Fredrik Backman’s books are always both humorous and painfully melancholy. In one fell swoop, he delivers a sad storyline punctuated by life lessons and laughable moments. This book is no exception. 

Although the start of the book appears to be lighthearted and silly- a child and her eccentric grandmother navigating the world together with their mishaps. Elsa, the almost eight year old, is unusually smart for her age and very unique. While Elsa and her grandmother get into mischief together, it’s usually Elsa scolding her grandmother about something she read on Wikipedia or for ending up in trouble again. However, Elsa’s world and her relationship with others gets changed when a tragedy happens and she starts to learn life without the shelter of her grandmother’s fairy tales. 
Without giving away the book, I thought that this was an entertaining and slightly soul crushing read. It was a bit confusing to understand how Elsa thought about the world in the terms of the fairy tales and fantasy world that her grandmother used to explain how things worked, but it became more simple to catch on as more and more was revealed throughout the book. I thought it was actually very unique how the stories of the other characters in the books were explained and emerged through the tales that Elsa was taught- it was like learning about everyone else with her. While the main plot revolves around Elsa, Backman did a good job of incorporating the side characters because all of their roles intertwined. While it was sad at times, the book delivers a good message and I would highly recommend.