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A review by roctothorpe
Us Against You by Fredrik Backman
dark
emotional
sad
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? Yes
2.0
I love Benji with my whole soul but I bounced so hard off this book. Reading this book alternated between being bored and being plainly manipulated, and.. for what?
The first half of the story crawled at a glacial pace, rehashing the events and fallout from the previous book. I felt similarly about the pacing at the beginning of Beartown and so I pushed through with the hope that things would pick up. A lot of space is devoted to a political maneuvering subplot, which personally was just wholly uninteresting to me. But more so than its predecessor, this book did not seem to have anything propelling the narrative forwards and felt aimless in its direction.
When things do start happening, they unfold in this excruciatingly melodramatic and manipulative way. There is a gratuitous amount of deceptive foreshadowing and misdirection (Big Dramatic Event is going to happen -> AHA! I tricked you!) to the point that I no longer trusted the narrator and genuinely stopped caring when something Tragic was being telegraphed. The major plot turns felt like they were inserted purely to manufacture sadness or shock and it left such a sour taste in my mouth. I hated the fact that Backman killedVidar, and some random old man who didn't even get a name (?!), because we barely even knew these people. This move seemed like a cop-out to get the emotional impact of death without touching any of the characters that matter . I hated how Backman treated Benji in this book, especially how he was outed in such a brutal way, and for what?? To create drama between Maya and Ana? It was so out of character for Ana and completely poisoned her character for me. And then the book was so quick to forgive her for what she did, like people just...forgot? It was cheap and cruel thing to do, and I felt betrayed as a reader. I still, to some extent, felt the emotions I was "supposed" to, but I also resent the book for it.
This book was incredibly long, and after finishing it I'm really not sure that it justified itself as a story that needed to be told. Still, I am not altogether put off of the idea of reading the last book in the series, if for nothing else than to get a sense of closure, and that is truly a testament to Backman's ability to write characters that I care so deeply about.
The first half of the story crawled at a glacial pace, rehashing the events and fallout from the previous book. I felt similarly about the pacing at the beginning of Beartown and so I pushed through with the hope that things would pick up. A lot of space is devoted to a political maneuvering subplot, which personally was just wholly uninteresting to me. But more so than its predecessor, this book did not seem to have anything propelling the narrative forwards and felt aimless in its direction.
When things do start happening, they unfold in this excruciatingly melodramatic and manipulative way. There is a gratuitous amount of deceptive foreshadowing and misdirection (Big Dramatic Event is going to happen -> AHA! I tricked you!) to the point that I no longer trusted the narrator and genuinely stopped caring when something Tragic was being telegraphed. The major plot turns felt like they were inserted purely to manufacture sadness or shock and it left such a sour taste in my mouth. I hated the fact that Backman killed
This book was incredibly long, and after finishing it I'm really not sure that it justified itself as a story that needed to be told. Still, I am not altogether put off of the idea of reading the last book in the series, if for nothing else than to get a sense of closure, and that is truly a testament to Backman's ability to write characters that I care so deeply about.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia