diligence that I could clearly picture them and hear their voices. I think the frequent mentioning of farts was an odd choice but it somehow feels in line with the author. For a book that was very character driven, there was enough plot that I stayed engaged and can say it live up to all the expectations that were laid out for it. I can’t give it a 5 star rating because it felt like something was still missing that would keep it in my mind for weeks to come and all of my top books can do just that. Solid 4-4.5 stars.

I don’t know how he does it. Quirky, hilarious, weird, sad and hopeful. Backman just doesn’t miss!


If you liked Anxious People and Beartown, you will surely enjoyed the latest FB book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC. Opinions are my own.

Backman is one of my favorite authors and when I received an ARC for this I couldn't wait to get right into it. The tone of this book feels different than his others, maybe a little more mellow and reflective. I didn't cry(which is shocking) but I did feel "down" while reading it, not the whole time because there IS happiness in this book and it's a great story on friendship and growing older, the unfairness of life, and now there is joy even in difficult times.

This is a love story to friendship, to the summers spent roaming the neighborhood with friends, to art, and how art can portray deep feelings and emotions that aren’t always able to be spoken aloud. It’s also the story of a long journey to find home, that is made longer by crazy circumstances (life). It’s a story about the past being told while the present is writing its own story! It’s about connections that can’t always be explained, but you just know, “they’re one of us!”

If you’ve read any of Fredrik Backman’s books before you know they are heavily character based. There’s a lot of storytelling of one character’s childhood with periods of current thrown in. It can make it feel like the story is plodding along, but if you hang on for the ride, you won’t be disappointed. This isn’t my favorite of his, but I do like Backman’s insight into people.

It was published earlier this month, so go out and grab a copy and some of his others too!
Thank you to @netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!
#NetGalley #MyFriends

This year has been a chaotic one for me: in addition to being super busy at work, I’ve also had some family issues I had to take care of, plus my own health issues I had to attend to – on top of all that, I’m on the final stretch of my Master’s degree journey, taking several classes all at once so I can finish in time to graduate in September. With so much going on, my “leisure” reading life has unfortunately taken a hit, resulting in me falling behind on my reading goals. While I have been able to squeeze in a few books here and there, I haven’t been able to read as much as I would like. With that said however, I hope to be back in full force come September, as I will be done with school and everything else should be sorted out by then.

Now even though I’ve been so busy, that has not stopped me from making time to read the latest novel from one of my all-time favorite authors, Fredrik Backman. Yes, Backman has another book out (released this month, in fact) called My Friends and it is SPECTACTULAR! I honestly don’t have words to express how much I love this book (though I guess the fact that I got 4 different versions of this book – including a signed version!!! -- is proof enough?)

As is the case with all of Backman’s novels, this one is absolutely an emotional roller coaster where I found myself laughing hysterically one minute and bawling like a baby the next. In his signature style, Backman takes us on a poignant, heartfelt journey of 4 teenaged friends who form an unbreakable bond so deep and powerful that it ends up changing the life of a complete stranger 25 years later. In all of Backman’s novels, the emotional core of the story lies in the characters, all of whom are tremendously flawed, with lives that are messy and oftentimes dysfunctional, yet you can’t help falling in love with them and rooting for them regardless of what happens. I don’t know how he does it, but with all his characters, Backman is always able to capture the essence of what it means to be human, and portray human relationships in a way that resonates deeply and emotionally. To me, his characters are always so real and yes, always, always unforgettable!

Those who are familiar with Backman’s style already know that this will be a story that is at once heartwarming yet also heart-wrenching. In this story, there is sadness and pain, violence and heartbreak, loss and suffering, yet there is also hope and healing, resilience and redemption, humor and warmth, and yes, loads of laughter and love.

If you believe in finding hope even in the face of loss and suffering, if you believe in finding humor in the most unexpected of places, if you believe in the transformative power of art to connect people across generations, but most of all, if you believe in the ability of deep and unwavering friendship to heal wounds and transcend the worst impulses of human behavior, then you need to pick up this book. Read this one with an open heart, but also have a box of Kleenex by your side because you will definitely need it!

Received ARC from Atria Books via NetGalley.

Coming of age story and nostalgic at the same time, this book is a MUST read. It had me laughing and crying. Reminded me somewhat of the feeling of Stand by Me. Definitely the best book I have read so far this year. The story and these characters will stay with me for a long time. Loved it! Thank you @netgalley for the ARC

An absolutely beautifully written story. I am seriously out of words. I was really impressed by this book and how the author delivers the story. The story is packed with sensitive/ important subjects which can be difficult to address, but you can tell that the author handles them with care. There’s just something about the way the story is written that is so captivating and impactful. While this is fiction there is just something so real and relatable in the characters that allows the reader to form a deep connection with the book. Some might think the story starts slow but I think there’s a purpose to it. I beg you o push through if you find it slow.. It was seriously an emotional rollercoaster but one worth riding.I will absolutely recommending this to everyone

What a great gift friendship is—for everybody but especially for teenagers in their formative years, when they search for understanding and acceptance, trying to find themselves and moving between excitement and depression, often in a single day. Fredrik Backman’s “My Friends” is a book about friendship that helps them accept that being different is okay.

Imagine a picture – later hung as a masterpiece in a museum – of three teenagers sitting on a pier, the blue water, a sunny day, and a feeling of lightness and beauty in the surrounding air.  This moment was caught in time by one of the teenagers who, although not painted in the picture, felt like he was all around his friends. He painted the moment and the feeling. This was his gift to his friends and later to the world as the first painting of a famous artist.

The story is told in two timelines: first, it is a memory of one’s youth, but it’s far from idyllic. There is domestic abuse and cruelty, and yet the evil is not met with more evil but with finding refuge in friendship.  Then we move to the present time when the teenagers become adults, and one of them, Ted, tells their story to Louisa, a free-spirited, troublesome foster child, now an eighteen-year-old girl who is very much at the beginning of her road as an artist. During their train ride, Louisa learns about Joar, Ali, Ted, and Kimkim, the artist, and it seems like summer has come back now in the quiet interior of the train, with the famous picture resting on the seat.

It’s also a book about art, its meaning, and how it can save people. The initial encouragement given to Kimkim by his friend, Joar, saves the artist (this is the name we hear about Kimkim first), but later results in a chain reaction – the artist meets Louisa, who is “one of us,” as he says. Later, Louisa meets another budding artist teenager, and the story repeats as the next ripple on the water that four teenagers had looked at years earlier.  Ultimately, Ted’s story has a significant impact, and the gifts of friendship and art are joined by a gift of storytelling – something that Ted and the book author, Fredrik Backman, possess in abundance.

Wow. I loved this from the very first paragraph. This is a story of friendship, grief, the beauty of art, what it means to be human…and yes, fart jokes. I adored all of the characters, and each of their stories felt interesting and impactful. The clever humor and quips that are signature to Fredrik’s writing are all here. My favorite audiobook narrator, Maren Ireland, narrates this one and was, as usual, fantastic. I kept pausing the audio to go back to my hard copy just to tab and underline quotes I wanted to remember. One of my favorite books of 2025!

My Friends by Fredrik Backman is another heartwarming, sharply observant story that hits you right in the feelings. It’s a story about connection, memory, and the quiet power of friendship, told with Backman’s signature mix of humor and heartbreak. The characters feel like real people, flawed but lovable, and their emotional journeys sneak up on you in the best way. If you enjoy stories that make you laugh and tear up in the same chapter, this one’s worth picking up!

It’s my favorite book this year, and nothing else has come close to it. It’s about friends who meet one summer as teenagers and spend time together, but then they grow up and aren’t as close anymore — at least, that’s what it seems at first.

It was so emotional reading and discovering what happened in the past. I also learned about another friendship that ended and one that started. It’s hard not to spoil, but I’ll say this: the characters were so well-detailed that I wanted to hug them all. I wanted to fight for them. I cried, I laughed, and I felt everything. I wanted to fight for them when they were struggling. The way the story unfolded made me feel so much. It made me realize how life can be so unfair, but also how beautiful it is with all the small things we get and the love we experience.

This book made me think a lot about life — how unfair it can be, but also how beautiful it is. The small things we get and the love we experience are so precious. It reminded me of how important our friendships are, and how they can change over time, sometimes without us even realizing it.