A Game For All the Family by Sophie Hannah

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A Game For all the Family. What on earth could that even mean, and what could that game possibly entail? Your guess is as good as mine since Sophie Hannah, author of A Game For all the Family, decided to keep that little tidbit to herself, if she even knew it in the first place. Sure, she threw the line out there every once in a while, as good authors do, but never actually tied it in with the story, so now the title is just an awkward mouthful.

Justine is a wife, a mother of one - Ellen - and a former television executive who has just fled her career in favor of doing scandalously Nothing. After only having been in their stately, historically archived home for a few months, Ellen begins to withdraw and Justine starts receiving ominous-turn-threatening phone calls from a woman she doesn't know or recognize, but who is sure that her and Justine share a dangerous, life-threatening secret. This is Justine's game, though what exactly that is, is never actually revealed.

The book starts off sinister enough, with a very intriguing premise that I have never encountered before. The extremely intricate story is very much plot-driven, a mystery wrapped in a riddle where you're given all of the puzzle pieces but haven't the faintest idea of how to put them all together, which usually makes for a very good book. A Game For all the Family will keep you turning the pages, the writing is sharp and clever and witty, it's Where'd You Go, Bernadette meets the game of Clue. But while the premise is unique, it also becomes pretty far-fetched, and the ending - the Big Reveal - manages to be both overly-dramatic - no, unnecessarily dramatic - and a big let-down, and our heroin is the one who ends up looking like the whack-job.

A Game For all the Family. I still don't know what that means. ⭐⭐/5

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

There are many things that Ove does very well, being a grumpy curmudgeon chief among them. But of all the things that Ove is good at, he is, "quite clearly UTTERLY LOUSY at dying!"

At first sight, Ove is the grumpiest man you'll ever know. Reminiscent of Dwight Schrute, driven by staunch principles and strict routine, he has a mind for motors, but not much for human emotion (though he does seem to grasp the complexities of feline feelings, however). Ove suddenly finds himself without a place in the world, until one November morning when his new neighbors back their trailer over his mailbox. What unfolds is a story that is depressing at its surface, but is actually pure, unadulterated, joy; heart-breaking in its own right, but still a heart-melting love story, not only of Ove and his Motley Crue of new friends, but of everyone acting with a true and genuine heart.

In a word, A Man Called Ove, is brilliant. It is expertly plotted and cleverly detailed, the analogies and metaphors not only spot-on, but also hilarious and witty. The writing is poetic and charming, with seamless transitions to being powerful and emotional, and a hidden beauty that unexpectedly slaps you in the heart; Backman beautifully captures both the hardships and simple joys of what it means to not only be alive, but to live. Your heart will break and be put back together again with every chapter, making you laugh out loud and bringing tears to your eyes, and smiling the entire time.

Ove is, "the strangest superhero I've ever heard about," and reading any book after this would be like trading in a Saab for a Volvo. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 but it should be more.