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Graphic: Cancer, Death, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Violence, Car accident, Death of parent
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide
Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Outing, Alcohol, Sexual harassment
Moderate: Gun violence, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Vomit
Whilst the fallout of Mayas rape remains central to the novel we get to explore other characters lives in greater depths including Bobo and his family.
Benji, for me, remains one of the most lovable characters and this book does put a greater focus on his life, even if so far a happy ending for him appears less and less likely.
The themes of class, sexuality, grief, found family, friendship, and parenthood remain central in addition to the exploration of homophobia within sport and small towns.
This book is just as beautifully written as the first and remains well suited to readers that enjoy fully realised and relatable characters.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Rape, Self harm, Car accident, Outing, Alcohol, Classism
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Violence, Car accident, Classism
Minor: Bullying, Drug use, Self harm
Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Violence, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Alcohol
My Summary: The people of Beartown have gone through so much within the past year, and now their hockey team is about to be disbanded. Most of the former Beartown players went to Hed, a neighboring town, to play there instead, but with a new coach helping Beartown, they're able to put together a solid team that just might beat Hed.
My Thoughts: As the second book in the Beartown trilogy, Us Against You is about a small town and their hockey team. But, like its predecessor, this novel is so much more than that.
The people of Beartown are still recovering from recent tragic events and are trying to pull themselves together even as their beloved hockey club is falling apart. They have the bear in them, and more than anything, they want to prove that they are strong enough to beat their ultimate rivals--the Hed hockey team.
Us Against You really dives into violence--what it is, what it means, and how it's perpetuated within people and communities. Some of the scenes were difficult to read (definitely check content warnings before picking up these books), but they show the full spectrum of human emotion and how far we're willing to go to defend ourselves and those we love.
It's difficult to put into words how much I love Backman's writing and this series. Backman is a master at his craft and has this ability to put you right into each character's shoes. Every single character brings nuance to the story. Sure, there are characters you might root for more than others, but even the "unlikable" characters have depth to them that make you empathize with their circumstances and actions.
To sum it up, I highly recommend you pick up the Beartown trilogy if you are a contemporary/literary fiction lover who appreciates artful prose, masterful storytelling, and wonderful characters.
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Homophobia, Violence, Alcohol
Moderate: Alcoholism, Rape, Car accident
Minor: Child death, Drug use, Sexual assault, Sexual content
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Homophobia, Violence, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Alcohol, Classism
Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Death of parent
Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Violence, Car accident, Outing
Moderate: Bullying, Death of parent
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood
Moderate: Homophobia, Violence, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Rape
I'm finding it hard to write exactly what I loved about this book since there is so much and it was just written so well, so I'm gonna put some of my favourite quotes in here instead.
Deep down inside most of us would like all stories to be simple, because we want real life to be like that, too. But communities are like ice, not water. They don't suddenly flow in new directions because you ask them to, they change inch by inch, like glaciers. Sometimes they don't move at all.
When a child gets a best friend, it’s like a first infatuation; we want to be with them all the time, and if they leave us it’s like an amputation.
Yet few people seem to appreciate that everything about him did just that - strike hardest, beat hardest - the whole time. Including his heart.
If you want to know why people sacrifice everything for love, you have to start by asking how they fell in love. Sometimes it doesn't take anything at all for us to start loving something. Just time. All adults know, deep down, that hockey is make-believe, an invented game, but when you're five years old your heart is fairly small. So you have to love with all of it at once.
The worst thing we know about other people is that we’re dependent upon them. That their actions affect our lives. Not just the people we choose, the people we like, but all the rest of them: the idiots. You who stand in front of us in every line, who can’t drive properly, who like bad television shows and talk too loud in restaurants and whose kids infect our kids with the winter vomiting bug at preschool. You who park badly and teal our jobs and vote for the wrong party. You also influence our lives, every second.
Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Violence
Moderate: Alcoholism, Rape, Car accident, Alcohol, Sexual harassment
Minor: Child abuse, Child death