Rating: 4/5

TW: Depression, Suicide

“They say that a person’s personality is the sum of their experiences. But that isn’t true, at least not entirely, because if our past was all that defined us, we’d never be able to put up with ourselves. We need to be allowed to convince ourselves that we’re more than the mistakes we made yesterday. That we are all of our next choices, too, all of our tomorrow.”

Looking at the title of the book, you probably think it will an educational book how anxiety and how it packs people but this book is so much more than that. I literally couldn’t put it down once I started. If books where an unlikely group of characters come together and bond, then this book is right up your alley. The majority of the takes place in a bank robbery gone wrong and the underlying plot revolves around the hostage negotiation. I know that this plot sounds familiar but the way that Backman distracts you from what is really is incredibly good.

From the witty and blunt dialogue, well written and fleshed out characters, and a plot that seems overdone but the spin that he put it on made me laugh and cry at the same time. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone!