Only Fredrik Backman can have me crying on one page and laughing on the next. This story is an absolute masterpiece. Backman has such a way with his writing that no matter the subject (Hockey for Beartown, Art for My Friends) you dive in and care so deeply about it because you realize it's not at all about art or hockey, it's really just about the relationships. Already preordered this and cannot wait to reread it once it comes out!

I ADORE Fredrik Backman. He is such a unique 'flavor' in the literary world, and this was no exception to that. Backman continues to perform surgery on the little intrinsic pieces that make us human, and serves them up in a way that is digestible and almost 'chewy'. This is Backman at the top of his game.

I’m going to start using Backman as an adjective. It will mean pristine, best, fucking perfect. For example, getting tacos is always a Backman idea. Or, it would be so Backman if I was still sleeping right now. And finally, My Friends is a Backman book.

Backman is an instant read author for me, if he writes it, I will read it. I fell in love with Ove a decade or so ago and I never looked back. He has a style that’s all chaotic whimsy, but with a purpose. He is funny, witty, gritty, and is unmatched in making complex, deeply flawed, heartbreaking characters that you will love for the rest of your days (I’m looking at you Benji Ovich). I was ecstatic to get an ARC of his newest book, My Friends, out in May. And friends, it was everything I hoped it would be.

A story that jumps through time to tell about 4 young friends and the summer that changed their lives. Through a series of quirky twists Ted, one of the friends who is now an adult, is paired up with Louisa, an 18 year old art lover and foster child who is suddenly the owner of one of the most famous and coveted paintings. The two go on an unexpected journey to reveal the past and accept the present. As we learn more about Louisa it is clear she is cut from the same cloth as Ted and his friends, a rambunctious bunch of outcast misfits who manage to love each other fiercely in a life that has consistently pushed them down.

This book is beautiful. Backman really is a master with characters. Louisa, Joar, the artist, Ali, Ted, Fish - they are all so vivid and individual on the page. I love his style, it’s just so… so… well, it’s just so Backman. I don’t know how he continues to write such bangers, but My Friends deserves all of the hype and then some. First book of the year, wouldn’t be shocked if it’s my favorite.

I absolutely adored this book! It’s incredibly brilliant. Fredrick Backman’s writing is unparalleled; no other author speaks to me like he does. He possesses the extraordinary ability to breathe life into his characters, making them feel real and relatable. Unlike other authors, he manages to transform the darkest aspects of humanity and life into a tapestry of love and hope. This book is both heartbreaking and beautiful, capturing the essence of friendship, trust, sacrifice, vulnerability, and love. I can’t find a single negative thing to say about it. Might be my favorite read of 2025 and the year just started.

I was thrilled to receive an ARC of Backman's next book! He's become a top author for me and I typically chew each book slowly to savor its wit and compassion. This one moved a bit too slowly, however and I found myself wanting him to move it along, especially thru the present timeline. But when he did, it was breathtakingly beautiful. Louise is a gem and Ted a loveable curmudgeon. Thanks for letting me read this one in exchange for an honest review.

Fredrik Backman writes, once again, a beautiful portrait of humanity in My Friends. Despite the heavy themes, My Friends is a heartwarming, uplifting tale of friendship and the lengths we go for those we love.
One of the aspects of Backman's writing I love so much is his ability to unravel the layers of his story with impeccable timing. He almost always lies by omission in some way, but never to the detriment and only to the benefit of each storyline. He enacts this same storytelling style in My Friends and it lends itself particularly well to this story and its unfolding.
The cast of characters is a heavily flawed, extremely likeable bunch. I enjoyed each individual story and each character's development.
Backman once again has a really unique ability to write a story that overall feels heavy and leaves you with a very melancholy mood but, if asked, I would probably call this a feel-good novel. Backman cuts straight to the heart of whichever idea he chooses to tackle- be it grief, friendship, addiction, or love.
I enjoyed this immensely as I have all of Backman's other works. I am so grateful for the opportunity to read this!

40%
I’ve highlighted something on every other page.

47%
I keep taking breaks. Heart breaks. Actual breaks for my heart. Not heartbreaks. Heart breaks. I’m procrastinating going back to see what happens to these beautiful people. Clearly. Like, breaks for my heart in anticipation of the heartbreak.

52%
This book is going to kill me.

66%
Oh god. Something so so so bad is going to happen.

67%
I can’t believe I have to live through this.

67%
Heart break.

81%
It’s that sort of story.

82%
Joar’s got a point.

88%
Oh god. His dad didn’t even know.

88%
You can't be in a bad mood if you've got a bunch of monkeys. Especially if you've also got drugs.

88%
I accidentally made Siri read that and it was awesome

95%
It’s cool that we happened at all

4.75⭐️
Fredrick Backman arc!!!!!

i am going to stay vague because i went into the book mostly unaware of the plot and really enjoyed that experience. i also don’t want to give any minor (but important) details away. if you’ve read anything by Backman before, you know that he has a way of twisting the story slightly at random points, soooo i’ll just say that main themes include friendship, love, art, and grief.

the other Backman books i have read are the Beartown series (all time fav) and Anxious People. this story felt like a mixture of both in my opinion. i had a great connection with the characters, and although heartbreaking at times, there was still humor to be found. this book was a warm hug. i laughed, teared up, and some of those Backman one liners really felt like a punch to the gut.

i’m a sucker for story’s about friendship and youth, and i’m having trouble finding any constructive feedback for this novel, other than the inevitable comparisons i am making with Beartown (annoying i know). although there were really sad and powerful scenes, i didn’t cry and feel as attached to characters as i have in the past with storylines such as this one. i’m definitely being picky but everything felt so big and over-consuming until the end. (but also maybe that was the point, idk)

regardless, i love Backman’s writing and he stays an auto-buy author for me forever. i’m already debating rereading this one when it’s released in May to annotate and see if i have any altering opinions heheh

thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

there are simply no words to fully express what this book did to me. this was, without a doubt, one of the best books i've ever read. period.

this is a story about the summer that changed the lives of four best friends and the lasting effects it had twenty-five years later. this was a story about friendship, love, loss and grief, and everything beautiful in between. every line was pure fucking magic. this was a masterpiece. i'm honestly in awe of the pure and raw emotions i felt reading this. no one can quite hit the way fredrik can. the man is unmatched and unrivaled.

these characters have my heart but their hearts belong to each other. i wish i could explain exactly what i'm going through but the best way to understand is to simply read this fucking book. oh my god. i will never be the same.

No one is more surprised by this 3 than me. I love Frederick Backman’s work more than anything. Anxious People and the Beartown series are on my God tier of books. But this one… just didn’t work for me. Backmans writing was beautiful as always but the story itself didn’t grip me like I was hoping it would. It felt slow at times. Even with a story that I didn’t connect with, I still found myself moved because his writing is just that dang good. I’m assuming I’ll be an outlier with this and tons of people will love it! Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this ARC!

Oh my heart!!!! I have been so excited about this one and it didn’t disappoint. This will be at the top of my list for 2025 and it’s only January. Phenomenal. I can’t say enough great things. 10/10! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this ARC, it was truly a pleasure.

I adored this compelling story about friendship, youth and art. Four friends in the summer when they were 14 is told 25 years later to a young artist. The narrative holds a few twists. I will remember these characters for quite some time. Look for this when is it published in May 2025, you won't regret it.

This is perhaps my favorite Backman book, and that is saying something.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the arc!

What can I say about this book? It's a beautifully.told story about friendship, human experiences, grief, hope, and what art can do to a soul. I really enjoyed this story, but the characters are a stand out for me. This is another great one by Backman.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC. This is an amazing story. I was drawn in immediately and enjoyed the journey immensely. The quirky characters that became friends and supported each other so well were a great example of true friendship. Louisa and I were both hanging on to every word of the story of their lives as Ted shared it. I was very sad when it ended however I would recommend this book to everyone who has experienced true friendship.

I really wanted this to be a five star review, as I gave for each book of the Beartown series, but for me it was not quite there. I loved that series but none of his other books measure up to them.
My Friends started off strong. I really loved the first third of the book. I enjoy Backman's style, which, admittedly, is different than I see from most other writers. He does capture what it is like to be 14 years old, and as a high school teacher, I appreciate that is no easy feat for most adults. I got a really good sense of the characters in a very sad (almost unbearably so) story. Four teenagers with tragic home lives find one another and form a bond that is so strong that it transcends everything. They are later brought together again by a painting created by one of the teens.
Perhaps it was better than I give it credit for but is so relentless in its depth and sadness that I may have found it hard to take. The Beartown series was also very sad as well but one thing that I think made it a bit easier to read was its sense of place. In the Beartown series, Backman immerses us in the world and those books were as much environment driven as character driven, whereas My Friends was totally character driven. That said, I might try rereading it a little later on to see if I still feel the same way. I would still give this 4.25 stars.
Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for allowing me to preview this book.

What a beautiful and heartbreaking story. So much grief and hope, an absolute masterpiece. Never enough good things to say about Backman’s writing. Superb

Thank you to Atria Books and to NetGalley for entrusting in me with an ARC of Fredrick Backman’s latest masterpiece. As my favorite author of all time, I had no doubt that my love for “My Friends” would run deep. I was not disappointed in any way.
We follow Louisa, an artist who had been bounced from foster home to foster home. She suffers a great loss when her best friend and confidant Fish who passed away of an overdose leaving Louisa feeling depressed and abandoned. She decides to fill her backpack with spray paint and hope that she can break into an art auction where a favorite painting of she and Fish was for sale. While she was running from the police, she ran into an elderly homeless man whom she befriends.
This book made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me grateful to have been raised the way that I was and it also made me miss my best friend of 50 years whom we lost a few short years ago.
Everyone will find a little of themselves in Louisa as this beautiful book continues.
FIVE ABSOLUTELY DESERVED STARS !

Thank you NetGalley for letting me read an advanced copy of My Friends. Fredrik Backman's first stand-alone novel in several years was well worth the wait! My Friends has themes of friendship, family/found family, and art. Full of Backman's signature whit, emotion, and lyrical language, I went from laughing to tearing up to wanting to hug my book all within the span of a few sentences. One of my favorite things about Fredrik Backman is that, though being Swedish himself, he doesn't set his books in any specific place. The characters and experiences are so universal, though, you can imagine the book taking place anywhere.

Every single person needs to read this book. What a story! So beautifully written and emotional...I laughed, I cried, I was full of nerves. Every person in this story is important - even the ones without names - and the connections made between characters is incredible. I am so lucky to have been able to read this one early. Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the ARC.

"I love you and I trust you."

Fredrik owes me financial compensation for the tears I shed throughout this story. This was nothing short of being absolutely devastating and I loved every second of the way it killed me.

This story deals a lot with grief and trying to live when your reason for living is no more. Having recently suffered a great loss, everything hit incredibly close to home. He perfectly put into words how I felt and how I was (trying) to deal with it. There were times where the pain became too great that I'd have to put the book down but the story was too beautiful not to continue. I loved that in the midst of all the pain and anguish, there was light. A little joke here and there to remind us that yes, it is hard right now and it'll always be hard, but there will also be times where it doesn't hurt so much and you're reminded that things will be okay. Those we've lost will always be with us and I loved how Backman made that clear through stories and art and silly little games.

I loved the family the friends found amongst one another. The group formed over the years but there was never a "before", it was just them. And losing a few didn't mean the end of them, either. They continued through life, bringing those that were "one of them" into the fold. Showing others that they're not alone in the world and that there are others who see the world as they do. That feel as though they are too much or not enough. Letting them know that there is a future full of light; that the darkness won't always be.

While this was a heartbreaking story, it was also a story of healing, love, trust, and vulnerability. I felt as if I were a part of their lives just as they've become a part of mine.

My first Fredrik Backman novel was insanely perfect and I definitely recommend that everyone read this.

⤷ Fave quotes:

- 'Adults always think they can protect children by stopping them from going to dangerous places, but every teenager knows that's pointless, because the most dangerous place on earth is inside us.'

- 'The only thing we can take for granted is that everyone we have ever met and everyone we have ever known and everyone we have ever loved will die.'

- "Being human is to grieve, constantly."

- 'You don't wish for happiness when you have lost the love of your life, because you can't even imagine ever feeling happy again.'

- 'Until then he hadn't known that grief is physical, an abuse of the living.'

- 'Art is what we leave of ourselves in other people.'

-'...it doesn't matter if life is long or short, it isn't time that's the problem, it's the speed. Far too much happens when you're alive, everything goes so damn fast, how are you supposed to have time to be a human being?'

- 'That's the worst thing about death, that it happens over and over again. That the human body can cry forever.'


Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this arc in exchange for a review!