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dark
emotional
funny
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:
Complicated
This book is why I read. The characters are flawed but so human that they carve a place in your heart. I never thought I would care about a fictional hockey team. I legit sobbed through the last 50% of this book. I am so emotionally invested in this team and my boys…especially Benji. Benji may be my favorite fictional character ever. The writing style is unique and will keep you engaged because you get pieces of everyone’s thoughts even unnamed characters. It’s just brilliant. The hard topics are handled with such respect and tact that I was honestly impressed. My friend said it best, there is a you before Beartown and a you after Beartown.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Drug use, Rape
Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Death of parent
dark
emotional
hopeful
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Alcohol
Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Abandonment
Minor: Child death, Death, Death of parent
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
This is a book about a town that eat, sleeps and breathes ice hockey and as a typical English person I don't know a lot about ice hockey, but you don't need to; Backman is able to write about the members and fans of Beartown Junior team to allow you to understand the culture.
The subject matter of this novel is dark; the rape of a young girl and the subsequent ripple that her reporting it has on the town and townsfolk.
It disappointingly but realistically tells the tale of victim blaming, and hero worshipping which leads them to defend the pepertrator and condemn the victim all in the name of ice hockey and what it means to them.
It wasn't an enjoyable read but it was poignant.
The subject matter of this novel is dark; the rape of a young girl and the subsequent ripple that her reporting it has on the town and townsfolk.
It disappointingly but realistically tells the tale of victim blaming, and hero worshipping which leads them to defend the pepertrator and condemn the victim all in the name of ice hockey and what it means to them.
It wasn't an enjoyable read but it was poignant.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
Minor: Child death
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide
Moderate: Child death, Death, Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Homophobia, Death of parent
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault
Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt
Minor: Child death, Domestic abuse
challenging
emotional
reflective
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence
Moderate: Drug use, Homophobia, Racism, Alcohol, Classism
Minor: Child abuse, Child death
emotional
reflective
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
Maybe I need to stop believing in internet hype quite so hard. Beartown and Fredrik Backman's books generally are so beloved online that I went into this fully expecting it to be a total slamdunk. However, whilst I found Beartown undeniably engaging it didn't hit the heights that I hoped it to.
The novel follows the community of Beartown in Sweden, a small town which has been left behind by economic changes and so puts their entire belief in the future on the shoulders of the teenage hockey team whose success in their upcoming tournament, they believe, will lead to investment and success for the town. We therefore have numerous perspectives that we dive into, from the star hockey player to his coach to the owner of the team to other players and students in the town. Backman does a great job at making Beartown feel like a very vivid and populated town - the sense of place was excellent.
The plot of the novel really kicks off when there is an incident of rape (this is important to know I think going into the novel) and the town divides into those who believe the victim, and those who think the perpetrator's future is more important than the truth- and people who fall somewhere in between. Backman does a good, if infuriating, job at capturing exactly how a town like Beartown would respond to such news.
However, what worked less well for me was Backman's quite heavy-handed lesson signalling that happened within chapters, or random sentences that I think were supposed to give us a sense of group think but I found a little grating, especially as we dipped into some quite serious topics. I also disliked...most of the characters in the novel, which is fine as we don't need likeable protagonists, but having been sold this book on its 'lovable' cast of characters I found that slightly baffling.
A good read, but I won't be reading the rest of the series.
The novel follows the community of Beartown in Sweden, a small town which has been left behind by economic changes and so puts their entire belief in the future on the shoulders of the teenage hockey team whose success in their upcoming tournament, they believe, will lead to investment and success for the town. We therefore have numerous perspectives that we dive into, from the star hockey player to his coach to the owner of the team to other players and students in the town. Backman does a great job at making Beartown feel like a very vivid and populated town - the sense of place was excellent.
The plot of the novel really kicks off when there is an incident of rape (this is important to know I think going into the novel) and the town divides into those who believe the victim, and those who think the perpetrator's future is more important than the truth- and people who fall somewhere in between. Backman does a good, if infuriating, job at capturing exactly how a town like Beartown would respond to such news.
However, what worked less well for me was Backman's quite heavy-handed lesson signalling that happened within chapters, or random sentences that I think were supposed to give us a sense of group think but I found a little grating, especially as we dipped into some quite serious topics. I also disliked...most of the characters in the novel, which is fine as we don't need likeable protagonists, but having been sold this book on its 'lovable' cast of characters I found that slightly baffling.
A good read, but I won't be reading the rest of the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Rape, Violence
Moderate: Gun violence, Homophobia, Racism, Grief
Minor: Alcoholism
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Classism
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Violence, Vomit
Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship
Minor: Homophobia
challenging
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I don’t know why, but I expected this book to be lighthearted and cosy, going in. Probably because of the German title, which roughly translates to “Small Town, Big Dreams”. A bit misleading imo, but on me for not looking it up prior to reading. Also, I don't think I would have picked it up if I had known that most of the book is about SA and how the town handles it (not well. At all.), but that's also on me.
All right, let's do this. I did not really enjoy this book but I can recognise it for what it is and/or tries to achieve. The way I see it, it’s mostly a character study as well as an analysis of society, in the broadest sense. There are almost as many themes as pov characters, so, a lot: (club) hierarchies, peer pressure, esprit de corps, hush-up/rape culture, abuse of power, classism, sexism, homophobia, lynch law, child abuse… I could go on. Some themes take the spotlight, others are only touched upon, but overall there's value here.
Despite not being a fan of an omniscient narrator with an unlimited pov, especially one who keeps jumping back and forth in time and place, I thought the author handled it rather well. I may not have liked the narration style, but there were only a few characters, like Benji’s sisters, that I failed to tell apart from one another. Most characters were discrete, and I don’t think that’s easy to do.
However, I have gripes. This book is way too long. It could have easily done with a hundred pages less. It moves very slow and I get it, it’s all about the characterisation, but then the book is so repetitive in places that it added unnecessarily to the word count. Especially with the constant foreboding, ice hockey analogies, and telling-not-showing statements about friendships or how things work in this town. Because, you know, it’s Björnstad, after all, and ice hockey is ice hockey, so... cherry blossoms?
I found Bear Town intriguing enough, but for the most part I wanted to finish it for the sake of moving on to another book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Rape, Violence
Moderate: Body shaming, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Alcohol
Minor: Child death, Transphobia, Death of parent