Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Kleine Stadt der großen Träume by Fredrik Backman

42 reviews

hansolitude's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Violence, Bullying, and Drug use

Moderate: Child death, Homophobia, and Suicide

Minor: Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, and Suicidal thoughts

megansmith's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

The writing in this book is well done - for having so many characters, its easy to follow who is who and remember each of their stories as the focus constantly shifts. Even some of the worst characters could be seen as products of their environments rather than generic representations of people. If you love digging into character backstories and psychologies, this is a great read. I have a hard time finding reasons to critique this book, my only cons were

the discourse the characters had around the rape was hard to read, but only because it was (unfortunately) realistic to what youd expect in real life to hear in this kind of scenario. It doesnt make it any easier to read, but I give props to the author for the realism.

My only other critique is it was sometimes difficult to get a sense of Beartown’s location - we got the sense some of Peter and Kita’s life was in Canada, but with the mention of moving to North America later on in the book, I got the sense this town isnt actually in Canada. Could be some late night reading confusion, but also this town could be in so many places. Overall its a well written, hard to believe its fiction novel. A hard read for sure but thought provoking if you can read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Islamophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, and Suicidal thoughts

chamaeleontis's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Violence, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Medical content, Drug use, Rape, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Death, Sexism, Terminal illness, Blood, Cursing, Bullying, Outing, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Cancer, Child abuse, and Child death

Minor: Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Self harm, Body shaming, Cursing, and Gun violence

calamari's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

fredrik blackman manages to capture the beauty and brokenness of being human in this story. it’s a book about hockey in a small town but it’s not. it’s about the choices we make as individuals, the stories those choices stem from and the ones they leave in their wake. it’s about darkness and pain and injustice, but it’s more about family and loyalty and love. it shows us we are all flawed, biased, selfish, for different reasons at different times, but it shows us that deep down, if we have the courage to look, we may find we have the strength to do what is good and what is right despite all that stands against us. chock full of tears and laughter. my favorite novel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Rape, and Violence

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Body shaming, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Alcoholism, Suicide, Homophobia, and Drug use

kallan's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing

Moderate: Child death and Rape

Minor: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Death of parent, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Xenophobia

josecostanzo's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective 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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Minor: Body shaming and Child death

rachelreadthese's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Violence

Moderate: Body shaming and Child abuse

suprita's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

"People sometimes say that sorrow is mental but longing is physical. One is a wound, the other an amputated limb. Anything that grows closely enough to what it loves will eventually share the same roots. We can talk about loss, we can treat it and give it time, but biology still forces us to live according to certain rules: plants that are split down the middle don’t heal, they die."

What do you say about a book that makes you chuckle amidst tears and makes you cry between huffs of laughter? A book that both breaks and mends your heart over and over again? What do you say about a town that takes your breath away in a single second? A town you can’t live in but can only survive? What do you say about the Bears from Beartown, loyal to a fault? What do you say about parents who feel like a blanket that is always too small, that no matter how much they try to cover everyone, there’s always someone who’s freezing? About a fierce wolf-mother who counts her children every night - two in their beds, one in heaven - and is ready to kill for them? About a father who loves immensely but doesn’t have any violence inside him? What do you say about a girl who’s been through so much that she's afraid of the dark in the day, and yet remains a courageous wolf like her mother? What do you say about a boy with the most handsome face, the saddest eyes and the wildest heart one could ever find? About another young boy who is a lion among bears? And last, but definitely not the least, what do you say about an author who is brilliance personified? A translator who knows that words are not small things? 

You say nothing. Not because you don’t want to, but because you can’t. And that is the beauty of Beartown. A book that made a girl, who has never been interested in any team sport, fall in love with a hockey town.

Somewhere in the book Mr Backman beautifully describes what freezing water does to a structure. In the summer the rain seeps into the cracks in the bricks, then when the temperature slips below zero the moisture freezes to ice, and the bricks break. That is exactly what his book does. It slowly seeps into your heart and once the story expands, your heart breaks.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Violence

Moderate: Child death and Bullying

Minor: Body shaming

mmqin's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• 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: Rape

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Cursing, Homophobia, Misogyny, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

oliverlang's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

4.0

I found this really difficult to read at first as it jumps from different characters very quickly trying to introduce everyone but it got easier as the book went on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Transphobia, and Vomit