Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Beartown by Fredrik Backman

211 reviews

hawkguyscoffee's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A thoroughly interesting story, I couldn't take my eyes off the book the moment I got into it, Though slow paced and repetitive, these are the things that make the writer's writing style really charming and unique and what eventually you come to love. Though I don't entirely agree with many views expressed in the book, I can clearly see that it mostly tries to analyse where someone comes from and what makes them think and do what they do, even when it looks senseless to the outsiders, rather than analyse wether is was wrong or right. I also loved how even on a book so focused on the aforementioned, it still unequivocally condems things like 

rape, homophobia and misogyny

  because, as the book itself states,   

  "This town doesn’t always know the difference between right and wrong, but we know the difference between good and evil" 

 . Another thing I thoroughly loved was it's treatment of friendships and how it was captivated perfectly in both the adults and the youngsters. Finally, I'd like to add that I loved the descriptions of both the town and the players feelings, who were so vivid you could feel the cold on your nose and the passion for the sport in your heart.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Lesbophobia, and Classism

Moderate: Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, and Xenophobia

somelibrarychick's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia and Rape

Moderate: Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief

Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Drug use, Sexism, and Violence

yulecogs's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

heathbeatz's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Grief, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child death, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, and Suicidal thoughts

meeklovestoread's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

Okay, so when reading this I'm not gonna lie it's very slow in the beginning. And I even had the thought of dnf-ing because I was starting school and didn't have the time to stick through a book, but the concept was still intriguing to me and I loved "A Man Called Ove" so I stuck around for the author as well. Oh my goodness! I'm soooooo glad I dud! This book was phenomenal. But I feel like you have to like the way it was written to enjoy the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Homophobia, Misogyny, Grief, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cursing, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Vomit, Gaslighting, and Classism

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Lesbophobia, and Toxic friendship

bealmg's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, I appreciated the themes it explored. On the other hand, I disliked its structure and the author's writing style.
Let's start by what I disliked. First, the enormous cast of characters. While this is a book about a town and its people, it didn't need to delve into the minds of so many characters, many of which added very little to the actual plot. It literally shoved in the reader's face that this was a book about a small town where everybody knows everybody and hockey is the one thing that keeps the town alive.
This is tied to the way the book is structured. At first, I thought it was interesting, but an entire book composed of snippets of characters' lives and thoughts quickly became repetitive. Because of this, the reader doesn't get to spend enough time with the main characters and each character felt incomplete by the end of the book. Besides that, on a few particularly emotional plot points , the snippets become shorter and manipulative, the narrator leading you to think something terrible is going to happen and then it doesn't (

like when Zacharias enters the school and the reader thinks he'll kill himself, only to find out he cleaned Maya's locker; Maya pointing a gun at Kevin but not killing him in the end

).
Lastly, I really didn't like the writing style. It's full of aphorisms that are clearly meant to be thought-provoking, but instead tell the reader what to think and feel about the story (as opposed to, you know, letting the readers decide for themselves). I also didn't appreciate the heavy and way-too-obvious foreshadowing, which removed the tension from the story, as well as the insights into what these characters would feel and think about in the future. As a reader, I felt that I was too often told what the characters felt instead of shown what they were feeling. It was exhausting having a narrator constantly tell me things that I wanted to piece together myself.
Now, onto what I liked (but also felt could have been better). I liked the themes of the book. The small town experience and its sports culture (with its inherent violence, sexism, xenophobia and homophobia) was a really interesting theme to explore, but I feel like Backman tried too hard to write about everything that nothing felt truly, completely, deeply explored, partly because of the way he structured this book. And although it made me think about my own experiences living in a country obsessed with football (or soccer, whatever you call it), I felt that it added nothing new to the discussion.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexual violence

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexism, and Xenophobia

Minor: Child death, Vomit, and Grief

ate_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny sad tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Blood, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

Moderate: Alcoholism, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Lesbophobia, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

soozn's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Right from the beginning this book feels ominous. Ominous and quiet and foreboding and profound. In a way, it reminds me of Twin Peaks or the movie Fargo in that it tells a big story woven together by little slice-of-life insights into being human with a lot darkness hanging over the whole thing.

It’s chock full of thoughtful and insightful commentary on the difficulties of being a person. What life does to us and what we do to each other. It’s cautionary tale after cautionary tale about all the ways we fail ourselves and one another. Backman uses his characters to point out our own foibles and blind spots. And I love how often he uses metaphors and similes to get across ideas and themes. There are so many and they’re so well done. They’re my favorite aspect of the book. [“Being a parent makes you feel like a blanket that’s always too small. No matter how hard you try to cover everyone, there’s always someone who’s freezing.”]

I love how unabashedly feminist the book is. It has a lot to say about the perils and insidiousness of misogyny without really having to SAY anything at all. I think Backman does an amazing job of showing how often women are casually disrespected, how often their talents are written off, their opinions dismissed, how they’re subject to the whims of violence and power of the men around them, how few people are willing to stand up for them. He also shows different ways they can take back the power that’s been taken from them and how hard it is to do so. Kira, Maya, Fatima, Adri, Jeanette, Kevin’s mom (who, rather appropriately due to her lack of agency, is never given a name) among others, all give us examples. Misogyny makes for a sinister background presence in this book.

I found it a little slow at times but Beartown is an extremely well written, powerful and thought-provoking work with important messages, great storytelling and excellent characters. 

4 stars out of 5

⚠️ I honestly had no idea this was basically a story about Brock Turner. If I’d have known that, I probably wouldn’t have read it. This book was probably not one I should have picked up and I had a hard time getting through it. Heed the TW/CWs on this one, folks. 👇🏼

https://booktriggerwarnings.com/index.php?title=Beartown_by_Fredrik_Backman

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

eeeeva's review against another edition

challenging 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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief

Moderate: Child death, Misogyny, Sexism, and Classism

abitofapoet's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

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

4.5

The thing holding me back from a 5 star review is the fact that I would never read this books again. That doesn’t make it less of a masterpiece, because it is. But damn did it hit close to home. Please check trigger warnings before you read, especially if you’ve been a victim of or have had a family member or friend experience SA. 

Fredrik Backman has a way of throwing you into a community and really, really making you understand it. Almost as if you’ve lived there your entire life. I find that fascinating about his writing. There’s a LOT of characters, but you feel like you understand all of them. (even if you hate them) 

This story follows a team of hockey players, their families, friends, and the people who’s lives revolve around them in one way or another. It’s really, really honest. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Gaslighting, and Classism

Minor: Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, and Pregnancy