Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - Kleine Stadt der großen Träume

Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Kleine Stadt der großen Träume by Fredrik Backman

59 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

frenandjen's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful 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? No

5.0

Content Warnings

jadedjill's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

bxs's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective 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

5.0

Loved it! Interesting discussion on what makes us act the way we do

Content Warnings

suzydunk's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

martafunk's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

suesobo's review against another edition

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emotional slow-paced

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

4.0

This is an excellent book if you can get into it for the long haul, this is how this author works. You'll get perhaps a negative First second and third impression and then you got to take the journey with him to get to the end and see if you still agree with all your initial thoughts. And along the way you're going to meet tons of characters.... and you're going to get mad and sad and happy and glad....all the emotions and frustration. And by the end you just have to decide were they right, were they wrong or what would you do in the same situations? Because even though there's right and wrong, most humans find that area of gray every single time and they always know how to justify it. What's your moral high ground? How long can you stand on your pedestal before it cracks?

Content Warnings