Reviews with content warning for Violence - My przeciwko wam

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

My przeciwko wam by Fredrik Backman

208 reviews

ionno's review against another edition

4.0

emotional sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Content Warnings

teddy221b's review against another edition

4.5

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: Yes

I thorougly enjoyed this book and burned through the second half. Backman manages to weave together the story of over a dozen characters and reflects on themes such as family, loss, trauma and a town in economic crisis. He portrays every character with empathy and nuance. I find that that his need to constantly foreshadow plot points in a very unsubtle way really gets old as the book goes on.

Content Warnings

stellahadz's review against another edition

3.75

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

"People will always choose a simple lie over a complicated truth, because the lie has one unbeatable advantage: the truth always has to stick to what actually happened, whereas the lie just has to be easy to believe."

I didn't enjoy this as much as Beartown, but it does the same things really well - interesting characters, insight into small-town life and sports culture, and transforming everyday life with beautiful prose. Overall, I wish there had been more focus on the characters from the first book, but I think rather than as a standalone book, Us Against You serves better as a kind of bridge between the beginning and ending of the trilogy.

Content Warnings

shconnie9's review against another edition

4.5

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Content Warnings

faithemt's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

excellent sequel to Beartown. Looking forward to the final book The Winners.

Content Warnings

katsba's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

An emotional rollercoaster. Well written and made me care about ice hockey. Huge number of characters- really wanted all of them to end up in a better position.

Content Warnings

melba1975's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

This is the second book of a trilogy set in the small ice hockey community of Beartown. Encompassing all the ins and outs of the people and their lives there, this book beautifully captures the human experience. Mostly told through the lens of the teenage hockey players as they grow, the story is filled with moments of both angst and joy. We are also given extensive views from the perspective of adults, which helps give the story depth. These books beautifully capture the relationship of good vs. bad / happy vs. sad that we all experience as people. Us Against You draws you in and is engaging in a way that makes the book hard to put down. There are some very heavy topics covered, including illness, loss and death. I found myself sobbing more than once as I read. Regarding the more tragic sections, Backman’s writing style is such that these events are anticipated and yet unpredictable. I would think I knew what was going to happen or how a certain was going to unfold, only to have something different occur that completely changed the outcome. This is a love/hate aspect of these books for me. It’s sort of like being teased time and again but maybe that’s sort of the point? Overall these books have been excellent and very thought provoking so far. I now have to wait several months to read the final book of the trilogy. I’m very sad about that!

Content Warnings

cheesy_reads's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

“Grief is a wild animal that drags us so far out into the darkness that we can't imagine ever getting home again. Ever laughing again. It hurts in such a way that you can never really figure out if it actually passes or if you just get used to it.”

Good god.

I will never be done crying over this series I stg

The profound beauty that Backman somehow manages to work into deeply painful stories is absolutely riveting. The way in which he takes each of his many characters and creates such nuance and depth and imperfection and care makes them feel so real and makes you feel so connected to them. When they hurt, you hurt. When they laugh, you laugh. When they cry, you sob.

This series will stick with me for a long time. Again, I have to take a beat before I pick up The Winners but I can’t wait to see how this story wraps up and how this town continues to fight for itself (either to its benefit or detriment, tbd).

Content Warnings