Book review: Wilful Disregard - A Novel About Love

Title: Wilful Disregard - A Novel About Love
Author: Lena Andersson
Genre: Romance
Year published: 2013
Pages: ca 208
A place to buy it: If you are in Sweden you can you can click here to buy the book of Adlibris and if that's not the case you can click here to buy it from Amazon.
Other: Winner of the August Prize 2013
Previous book review: Vanished

It's not in the story but in the words

The main character is called Ester and the whole story is basically her falling in love with a man, breaking up with her previous partner in order to be with this other man and then it turns out he is not a very nice person. In the book I didn't really fall much for the characters, I never felt like I cared about them or really cared about what happened in their relationship. The plot is simple and not something I could care about because the characters didn't feel very present to me.

So what is it to like if not the story nor the characters are that good? That answer is very simple, it is the words by which Ester's feelings are portrayed that lifts this book so much. If the language and the words Lena uses in this book wasn't there I wouldn't have gotten through the book. It is very clear early on in the book that Ester is madly in love but she isn't loved back as much as she loves him. The man she falls in love with never sees Ester as a main road, she is always the little sidetrack you take because of the lovely view, you are still going to leave the sidetrack for the main road but you go on it because you want some variation  - was that a very confusing example?

Through heartbreak after heartbreak

What I found interesting in the book was how naive Ester really was, she just kept hoping for this man to start loving her as she loved him. Every little text, phone call or dinner happened the same way. She got happy, filled with hope and excitement. The date or phone call or whatever happened and then she didn't hear from him in like three months - for her that was three months of depression - then he contacted her again and so on.

I almost got angry at Ester. Why didn't she see that she was just being used? But most of all: why did she keep going back to him? It is very obvious that he is just using her, keeping her within reach and never letting go. I know she probably isn't supposed to realize this because she is in love and so on but it really makes me frustrated.

Final thoughts

The language and the words are wonderful, they do a great job illustrating all of Ester's ups and downs. I love the way a few smaller characters are portrayed, like Hugo's best friend and Ester's partner in the beginning of the book. Ester herself is a character I could never like, she really isn't likable because I find her way too naive and supposedly blinded by her love for Hugo. 10/10, I would love to recommend everyone who doesn't care too much about a very strong story.