Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - Beartown

Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Beartown by Fredrik Backman

597 reviews

khackett411's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

pagewhisper's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional 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: Yes

Content Warnings

stellahadz's review against another edition

4.5

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: Complicated

In my experience, books that become popular on social media (Booktok, Bookstagram, etc) are usually pretty hit-or-miss, but I was really impressed with Beartown. The writing flowed well, the third-person omniscient narration was masterfully done, and the translator definitely deserves their flowers for capturing the emotional landscape of the story and the almost lyrical quality of the writing. It starts off pretty slow, but having the background information on the town and the different characters pays off in the end. This would have been great as a standalone book, but I'm absolutely planning to read the sequels.

Content Warnings

chloethewriter's review against another edition

5.0

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

I am going to fly to Sweden and hand-deliver my therapy bill to Fredrik Backman.

Content Warnings

lovemybulldog73's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-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

adrilynn21's review against another edition

4.5

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious 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: Complicated

Content Warnings

michaelarella's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This book was a work of art. Backman handled a very difficult subject matter in a way that thoroughly stuck with the reader and made you think of the biases seen today.

Content Warnings

sftomlinson's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional funny reflective 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

bd_books's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

jazzy_xazzy's review against another edition

4.5

challenging emotional inspiring 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: Complicated

The story and characters in this book are so well fleshed out. There are so many characters, yet every one of them has a detailed back story including Beartown itself.
At first, the number of people does seem a little overwhelming and it takes a bit of time to get into the book, the only reason I haven't rated 5 stars.
It is an incredibly difficult book to read, with an on page rape and discussions of rape throughout. This is dealt with tastefully and the author somehow makes the male characters seem like they were written by a man and the female characters like they were written by a woman.
It really packs a punch and is such an impactful book, even with such a dark topic. It is incredibly realistic, especially in the way things work out legally and I credit the author for this, not trying to hide what most often happens when a girl/woman is raped.
Please, please read at your own pace and with caution, I did have to take a break from reading this book for a while after the rape occured as it is extremely hard to read about.
Overall a really impactful novel about the people within a small town are all impacted by the actions of one person and about the difficulties girls and women often face throughout their lives.

Content Warnings

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