If you loved Ove, you might love shrewd, intelligent, wise, cranky, funny as hell Grandma too. You will recognize the humor and daring thoughts at play.

But the unimaginable happened just before Christmas. Grandma died of cancer. Elsa lost her only friend. What was it about death that was so devastating? "The mightiest power of death is not that it can make people die, but that it can make the people left behind want to stop living"… However, grandma taught Elsa that life does not really end with the passing of a beloved. "You never say good-bye in the Land-of-Almost-Awake. You just say “See you later.” It’s important to people in the Land-of-Almost-Awake that it should be this way, because they believe that nothing really ever completely dies. It just turns into a story, undergoes a little shift in grammar, changes tense from “now” to “then.”She left a set of letters behind which would merged Elsa's two worlds. She would be introduced to the real people who were characters in the fairy tales, and who would open up a big world of possibilities to the seven-year-old heartbroken little girl. The novel suffers from a slow start. There is a fairy tale device that is interweaved into the narrative that never fully grabbed me, and it took me most of the book to buy into it. Other readers I know jumped right into that aspect of the text. To each his own, right? However, the last half of the book I thought was strong narratively, things started to fall into place for me with the fairy tale device, and from that point on I was fully in. Her grandmother was a dysfunctional superhero in Elsa's world. A retired, 77-year-old doctor, who triggered the smoke-alarms at the airports with her smoking in the ladie's room with an open door; was asked to retire after refusing to stop smoking in the operating theater; spilled Fanta on Elsa's iPhone and tried to dry it out in the toaster; climb fences at the zoo in the middle of the night; threw policemen with turds; traveled all over the world to save lives when everyone else was rushing to get out and away from dire war situations. Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is 77 years old and crazy. Standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-men-who-want-to-talk-about-Jesus crazy. She is also Elsa's best and only friend.

The book revolves around Elsa, mostly but as she relied on her grandmother greatly, although the grandmother dies early in the story, and thus she does not exist in the real world of the fictional world, she appears quite a lot and many quote her. The people surrounding Elsa can be categorized into two groups; one is the group of people standing in Elsa’s way, such as the irresponsible school faculty, her mother, her flat representative, Britt-Marie, the other group is those, who are outsiders and also friends of the grandmother and like her they encourage Elsa to be herself and defy the social norm; these include Alf, The Monster and so on. And so begins Elsa's adventure, part quest, part treasure hunt, part superhero mission, Granny's letter leads Elsa first to the door of a wurse, and then The Monster (also known as Wolfheart), another letter leads her to the Sea-Witch and yet another much later to the Princess of Miploris. With each letter, offering apologies and regrets, Elsa unravels the truth about the fairy tales that form the foundation of the Land-of-Almost-Awake, and the secrets of her grandmother's exceptional life. I want someone to remember I existed. I want someone to know I was here.”Grandma's letters turned the building and its inhabitants upside down. Life was changed for all of them. For Elsa that is her seventy-seven year old grandmother who regales her with stories that become like a secret communication between them. Her grandmother always comes to defense, is always in her corner, something Elsa desperately needs because she is a little different. This, of course, sets her up for a great deal of bullying at school, and causes her mother a good deal of exasperation at times. Her parents were divorced. They were both living in new blended families. Her mother was pregnant again with Halfie (half-sister or brother); George, the step-dad, could prepare eggs and jog, and loved wearing his jogging shorts over his leggings; Her dad lost touch with reality along time ago when he fell in love with fonts. The chances of him delivering any graphic designs on time is zero. The choice of fonts prevented him from finishing anything. Otherwise, he found happiness with Lizette and her two young children. Elsa felt threatened by the new baby, and lost in her dad's new life.

At the centre of ' My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises' is an almost-eight-years old, Elsa. When her best (and quirky) friend, her grandmother, leaves her a series of letters upon her death to be delivered to their intended receivers, she sets onto a thrilling journey of discoveries. What was the primary purpose of the letters you ask? You guessed it. To say sorry. This was a tough one to bear after loving Ove sooooo much. Sure, I liked Elsa well enough, 7 going on 8, and Granny was pretty amazing, but the constant reverting to fairytale land made this such a disappointment for me, I was ready to ditch it several times. There was a story to be told but with too many distractions; too many things to NOT like along the way. On the audio, read with a nice British accent, I couldn't be sure of any spellings (or obviously of my hearing); so please bear with me here while I complain. And upfront I tell you who loved this book that I am sorry. Because I did not. The Kingdom of Miamas I swear sounded to me like Myalis, which sounds like a prescription drug for erectile dysfunction in my non-fantasy world. The animal which I guess was just a big dog but never called a dog sounded like it was called a Worse or Worser (reminding me of Wrong and Wronger ala Alec Baldwin). After digging around some, I find it was Wurse and Wurses, but I don't think that's an actual word. This dog/Wurse was constantly being fed chocolate, which is actually quite dangerous for our furry friends and should not be encouraged. Very dangerous. Little Elsa, 7 going on 8, was more like 7 going on 17. Much too smart and worldly for 7 going on 8, no matter how much she used Wikipedia. Elsa because of her courage and her wisdom despite being almost eight years-old. And Granny because she's mad in the best possible way. The story takes place in Sweden and follows Elsa, a 7 year old who knows she is different from other children her age. She has a habit of correcting others' grammar, is smart for her age, and is especially close with her grandmother (Granny). When Granny passes, Elsa slowly discovers more about her grandmother's past identities, as well as the lives of people affected by her grandmother.The precocious Elsa is definitely beyond her years but it was hard at times to believe that a 7 year old would be as wise and knowing about people as she was . She's so smart and astute that you sometimes forget she's only seven until we see the insecurities and vulnerabilities of a seven year old dealing with her parents' divorce, confronting grief and death and her anxiety over having a half brother or sister and fear that she won't be loved as much .