Fredrick Backman’s 2019 novel, Anxious People, is an adult fiction novel that follows the lives of multiple characters and illustrates how strangers are more closer than they think. This is a character driven book, shifting in between different characters in each chapter, talking about each of their anxieties and baggage.

This book begins with a failed bank robbery turned into a hostage situation. Believe it or not, this hostage situation led 8 people to become lifelong friends. Throughout this story, I was continuously shocked and surprised with different stories being revealed, because everybody’s stories were connected.

It’s revealed in the beginning that the bank robber’s motive in robbing a bank for $60,000 was to pay for rent. They’re in a sticky situation where their kids were being taken away from them because of a nasty divorce, and if they didn’t have steady housing, their kids would be taken away from them. So when you’re in a situation like this, what do you do? Rob a bank, of course.

Obviously, this bank robbery turns into an awkward one, you’ll see if you start reading this book (I’m not going to spoil much…). So the bank robber is left with an accidental hostage situation.

This is a book I would recommend to everybody and their mamas. This book talks about how depression affects people, suicide, anxieties, and life in general and how hard it can be sometimes to just live through one day. It also made me think that people have more things in common than we think. Being locked in an apartment, these hostages had nothing better to do besides talking. So that’s what they did. Talking through issues in your life helps you more than you realize!

While I was reading, I highlighted so many quotes that stuck out to me and made me realize that everybody is going through similar things in life. Not everybody has their life figured out, not everybody needs to be perfect, not everybody has a mentally-ill free mind. Everybody has their own trauma and baggage they carry everyday, and I love how this book made me realize that. You don’t know what people are going through, and they could be going through something similar to you.

If you need a book to read this coming up break, I highly recommend this one. It’s about 330 ish pages and worth it. It’s also coming to Netflix as a show later this year! I feel like everybody can take something out of this book whether it be parenting is hard or how not all robbers are bad… Whatever you want.