Reviews with content warning for Murder - Beartown

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Beartown by Fredrik Backman

19 reviews

gordee's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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taracloudclark's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A stark small town obsessed with hockey grooms its children to be either predators or victims, heroes are truly born out of adversity and find themselves kneecapped by those they trust the most.

The first half of this book is a lot of exposition, setting the stage for the driving action. But it’s done well, creatively, interestingly. In other words, “nothing happens,” and I was *almost* bored with it, but I only had to push through a little. It kind of reminds me of Spoon River Anthology with the intertwining of lives and stories of a small town where everyone knows everyone and always have (except the newbies, but that’s not portrayed as harshly as many of this trope).

While it’s a sports town, the sport itself doesn’t take a front seat. It truly is the background while still sating any love for it.

This definitely borders on literary fiction bc the structure is done in a very precise and lovely way, using almost poetic mechanisms such as repeated phrases and parallelism. The narrative style also has a starkness that reflects the setting and the situation, and vice versa. Tension and foreshadowing are done in an obvious but not ridiculous manner. The *way* it was written is as well done as the story itself.

This is definitely a book for consideration. The story is laid out, and while there’s no ambiguity as to “what happened,” there is much speculation to be made as to why and how and what the underlying issues are and how else they affect society. There are no stark answers given. Bad behavior is mentioned, implicated, but not condemned outright. That’s for the reader to determine, negotiate in some cases. Anyone who feels this is moralizing is probably on the more brutal side of the issue.

The narrator Marin Ireland does very well in complimenting the narrative style as well. It’s 3rd person, and the author is male, but I’m pleased they chose a female to tell this story. Such topics through the male perspective can be troublesome, but I feel like the author did well and the narrator helped convince me of it.

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lenor1058's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-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

4.0

Very slow to begin with - to the point of wondering what the point is. Things happen i fell into it and loved it latterly

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coybean's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

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stepnic's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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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gillzzzo's review

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dark reflective sad 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

4.0

I listened on audiobook which probably was not ideal as I found it harder to get into. Overall a good book, interesting and important themes. Worth a read

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patlo's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Incredibly well written. Backman does a wonderful job of capturing small town youth sports life, and of building out interesting flawed characters, and of ratcheting up tension and consequences chapter by chapter. This starts slowly, and since I went into the book without knowing much about it, I nearly DNF'd it around 1/4 of the way in. I'm very happy that I stuck with the audiobook.

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