Book Review: My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry

 

Summary: From the author of the internationally bestselling 'A Man Called Ove', a novel about a young girl whose grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters, sending her on a journey that brings to life the world of her grandmother's fairy tales.
 Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy, standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-men-who-want-to-talk-about-Jesus-crazy. She is also Elsa's best, and only, friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother's stories, in the Land of Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal.
 When Elsa's grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa's greatest adventure begins. Her grandmother's letters lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and totally ordinary old crones, but also to the truth about fairytales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other.

Thoughts: My mother read 'A Man Called Ove' and then she read this one. And, knowing me as well as she does, she made me read 'My Grandmother Asked Me' (I'm abbreviating because the title is way too long to type out every single time). And that was how I found my new favorite book.
 If you follow me on Goodreads you'll know I usually rate books with four out of five stars. It's the easiest way to mark a good book. But it takes a lot (and I mean a lot) to get five stars out of me. This book got five stars easily. 
 In the words of Larry the Cucumber "I laughed, I cried, it moved me Bob."
 This is the story of a lonely, bullied, confused little girl who's too smart to be a child but too young to be an adult. She's stuck between worlds and no one appreciates that. No one, except her Granny. The plot grabbed and held me from the beginning. Elsa is such a sassy, smart, sweet little thing! And the cast, from beginning to end, was a breathtaking conglomeration of human beings. Not characters, not just actors on the pages, but real humans in all the glory of their flaws, failures, and shortcomings...seen through the eyes of a seven year old.  
The writing is fabulous, stories about reality mesh seamlessly with fantasy leaving the reader feeling lost in a dream, never knowing what's real and what's not. but that didn't matter, because everything was real and none of it was, so it was good to be stuck somewhere in the middle.
 I nearly cried at the end, I didn't, but I did get a little misty eyed. This story is a beautiful tale of forgiveness, hurt, evil, courage, and love. It is fully human and very much fantasy and comes ever so highly recommended!

Content: SPOILERS! I'm just gonna throw that out now because everything except language is mostly a spoiler. The language, first and foremost, is AWFUL. The one major fallback of this book. This is no story for children or the sensitive reader! If you can think of it, it was probably in here at some point. The thing is, it made the story feel more real. It was not there, like many books, just for the shock factor. It was there because this book is filled with grumpy old people who spoke like that. I know many people of similar ages and attitudes and, well it's true. But yeah, language is something to be aware of. There is a bit of mature content in here such as an abusive husband, another man cheating on his wife, an affair, a woman pregnant and unmarried, and a stalker attacking children. Drug and alcohol abuse is also mentioned. These are all seen through the eyes of a small child though, many are just mentioned, so it takes a less-abrasive approach, brushing over the finer details. The Granny is known to run around naked on occasion and leaves the bathroom door open. There are a few rude and mature jokes made. Bullying and depression are also factors in this book. 
Basically, this book is not for children or any form of sensitive reader. it calls for a mature reader but, for those who do read, it was all so very, very worth it!