Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

Beartown by Fredrik Backman

44 reviews

conniejones's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Bullying, Homophobia, Violence, and Alcohol

Minor: Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Blood, and Death of parent

lizziaha's review against another edition

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

Goosebumps, chills, tears. I cannot express how much this book got under my skin. It took me a little bit to get into it—I wasn’t sure I was going to like it—but before I knew it, I was deeply invested in this town and these characters. I was never quite sure what they were going to do—characters I trusted made choices that hurt me and characters I hated made choices that I was rooting for. And some characters I just hated and some characters I just loved (one of those hockey boys in particular has my whole entire heart and then some). The reading experience is really immersive. I felt like I was somewhere in that town, in the forest. And Backman has a way of writing that takes such complex topics and puts them into really simple words. It’s sort of a detour from what I usually love but there’s just something about the way that he uses repetition is just so compelling and powerful. 

I also really like the way that, even though it’s the first in a series, it can also stand on its own. Even though I want to stay with these characters and see what happens next, it felt complete. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, and Dysphoria

julieshuff's review against another edition

challenging dark funny reflective 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? It's complicated

3.25

Extremely slow start- so many side characters and it takes awhile to get going. Once I was invested though, the pages flew by. The ending felt a bit rushed to me as well, given all of the time that went into set up and development. 

This book deals with lots of heavy topics in passing (class, sexism, alcoholism, homophobia, abuse, death of a child), and pivots around a graphic on-page rape and the fallout that comes from the girl going to the police. It was very anxiety inducing to see how few people in the town believed her, even if it wasn’t surprising.  

P.S. there is rampant unexamined fatphobia throughout this book as well.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia and Rape

Moderate: Sexism, Toxic friendship, and Classism

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

stepnic's review against another edition

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Hate crime, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Vomit and Murder

mbarlow03's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Fatphobia, Gun violence, and Homophobia

kellil's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Homophobia, Rape, and Sexism

thecriticalreader's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

4.25

 

Context:
I borrowed Beartown from my library through the Libby app. It is the first Fredrik Backman book that I have read.

 

Review:

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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Racism, Self harm, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Medical trauma, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Child death, Domestic abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

te_ss_i's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

katharina90's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

I adore the Beartown series. 

This story captures so beautifully what it means to be human and all that we're capable of... the best, the worst, and everything in between. It is emotional and captivating, at times heartbreaking, funny, tense and hopeful. 

Backman's characters are wonderfully complex, imperfect like the rest of us, and utterly lovable (or at least most of them...). 

The writing style is simple, succinct and fairly blunt, and there's a lot of foreshadowing. 

I was hooked immediately and will definitely be rereading this in the years to come. 


Quotes: 

"Words are not small things." 

"Difficult questions, simple answers. What is a community? It is the sum total of our choices."


[I listened to the audiobook this time. It is well narrated and I enjoyed it a lot, but definitely prefer reading this story myself so I can reread sentences and paragraphs to my heart's content.]

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Homophobia, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Violence, and Classism

Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Transphobia, and Cultural appropriation

dani794's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative sad slow-paced

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

5.0

“Never again do you find friends like the ones you have when you’re fifteen years old.”

This was really beautifully written! 

It was really sad but it was intriguing and irritating to see so many different viewpoints on a situation.

I particularly liked Benji, Bobo & Ana’s characters a lot

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Homophobia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Pregnancy