Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Beartown

Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Beartown by Fredrik Backman

137 reviews

hannevdss's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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acebookwyrm's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

4.0

I love the first sentence of this book. The way it spoils something that doesn’t happen till the end but also tells you nothing with how carefully selected the words are. “A TEENAGER picked up a double-barrel shotgun…put the gun to SOMEONE ELSE’S forehead, and pulled the trigger.” No gender disclosed for either, no age given to the person shot. Not even a clarification for if that person was Actually shot! Throughout the book, Backman drops several references related to gunshots, killing, and shooting someone as a comparison or metaphor. It even begins with “Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.”

Backman is fantastic at writing complex characters, particularly women, with full lives. The part in Ch 44 where Kevin's mom talks to Benji, then Maya, is one of the best scenes in the book.

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trufflenerd's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

If Big Little Lies was about hockey

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abbie_eibba's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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? Yes

4.0

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taracloudclark's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

A stark small town obsessed with hockey grooms its children to be either predators or victims, heroes are truly born out of adversity and find themselves kneecapped by those they trust the most.

The first half of this book is a lot of exposition, setting the stage for the driving action. But it’s done well, creatively, interestingly. In other words, “nothing happens,” and I was *almost* bored with it, but I only had to push through a little. It kind of reminds me of Spoon River Anthology with the intertwining of lives and stories of a small town where everyone knows everyone and always have (except the newbies, but that’s not portrayed as harshly as many of this trope).

While it’s a sports town, the sport itself doesn’t take a front seat. It truly is the background while still sating any love for it.

This definitely borders on literary fiction bc the structure is done in a very precise and lovely way, using almost poetic mechanisms such as repeated phrases and parallelism. The narrative style also has a starkness that reflects the setting and the situation, and vice versa. Tension and foreshadowing are done in an obvious but not ridiculous manner. The *way* it was written is as well done as the story itself.

This is definitely a book for consideration. The story is laid out, and while there’s no ambiguity as to “what happened,” there is much speculation to be made as to why and how and what the underlying issues are and how else they affect society. There are no stark answers given. Bad behavior is mentioned, implicated, but not condemned outright. That’s for the reader to determine, negotiate in some cases. Anyone who feels this is moralizing is probably on the more brutal side of the issue.

The narrator Marin Ireland does very well in complimenting the narrative style as well. It’s 3rd person, and the author is male, but I’m pleased they chose a female to tell this story. Such topics through the male perspective can be troublesome, but I feel like the author did well and the narrator helped convince me of it.

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rosiereading's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad tense slow-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? N/A

5.0

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samlo28's review against another edition

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slow-paced

5.0

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mosshroomish's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

one of those books that grips you by the soul and doesn't let go until you're bloody and bruised. i cried at least 20 times. beautifully written and horribly heartbreaking and perfectly ended.

edit, now that i've had time to sit with my thoughts and cry them out...

i already knew this author was good, but to see how he creates life in people that don't exist is truly astounding. everyone was written with care and understanding. everyone had realistic and deep relationships. everyone was flawed and absolutely and thoroughly human. everyone made mistakes, everyone had triumphs. everyone believed they were making the best decision they could in their circumstances, and you're forced to sit with some uncomfortable realizations that you might've done the same because you're also human. this is a book i finished in one sitting because i could not put it down. this is a book that will stick with me forever. this is a book i will recommend to everyone i know. i will probably buy a copy and reread it multiple times.

in some more nitty gritty aspects:

some people find it hard to follow the multiple POV, but i felt that because every single character was so completely fleshed out, it wasn't as difficult.

i'm also a sucker for repetition, especially lines that stay nearly identical but hit in different ways the further you progress. the author does an amazing job of placing these lines in just the right spot to sucker punch you dead.

the author has a prose-poem style of writing, if that's the sort of thing you're into as well (i definitely am). the words he weaves create an incredible tapestry that seemed to just flow directly into my brain.

all in all, this was an incredible book about community, sports, and childhood, and how they all come together in different ways to create separate individuals.

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