That too. I was so excited when this book came out, I thought I could just jump right back in but it became evident pretty quickly that I should have re-read the previous books first, it had been a few years since my last visit.

I think I need to re-read it and give it a second chance knowing what I know now. Thanks for clarifying!

I read it a while ago so the details are fuzzy but part of the problem is I thought Matteo and Mumble were the same person, so I was confused at the end when they weren't? Unless I missed something? That happens regularly. 🤣

Backman is my favourite author, I absolutely love his books but I think the Winners was the first of his books that didn't make me cry. I can't put my finger on why, something about it just felt off to me and I wasn't able to get into it as much as I had the other 2 books in the series and his works in general. I'll gather my thoughts on the specific story and come back to add them in a while!

My teen calls it "staring at dead trees and hallucinating". He can't visualize books in his head though. I'm the opposite, I've always loved reading though now I listen to audiobooks more because I can consume them at work.

I imagined her as roughly the same "age" as Josie but maybe a bit smaller stature for some reason. There's nothing that suggested to me she was trying to "blend in" and hide the fact she is a robot. As for her mom using her to carry on for Josie - I figured the mannerisms, her walk, speech pattern, etc were more important than her physical resemblance but now you've got me wondering if she would actually be more physically like Josie than I imagined. Hmm...

Love this book. It's what pushed me back towards studying Buddhist teachings in a quest for inner peace.