Book Review - Big In Sweden by Sally Franson

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Title: Big In Sweden

Author: Sally Franson

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Headline

Publication Date: 2nd July 2024

Rating: 4 Stars

I would go to Sweden and everything would be different. I'd be surrounded by tens of hundreds of Alexander Skarsgårds. They'd put flower crowns in my hair . . . carry IKEA furniture instead of guns . . . go to museums instead of football games, wear interesting shoes . . .

Paulie Johansson is lost: on the brink of midlife, all she's got to show for herself is a dead-end job and some serious family baggage. Maybe that's why, drunk and sure it's a fool's errand, she agrees to audition for Sverige och Mig, a Swedish reality show where Americans compete to win an unusual prize - a reunion with long-lost Scandinavian family.

To everyone's surprise (and her boyfriend Declan's disapproval) Paulie makes the final cast, dropping everything to jump on a plane to Sweden - armed only with a copy of Pippi Longstocking and a sense of possibility.

At first, it seems clear she has nothing in common with her fellow American contestants. But amid increasingly absurd challenges and on-camera meltdowns, followed at all times by a distractingly handsome Swedish cameraman, Paulie finds herself rethinking everything she thought she knew about her country, her family, and herself.

Sometimes you have to leave it all behind, to find what you've always been looking for . . .

More than just a hilarious fish-out-of-water tale, Big in Sweden is a love story: love for family, friends, country, and - most importantly - oneself.

I absolutely loved learning about Sweden through this book, there is so much more to the country than you may first think, and I devoured every piece of info as Paulie discovers the country for herself, through a Swedish Reality show that she drunkenly applied for. 

It's a show that is a mix of genealogy and showing Sweden off to a group of Americans that have roots here, and that have never met the Swedish parts of their families. 

And I loved the concept of the show, and there really was a great mix of contestants.  

However I struggled to really like a lot of the characters, which was a bit of a shame, and that included Paulie. Dont' get me wrong I didn't particularly hate them, just didn't overly connect, and found some of Paulie's decisions a bit baffling. 

Although perhaps the fact that I've never read Pippi Longstocking and Paulie kept comparing elements of the experience to Pippi and her tales, that caused the disconnect for me, as I just didn't know the references. 

That being said, other than that this was a truly enjoyable read, it's fun, it includes reality tv and armchair travel both of which I always love and it found were the bits that worked the best for me! 

Thank you to Headline and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.