Reviews with content warning for Grief - Beartown

This book is great, but wayyy too long. I nearly gave up at 40% because the plot wasn't progressing. Hours and hours of character introductions and world building got exhausting and repetitive, and there were too many characters. The plot itself was captivating!

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treat_yo_shelf's review against another edition

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emotional reflective tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.25

Beartown destroyed me and put me back together. I fell in love with almost all of the characters, a few will stick with me forever. When I finished this book I physically vibrated at the grief of having finished and the last message of hope.

This is a book I will forever wish I could read for the first time again.

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theelliad's review against another edition

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5.0

Never would I have expected to find a book so triggering and love it so dearly- this was so specific in its traumas it became somewhat healing and I fell in love with the parts of me I saw reflected in these characters. This story of a small town and it’s hockey obsessed people branches into accountability, power, social norms, grief, the exploitation of children in competitive sports, sex and assault politics, homophobia (internalised and external), secrecy, systematic and institutional failures and family dynamics without ever feeling too full. Backmans writing is so easy to love and I will be thinking about this book for a long time

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trophysoph's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The book has an ebb and flow. Sometimes it spends too long on things and sometimes the plot shoots by you. At some point you come to understand that whatever you expect to happen will likely not be quite what happens

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risemini's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.25

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brookey8888's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.0

This was good, but a very hard read. This is also insanely slow. I knew what this was about which I feel is low key a spoiler because the summary on the back doesn’t mention what happened. It was just so interesting to see how all the people reacted to this event and the motivation behind. This did make me so angry though. I honestly didn’t care about the hockey at

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acebookwyrm's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious 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

4.0

I love the first sentence of this book. The way it spoils something that doesn’t happen till the end but also tells you nothing with how carefully selected the words are. “A TEENAGER picked up a double-barrel shotgun…put the gun to SOMEONE ELSE’S forehead, and pulled the trigger.” No gender disclosed for either, no age given to the person shot. Not even a clarification for if that person was Actually shot! Throughout the book, Backman drops several references related to gunshots, killing, and shooting someone as a comparison or metaphor. It even begins with “Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.”

Backman is fantastic at writing complex characters, particularly women, with full lives. The part in Ch 44 where Kevin's mom talks to Benji, then Maya, is one of the best scenes in the book.

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clairebartholomew549's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0

Several years ago I read Anxious People and found it almost unbearably moving. Ever since, I've heard people talk about Beartown, but I kept putting off reading it. I finally got around to reading it, and woof, what another almost unbearably touching book. This book covers hard content, but it's more about how people react to tragedy, how a community copes with violence and change, and the insidious and relentless nature of rape culture. It's obvious Backman has deep sympathy for each of his characters, even the ones perpetrating horrible acts and saying awful things, and he is so adept at charting a person's inner life that you find yourself at least somewhat understanding even the people in the narrative that you hate. Beartown is so vividly realized, and even though I'm not much of a hockey person, Backman makes you believe in the players and the town. This was an essential read, and I'll definitely be reading the rest of the series.

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