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bairbre's review against another edition
3.0
I didn’t enjoy this book as much as Beartown. I thought it contained too much recap of Beartown, and didn’t get interesting until the end.
batrock's review against another edition
2.0
Us Against You is a borderline case. Basically, the sequel to [b:Beartown|33413128|Beartown (Beartown, #1)|Fredrik Backman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1482108618s/33413128.jpg|54171514] spends its entirety not starting, and making Sweden look like a backwards and bigoted place. Backman spins his wheels, has a strange concept of what "politics" actually means, and is almost grossly insensitive in his handling of homophobia.
Backman normally has a habit of being irritating at the beginning of his books, calming down, and sticking the landing. Us Against You is a monotonous commiseration about a vacuum of bigotry, bad decisions, and very little actual hockey. There is no sense of humour here, there are thousands upon thousands of fake outs and, because of a perhaps ill-judged flash forward at the end of Beartown, we still have an inevitable death lying in ambush for the potentially quite delayed Beartown 3.
If Beartown represented a maturation of Backman's craft - albeit a less satisfying one - Us Against You is a deafening flatline of the hatred that its characters feel for each other and the meaningless platitudes that the mysteriously omniscient anonymous Beartown resident narrator substitutes for storytelling.
Backman normally has a habit of being irritating at the beginning of his books, calming down, and sticking the landing. Us Against You is a monotonous commiseration about a vacuum of bigotry, bad decisions, and very little actual hockey. There is no sense of humour here, there are thousands upon thousands of fake outs and, because of a perhaps ill-judged flash forward at the end of Beartown, we still have an inevitable death lying in ambush for the potentially quite delayed Beartown 3.
If Beartown represented a maturation of Backman's craft - albeit a less satisfying one - Us Against You is a deafening flatline of the hatred that its characters feel for each other and the meaningless platitudes that the mysteriously omniscient anonymous Beartown resident narrator substitutes for storytelling.
latte111's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.0
ashamai's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
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? Yes
4.5
laurabeth9's review against another edition
5.0
I don’t think I could give this book/series a higher rating. Frederik Backman is one of my all time favorite authors and he just keeps getting better. Normally the second book in a series can fall flat, not living up to the first’s success. Us Against You doesn’t fall in this trap. It picks up where we left off and addresses so much more. I have not heard he is writing more, but so wish I could keep reading about Beartown. I feel like I could spend an eternity with these remarkable characters. My emotions run the gambit in a good way, I can This is Us crying to laughing out loud. Please read these two books. You won’t be disappointed.
chewedgum's review against another edition
5.0
WOW. This book was such a sad, beautiful follow up to Beartown. I really enjoyed it, even though it kept toying with my emotions. Frederik Backman is the only author I'll allow to do that, right now at least, because I know he'll make it worth my while.
The small town mob mentality feels so familiar to me because I grew up in a place like Beartown. But I also think it's SUPER applicable to the current political climate because the world has been infected by so much hate and bandwaggoning. I hope we can prevail.
The small town mob mentality feels so familiar to me because I grew up in a place like Beartown. But I also think it's SUPER applicable to the current political climate because the world has been infected by so much hate and bandwaggoning. I hope we can prevail.
idawgsbooks's review against another edition
3.0
This story was simultaneously trying too hard and being a total afterthought at the same time.