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Can't tell you how many times I cried while I listened to this audiobook. Marin Ireland is a rockstar, love her narration and she embodies everything about the books in this series. I just found out that there will be a third book, which I'm super curious about because this one made things feel finished. Hopefully it will follow Benji out into the world, but I will miss the other characters if they aren't included.

Backman's writing connects with me utterly and completely. His words are occasionally simple and yet so profound.

“He’s twelve years old, and this summer he learns that people will always choose a simple lie over a complicated truth, because the lie has one unbeatable advantage: the truth always has to stick to what actually happened, whereas the lie just has to be easy to believe.��

“It’s hard to care about people. Exhausting, in fact, because empathy is a complicated thing. It requires us to accept that everyone else’s lives are also going on the whole time. We have no pause button for when everything gets too much for us to deal with, but then neither does anyone else.��

“What does it take to be a good parent? Not much. Just everything. Absolutely everything.��

I could basically fill this with quote after quote and end up nearly quoting the entire book. I am not really a sports person. I don't know the first thing about hockey. Yet this book series got under my skin and made me think and feel deeply.

I'm a Backman fan for life, now that I'm caught up on all of his books I will just sit here until the next one comes out. Hopefully soon.