Reviews tagging 'Eating disorder'

Beartown by Fredrik Backman

34 reviews

aquakirst's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

this is genuinely a perfect book. i want to go back and bring down the ratings of every other book i've rated 5 stars because nothing can live up to beartown

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bluebear1's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25


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jane_moriarty's review against another edition

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emotional tense
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

I can't help but compare this to one my favorites this year, Firekeepers Daughter. Both are about a community in a northern town where icehockey players are the kings, both deal in parts with rape culture and both start with a scene were someone gets shot in the woods and we slowly find out what happened. But Beartown doesn't come close to the way Firekeepers Daughter deals with character development, topics about the beautiful and dark aspects of a community and wisdoms about intergenerational trauma and healing. 

Long rant coming up: 

First half was a 1 star tbh. If you enjoy Facebook motivational quotes on random nature backgrounds this might be for you. I hated the writing style, eyerolled at every pseudo-deep chapter conclusion that were like every fucking page after we were introduced to yet another cliche character who will probably be forgotten for the rest of the book. Not that I could tell the hordes of icehockey playing teenage boys apart but whatever. The author writes like he doesn't trust his reader to understand a single word if he doesn't drive it home with several repetitions and idiotic meaningless punchlines a la "it doesn't take much to let go of your children - it just takes everything", "she doesn't tell him that she's proud of him - he doesn't tell her he already knows" and so on. Also in case you didn't get it by the fiftieth time: ICEHOCKEY IS LIKE SUPER IMPORTANT IN BEARTOWN! 

The only story I was actually invested in were Benji and the bassist and the only reason this book gets two stars from me is the handling of the rape. The way this affects the victim and the way the community deals with it (or not) is written in a sensitive and imo realistic way, which not that many authors get right. 

Listened on Spotify (german translation) for the popsugar reading challenge "a book about about an athlete/sport".

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_rosie_reads's review

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emotional hopeful mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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kananineko's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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flavours_of_fiction's review

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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dreatomlinson8's review

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emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75


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edgaranjapoe's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75


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catunbound's review

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

Went into it thinking it would be like A Man Called Ove but turned out to be 13 Reasons Why.
SPOILER: She should have killed Kevin. He doesn’t deserve to live much less be happy. Lyt family. Kevin’s dad, mom. This was a shit show ugh.
 

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amariela02's review

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dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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