Frank and Red by Matt Coyne

28 Feb, 2025

⭐⭐⭐½ 3.5 Stars

This was a fun little heartwarming book - it reminded me a lot of "A Man on the Inside", which I watched shortly before I started this one. And even A Man Called Otto movie (which is also based on a book).

The story is pretty character-focused, where we alternate between a widowed man, Frank, and a kid (I think 7-8 years old) who is the child of a new neighbour that moved in. I would say that in terms of emotional impact it didn't quite get me, perhaps because I've already seen similar themes and plot from A Man Called Otto (replace the kid with an adult woman haha) which was still fresh in my mind.

What I did find interesting was how the author wrote Red's perspective as well - I don't think I've read from a POV of someone this young, and it was nice to see it done here.

A quick summary of the plot, if it could be something you might want to read:

Frank is depressed and recently widowed, and has a barely there relationship with his son, Michael. Red and his mother moved in next to him - and turns out Red's mother used to be Frank's wife's caretaker when she was sick. Frank can't stand Red's constant questions or him playing on his trampoline, but things start to change when Frank had no choice but to look after Red.

I think I would've enjoyed this a lot better if I had read it before I watched the previous stuff I mentioned earlier - it just didn't hit as hard as those, but it was still a great read nonetheless.

[24/100] for #100DaysToOffload

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