Reviews with content warning for Self harm - Bjørneby

Beartown is a long book, but I read it in a couple of days. Backman’s writing is compelling and easy to digest. The book’s strength lies in its ability to capture the small-town, hockey-obsessed culture of Beartown convincingly and quickly in the reader’s imagination. Despite the book’s large cast of characters, each person feels believable, and it is easy to keep track of everyone. Backman then uses this setting and this cast of characters to tell a heartbreaking but powerful story about the double-edged nature of a town that fosters a close-knit sports culture of ferocious loyalty, spirited work ethic, and conspicuous silence. He manages to capture the complexity of moral situations and sheds light on why certain people make certain choices, but nevertheless asserts the necessity of morally correct actions rooted in integrity and empathy.

My one issue with the book is Backman’s writing style. Although he appears capable of “showing instead of telling,” he often opts to “show” the reader something through a scene and follow it up with him “telling” them what it meant. He’s a huge fan of punchy concluding sentences that hammer in a point about morality or human nature, which can be effective if used sparingly. Unfortunately, Backman uses this device constantly, which dilutes the effectiveness of these lines considerably. If he cut them down by about 75-80% and kept only the best ones, he would be left with some pretty devastating lines that feel like a punch in the gut. More bizarrely, he sometimes repeats these lines within a chapter, with an effect similar to someone repeating a punchline of a semi-decent joke over again in the hopes of generating more laughs.

Fortunately, I appreciated the other elements of the book enough for me to ignore his annoying writing quirks. That being said, I feel no desire to continue with the Beartown series. I devoured this book like it was a decadently sweet dessert and decided to quit when satiated instead of making myself sick by eating further.

The Run-Down:

You will probably like Beartown if . . .

· You want to read a book that captures the small-town feel

· You like well-developed and damaged characters who must choose between doing what is right and what is easy

· You appreciate a story that has something to say and understands the complexties of human nature

· You are interested in the impact that masculinized sports culture has on wider society

You might not like Beartown if . . .

· You dislike shifting POVs or a large cast of characters

· You can’t stand didacticism or a heavy-handed writing style

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faithwalan's review against another edition

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5.0

oh my god.
idek know what to say but this was a masterpiece. i cried several times- i will never forget this read. i was completely invested in the MANY characters and in this world. i can’t wait to continue the series. ana and mayas friendship is one of the most accurate teenage girl friendship i’ve ever read.

If you are honest, people may deceive you. Be honest anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfishness. Be kind anyway. All the good you do today will be forgotten by others tomorrow. Do good anyway.

You never have the sort of friends you have when you’re fifteen ever again. Even if you keep them for the rest of your life, it’s never the same as it was then.

Hate can be a deeply stimulating emotion. The world becomes much easier to understand and much less terrifying if you divide everything and everyone into friends and enemies, we and they, good and evil. The easiest way to unite a group isn’t through love, because love is hard. It makes demands. Hate is simple

She was fifteen and had access to the Internet; she already knew that the world is a cruel place if you’re a girl. Her parents couldn’t imagine that this could happen, but Maya simply hadn’t expected it to happen to her.

Any living thing that is kept behind bars for long enough eventually becomes more scared of the unknown than its own captivity.

Because in the end that's all anyone can ask of another person. That we are prepared to admit that we don't know everything

Everything she has held back, everything she has tried to stifle, everything she has tried not to show in order to protect the people she loves, to stop them having to feel as much pain as her. She can’t bear their pain as well. She can’t handle the weight of other people’s sorrow on top of this.

Another morning comes. It always does. Time always moves at the same rate, only feelings have different speeds. Every day can mark a whole lifetime or a single heartbeat, depending on who you spend it with

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idk_indigo's review against another edition

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I wanted so badly to finish it, I love the author & I had so many hopes for the book, I think the SA storyline was too much for me. I need to stop for my own well-being

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l0bke's review against another edition

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Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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devowynn's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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verafey's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring reflective sad 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

4.5

Was hesitant about reading a book that -at first- seemed to primarily be about ice hockey, which I know absolutely nothing about. BUT this book was definitely about a lot more than just ice hockey. Enjoyed this book a lot even though I truly did (and still do) not care about ice hockey as a sport itself. Fredrik Backman adresses quite a few heavy but important topics which he did really well, in my opinion, and that brought tears to my eyes more than once. (Please don’t forget to look up trigger warnings before reading). Not sure what I thought of the parts where the autor skipped to the future though. I felt like they sometimes took me out of the flow of the story, where unnecessary and gave away too much too soon. Eitherway I loved this book and will definitely read the second and third book of the series.

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