Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Kleine Stadt der großen Träume by Fredrik Backman

220 reviews

te_ss_i's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

fernreads42's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Alcoholism

bluebear1's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Rape

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Death of parent

msnikkiwilks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Utterly devastating in the best way possible. 

Excited to listen to the rest of the trilogy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Drug use, Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent

katharina90's review against another edition

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.]

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Homophobia, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Violence, and Classism

Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Transphobia, and Cultural appropriation

verafey's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad 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

4.5

Was hesitant about reading a book that -at first- seemed to primarily be about ice hockey, which I know absolutely nothing about. BUT this book was definitely about a lot more than just ice hockey. Enjoyed this book a lot even though I truly did (and still do) not care about ice hockey as a sport itself. Fredrik Backman adresses quite a few heavy but important topics which he did really well, in my opinion, and that brought tears to my eyes more than once. (Please don’t forget to look up trigger warnings before reading). Not sure what I thought of the parts where the autor skipped to the future though. I felt like they sometimes took me out of the flow of the story, where unnecessary and gave away too much too soon. Eitherway I loved this book and will definitely read the second and third book of the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence, Self harm, Suicide, and Grief

Minor: Domestic abuse

sarawgordon's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault

Minor: Alcoholism, Drug use, and Homophobia

a_wistful_writer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring slow-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

5.0

Fantastic depiction of small town culture and how a tragic incident can divide a community. Backman writes with such profundity, breathing life into his complex characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

daniellekat's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.75

Backman is so talented at writing characters with depth, emotion, and believable motivations. Just when you think you understand a character, Backman makes you reconsider. It's the reason why I love his books, but I struggled with Beartown. The plot was so heartbreaking and tense that it took a lot out of me. After reading a few chapters, I always felt like I had to both lie down and go running. Backman covered so many interesting topics relating to sports culture that wove together seamlessly. This was not a 'fun read' and I HIGHLY recommend checking out the content warnings before reading, but Fredrik Backman writes about intersecting lives and community like no one else. My only criticism was that the ending was a little flat for me. I'm super interested to see where the series goes from here, especially since I think his writing is best suited for stand-alones.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief

Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Racism, Blood, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

jane_moriarty's review

emotional tense

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

1.5

I can't help but compare this to one my favorites this year, Firekeepers Daughter. Both are about a community in a northern town where icehockey players are the kings, both deal in parts with rape culture and both start with a scene were someone gets shot in the woods and we slowly find out what happened. But Beartown doesn't come close to the way Firekeepers Daughter deals with character development, topics about the beautiful and dark aspects of a community and wisdoms about intergenerational trauma and healing. 

Long rant coming up: 

First half was a 1 star tbh. If you enjoy Facebook motivational quotes on random nature backgrounds this might be for you. I hated the writing style, eyerolled at every pseudo-deep chapter conclusion that were like every fucking page after we were introduced to yet another cliche character who will probably be forgotten for the rest of the book. Not that I could tell the hordes of icehockey playing teenage boys apart but whatever. The author writes like he doesn't trust his reader to understand a single word if he doesn't drive it home with several repetitions and idiotic meaningless punchlines a la "it doesn't take much to let go of your children - it just takes everything", "she doesn't tell him that she's proud of him - he doesn't tell her he already knows" and so on. Also in case you didn't get it by the fiftieth time: ICEHOCKEY IS LIKE SUPER IMPORTANT IN BEARTOWN! 

The only story I was actually invested in were Benji and the bassist and the only reason this book gets two stars from me is the handling of the rape. The way this affects the victim and the way the community deals with it (or not) is written in a sensitive and imo realistic way, which not that many authors get right. 

Listened on Spotify (german translation) for the popsugar reading challenge "a book about about an athlete/sport".

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Homophobia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, and Death of parent