Reviews with content warning for Fatphobia - Kleine Stadt der großen Träume

Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

Kleine Stadt der großen Träume by Fredrik Backman

38 reviews

thecriticalreader's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

4.25

Context:
I borrowed Beartown from my library through the Libby app. It is the first Fredrik Backman book that I have read.

Review:

Beartown is a long book, but I read it in a couple of days. Backman’s writing is compelling and easy to digest. The book’s strength lies in its ability to capture the small-town, hockey-obsessed culture of Beartown convincingly and quickly in the reader’s imagination. Despite the book’s large cast of characters, each person feels believable, and it is easy to keep track of everyone. Backman then uses this setting and this cast of characters to tell a heartbreaking but powerful story about the double-edged nature of a town that fosters a close-knit sports culture of ferocious loyalty, spirited work ethic, and conspicuous silence. He manages to capture the complexity of moral situations and sheds light on why certain people make certain choices, but nevertheless asserts the necessity of morally correct actions rooted in integrity and empathy.

My one issue with the book is Backman’s writing style. Although he appears capable of “showing instead of telling,” he often opts to “show” the reader something through a scene and follow it up with him “telling” them what it meant. He’s a huge fan of punchy concluding sentences that hammer in a point about morality or human nature, which can be effective if used sparingly. Unfortunately, Backman uses this device constantly, which dilutes the effectiveness of these lines considerably. If he cut them down by about 75-80% and kept only the best ones, he would be left with some pretty devastating lines that feel like a punch in the gut. More bizarrely, he sometimes repeats these lines within a chapter, with an effect similar to someone repeating a punchline of a semi-decent joke over again in the hopes of generating more laughs.

Fortunately, I appreciated the other elements of the book enough for me to ignore his annoying writing quirks. That being said, I feel no desire to continue with the Beartown series. I devoured this book like it was a decadently sweet dessert and decided to quit when satiated instead of making myself sick by eating further.

The Run-Down:

You will probably like Beartown if . . .

· You want to read a book that captures the small-town feel

· You like well-developed and damaged characters who must choose between doing what is right and what is easy

· You appreciate a story that has something to say and understands the complexties of human nature

· You are interested in the impact that masculinized sports culture has on wider society

You might not like Beartown if . . .

· You dislike shifting POVs or a large cast of characters

· You can’t stand didacticism or a heavy-handed writing style

Content Warnings

te_ss_i's review against another edition

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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? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

katharina90's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

I adore the Beartown series.

This story captures so beautifully what it means to be human and all that we're capable of... the best, the worst, and everything in between. It is emotional and captivating, at times heartbreaking, funny, tense and hopeful.

Backman's characters are wonderfully complex, imperfect like the rest of us, and utterly lovable (or at least most of them...).

The writing style is simple, succinct and fairly blunt, and there's a lot of foreshadowing.

I was hooked immediately and will definitely be rereading this in the years to come.

Quotes:

"Words are not small things."

"Difficult questions, simple answers. What is a community? It is the sum total of our choices."

[I listened to the audiobook this time. It is well narrated and I enjoyed it a lot, but definitely prefer reading this story myself so I can reread sentences and paragraphs to my heart's content.]

Content Warnings

marippe's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional informative sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“Never again do you find friends like the ones you have when you’re fifteen years old.”

This was really beautifully written! Although it was hard to get into it due to the slow pace at the start + the overwhelming amount of characters, once the story reaches the 40% point with the incident it gets really interesting. It was really sad but it was intriguing and irritating to see so many different viewpoints on a situation.

I particularly liked Benji, Bobo & Ana’s characters a lot

Content Warnings