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A review by _onemorechapter_
The Winners by Fredrik Backman
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
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? No
5.0
⚠️ You will need a lot of tissues
“This hurts too much to touch with words.” - It took me two months to write a review of the third book!
💭It took me a while to catch my breath in the end, to absorb all that happened in this third and final book of the Beartown series. If you are a fan of the first two books, I suspect you will want to know what happened now that two years have passed since what happened to Maya, what happened in this town, to these families, to these characters - Benji, Ana, Ramona, Maya, Bobo, Peter, Amat, Sune and others and you will welcome the new characters. I had to know and for me, this is the best of the three.
Backman’s writing will make you stop and think. His writing is both evocative and emotional. The character development is strong. And just when you think you know how it’s going to end, you get an unexpected but gut-wrenching twist.
What can I say about Backman that hasn't been said already - that I haven't said already? Still, I am and always have been astounded by how incredibly well Fredrick Backman understands people, family, friendships, relationships, human emotions, human nature, tragedy, and loss and can fictionalize life through his characters so brilliantly. How he innately understands human nature so intimately and can make me feel it through every fibre of my being such that I am left crying hysterically like a puddle on the floor.
Last book in the series - I can’t even tell you what I am feeling after reading this masterpiece. He had to go ahead and break my heart. He had to go ahead and smother me in an avalanche of emotions. He had to go ahead and teach me some hard lessons. He had to go ahead and make me feel all the feels. Was it the ending that I was looking for? Well with Backman it hardly ever is.
As always, there is plenty of foreshadowing, so you get a fair cue of what’s yet to unfurl. Let me forewarn you, not all the presages in the world can help prepare you for the outcome. The very first foreshadowing is right on page one( broke my heart), and it is going to shock you into disbelief. After reading that ominous opening I had to stop reading for almost a day because those words were about the fate of one of my favorite characters in this book. Tears had already started to drip down my face, my fists clenched. This was shocking, this was sad, but I couldn't stop reading! I owed it to my favorite characters to go on despite knowing this book was going to give me heartache.
I waited the entire time while reading about that particular moment that was mentioned in the first chapter and I thought the book was more than 800 pages so maybe I would be prepared when it will happen but man I couldn't be more wrong. That moment still broke my heart. This book shattered me. It awakened so many different feelings in me that I didn’t know I had. But one thing is for sure: I haven't cried so hard in a long time! The characters Backman created will hold a special place in my heart forever!
This book is long, and it is like sitting back and listening to someone tell you a story. You aren't right in the middle of the action most of the time, but that's Backman's writing style. The characters will annoy you and you will also love them. And they will break your heart.
I spent the last 15% of this book mostly in tears. And I knew I would because the story was leading up to it. I approached it with a sense of dread that I'd never felt while reading. That's how much these characters mean to me.
This book is about corruption, abuse, rape, politics, power, money, hypocrisy, and pure rage! But it's also about the eternal flame of friendship, doing wrong things to do the right thing, love, parenthood, community, hockey, second chances, and, most importantly, forgiveness, paying your dues, and embracing your community, family, and loved ones!
One of the most powerful themes of the book is the idea of redemption and forgiveness. Many of the characters have made mistakes in the past, but they are given a chance to make amends and start fresh. Backman shows us that even the most broken people can find a way to heal and move forward.
Another important theme is the idea of community and the power of coming together to support one another. The characters in the book may have their differences, but when they are faced with a crisis, they all come together to help each other out. It's a powerful message about the importance of putting aside our differences and working towards a common goal.
This review will not be completed if I don't write about my absolute favorite Benji.
Benji Ovich: I love you. I just freaking love you and think of you every single day (and yes, I know that you are a fictional character). I love the fact that you have the biggest heart on the planet. That you, Benji, love with every fibre of your being, often to your detriment. That you are the most loyal of friends, and that you love your sisters desperately and would do anything for them. That you love Beartown, its residents, and Ramona so very much. Your struggles have torn me apart, and yet you, you persevere.
Overall, "We Are the Winners" is a powerful and moving book that will stay with readers long after they've finished reading it. Backman's writing is masterful, and he creates characters that are so real and relatable that it's impossible not to feel for them. This is a book that will make you laugh, and cry, and ultimately leave you feeling inspired.
To Fredrik Backman, thank you for writing these incredible novels and sharing so much of yourself with us.
𝐏.𝐒 There is so much I want to say about this book that I can go on forever. Right from the first page, this book will grab you by the throat and not let go. You will be choked with emotions and you will spill a tear or two. Benji, Alicia, Ana, Maya, Peter, Kira, Bobo, Johnny, Hannah, Ramona, Teemu and so many more will stay in your heart forever. I took my time reading this book because I did not want it to get over, secondly, there was so much to absorb in this book that you cannot rush it.
𝐏.𝐒.𝐒 Backman inserts his literary flourishes and his musings in such a way that you can’t help but pause and ponder over them. If I were highlighting my favourite quotes, I am sure I would have noted more than a hundred.
🔸𝑴𝒚 𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🔸𝑮𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒔 𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈: 4.46 (95956)
🔸𝑮𝒆𝒏𝒓𝒆: Thriller, Humorous Fiction
🔸𝑺𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔: Beartown (Book 3)
🔸𝑹𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏: Holy Moly YES!!
Stunning masterpiece by one of the greatest authors I have come to love. Absolutely recommend.
It's a dreamy reading journey for bookworms who love to lose themselves in a well-written story.
🔸 𝑭𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝑸𝒖𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒔:
“He has seen good people capable of great evil, but also evil people capable of incredible light. It's the same everywhere. Almost everybody loves too much, hates too easily, forgives too little. But most people want the same things: to live in peace, to make their hearts beat a little slower when the night comes, to earn some money to support the ones they love.”
“We fool ourselves that we can protect the people we love, because if we accepted the truth we’d never let them out of our sight.”
“He’s the sort of person who runs toward a fire. No hesitation, no questions, he just runs. People like that are rare, but you know who they are when you see them.”
“Our children never warn us that they’re thinking of growing up, one day they’re just too big to want to hold our hand, it’s just as well we never know when the last time is going to be or we’d never let go.”
“To you who talk too much and sing too loud and cry too often and love something in life more than you should.”
“No one tells you before you procreate that the hardest thing about being a good parent is that you never feel like one.”
“Because he was always the sort of person who stood in the way, the sort who protected, the sort who ran. He always thought he was the bad guy in all stories, the real heroes always do, that’s why stories about boys like him never end with them growing old.”
“If nobody knows who you are, you can be whoever you want to be.”
“When you're young you believe that love is infatuation, but infatuation is simple, any child can become infatuated, fall in love. But real love? Love is a job for an adult. Love demands a whole person, all the best of you, all the worst. It has nothing to do with romance, because the hard part of a marriage isn't that I have to live seeing all your faults, but that you have to live with me seeing them. That I know everything about you now. Most people aren't brave enough to live without secrets. Everyone dreams about being invisible sometimes, no one dreams of being transparent.
Marriage? There ought to be a different word for it after a while. Because there's no such thing as 'eternal infatuation,' only love lasts that long, and it's never simple. It requires a whole person, everything you have. The whole lot.”
“You have to make the most of the happy endings whenever you get the chance.”
“The very finest thing you can give a child is somewhere to belong. The biggest thing you can have is being part of something.”
“We all have a hundred fake personalities depending upon who we’re with. We pretend and dissemble and stifle ourselves just to fit in.”
“But you can never fool dogs. They know all that’s best in you.”
“There will be a spring and a summer. It's almost excruciating. But then comes autumn, short as a wink, before winter is finally upon us again. Life does not go on, it starts again, everything is possible again. Anything can happen, all the best and all the most beautiful and all the greatest adventures on earth.”
“That’s why someone who hated their own childhood often has greater empathy than someone who loved theirs. Because someone who had a hard time dreamed of other realities, but someone who had it easy can hardly imagine that things could be any different.”
“Falling in love with a place and falling in love with a person are related adventures. At first we run around street corners giggling and explore every inch of each other’s skin, over the years we get to know every cobblestone and strand of hair and snore, and the waters of time soften our passion into unfailing love, and in the end the eyes we wake up next to and the horizon outside our window are the same thing: home.”
“Fairy tales are what help us cope with funerals.”
“The end of life is as unstoppable as its beginning, we can't stop the first and last breaths we take any more than we can stop the wind.”
“Everyone I know with any sense has two families, the one they were given and the one they chose. You can’t do anything about the first, but you can damn well take responsibility for the second!”
“One day you will be one of the people who lived long ago,” it says.”
“When you’re young and in love you think the difficult part of being in a relationship is admitting when you need help, but when you’ve been married for half your life you know that the hardest thing is admitting that you really don’t: you don’t need anyone’s help to feel inadequate and a failure and worthless.”
“Clichés may be clichés, but they often start out as truths.”
“If you want to achieve what no one else can, you have to do what no one else wants to do.”
“You get success by having extremely high integrity but absolutely zero prestige. Because integrity is about who you are, whereas prestige is only about what other people think of you.”
“This hurts too much to touch with words.” - It took me two months to write a review of the third book!
💭It took me a while to catch my breath in the end, to absorb all that happened in this third and final book of the Beartown series. If you are a fan of the first two books, I suspect you will want to know what happened now that two years have passed since what happened to Maya, what happened in this town, to these families, to these characters - Benji, Ana, Ramona, Maya, Bobo, Peter, Amat, Sune and others and you will welcome the new characters. I had to know and for me, this is the best of the three.
Backman’s writing will make you stop and think. His writing is both evocative and emotional. The character development is strong. And just when you think you know how it’s going to end, you get an unexpected but gut-wrenching twist.
What can I say about Backman that hasn't been said already - that I haven't said already? Still, I am and always have been astounded by how incredibly well Fredrick Backman understands people, family, friendships, relationships, human emotions, human nature, tragedy, and loss and can fictionalize life through his characters so brilliantly. How he innately understands human nature so intimately and can make me feel it through every fibre of my being such that I am left crying hysterically like a puddle on the floor.
Last book in the series - I can’t even tell you what I am feeling after reading this masterpiece. He had to go ahead and break my heart. He had to go ahead and smother me in an avalanche of emotions. He had to go ahead and teach me some hard lessons. He had to go ahead and make me feel all the feels. Was it the ending that I was looking for? Well with Backman it hardly ever is.
As always, there is plenty of foreshadowing, so you get a fair cue of what’s yet to unfurl. Let me forewarn you, not all the presages in the world can help prepare you for the outcome. The very first foreshadowing is right on page one( broke my heart), and it is going to shock you into disbelief. After reading that ominous opening I had to stop reading for almost a day because those words were about the fate of one of my favorite characters in this book. Tears had already started to drip down my face, my fists clenched. This was shocking, this was sad, but I couldn't stop reading! I owed it to my favorite characters to go on despite knowing this book was going to give me heartache.
I waited the entire time while reading about that particular moment that was mentioned in the first chapter and I thought the book was more than 800 pages so maybe I would be prepared when it will happen but man I couldn't be more wrong. That moment still broke my heart. This book shattered me. It awakened so many different feelings in me that I didn’t know I had. But one thing is for sure: I haven't cried so hard in a long time! The characters Backman created will hold a special place in my heart forever!
This book is long, and it is like sitting back and listening to someone tell you a story. You aren't right in the middle of the action most of the time, but that's Backman's writing style. The characters will annoy you and you will also love them. And they will break your heart.
I spent the last 15% of this book mostly in tears. And I knew I would because the story was leading up to it. I approached it with a sense of dread that I'd never felt while reading. That's how much these characters mean to me.
This book is about corruption, abuse, rape, politics, power, money, hypocrisy, and pure rage! But it's also about the eternal flame of friendship, doing wrong things to do the right thing, love, parenthood, community, hockey, second chances, and, most importantly, forgiveness, paying your dues, and embracing your community, family, and loved ones!
One of the most powerful themes of the book is the idea of redemption and forgiveness. Many of the characters have made mistakes in the past, but they are given a chance to make amends and start fresh. Backman shows us that even the most broken people can find a way to heal and move forward.
Another important theme is the idea of community and the power of coming together to support one another. The characters in the book may have their differences, but when they are faced with a crisis, they all come together to help each other out. It's a powerful message about the importance of putting aside our differences and working towards a common goal.
This review will not be completed if I don't write about my absolute favorite Benji.
Benji Ovich: I love you. I just freaking love you and think of you every single day (and yes, I know that you are a fictional character). I love the fact that you have the biggest heart on the planet. That you, Benji, love with every fibre of your being, often to your detriment. That you are the most loyal of friends, and that you love your sisters desperately and would do anything for them. That you love Beartown, its residents, and Ramona so very much. Your struggles have torn me apart, and yet you, you persevere.
Overall, "We Are the Winners" is a powerful and moving book that will stay with readers long after they've finished reading it. Backman's writing is masterful, and he creates characters that are so real and relatable that it's impossible not to feel for them. This is a book that will make you laugh, and cry, and ultimately leave you feeling inspired.
To Fredrik Backman, thank you for writing these incredible novels and sharing so much of yourself with us.
𝐏.𝐒 There is so much I want to say about this book that I can go on forever. Right from the first page, this book will grab you by the throat and not let go. You will be choked with emotions and you will spill a tear or two. Benji, Alicia, Ana, Maya, Peter, Kira, Bobo, Johnny, Hannah, Ramona, Teemu and so many more will stay in your heart forever. I took my time reading this book because I did not want it to get over, secondly, there was so much to absorb in this book that you cannot rush it.
𝐏.𝐒.𝐒 Backman inserts his literary flourishes and his musings in such a way that you can’t help but pause and ponder over them. If I were highlighting my favourite quotes, I am sure I would have noted more than a hundred.
🔸𝑴𝒚 𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🔸𝑮𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒔 𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈: 4.46 (95956)
🔸𝑮𝒆𝒏𝒓𝒆: Thriller, Humorous Fiction
🔸𝑺𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔: Beartown (Book 3)
🔸𝑹𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏: Holy Moly YES!!
Stunning masterpiece by one of the greatest authors I have come to love. Absolutely recommend.
It's a dreamy reading journey for bookworms who love to lose themselves in a well-written story.
🔸 𝑭𝒂𝒗𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝑸𝒖𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒔:
“He has seen good people capable of great evil, but also evil people capable of incredible light. It's the same everywhere. Almost everybody loves too much, hates too easily, forgives too little. But most people want the same things: to live in peace, to make their hearts beat a little slower when the night comes, to earn some money to support the ones they love.”
“We fool ourselves that we can protect the people we love, because if we accepted the truth we’d never let them out of our sight.”
“He’s the sort of person who runs toward a fire. No hesitation, no questions, he just runs. People like that are rare, but you know who they are when you see them.”
“Our children never warn us that they’re thinking of growing up, one day they’re just too big to want to hold our hand, it’s just as well we never know when the last time is going to be or we’d never let go.”
“To you who talk too much and sing too loud and cry too often and love something in life more than you should.”
“No one tells you before you procreate that the hardest thing about being a good parent is that you never feel like one.”
“Because he was always the sort of person who stood in the way, the sort who protected, the sort who ran. He always thought he was the bad guy in all stories, the real heroes always do, that’s why stories about boys like him never end with them growing old.”
“If nobody knows who you are, you can be whoever you want to be.”
“When you're young you believe that love is infatuation, but infatuation is simple, any child can become infatuated, fall in love. But real love? Love is a job for an adult. Love demands a whole person, all the best of you, all the worst. It has nothing to do with romance, because the hard part of a marriage isn't that I have to live seeing all your faults, but that you have to live with me seeing them. That I know everything about you now. Most people aren't brave enough to live without secrets. Everyone dreams about being invisible sometimes, no one dreams of being transparent.
Marriage? There ought to be a different word for it after a while. Because there's no such thing as 'eternal infatuation,' only love lasts that long, and it's never simple. It requires a whole person, everything you have. The whole lot.”
“You have to make the most of the happy endings whenever you get the chance.”
“The very finest thing you can give a child is somewhere to belong. The biggest thing you can have is being part of something.”
“We all have a hundred fake personalities depending upon who we’re with. We pretend and dissemble and stifle ourselves just to fit in.”
“But you can never fool dogs. They know all that’s best in you.”
“There will be a spring and a summer. It's almost excruciating. But then comes autumn, short as a wink, before winter is finally upon us again. Life does not go on, it starts again, everything is possible again. Anything can happen, all the best and all the most beautiful and all the greatest adventures on earth.”
“That’s why someone who hated their own childhood often has greater empathy than someone who loved theirs. Because someone who had a hard time dreamed of other realities, but someone who had it easy can hardly imagine that things could be any different.”
“Falling in love with a place and falling in love with a person are related adventures. At first we run around street corners giggling and explore every inch of each other’s skin, over the years we get to know every cobblestone and strand of hair and snore, and the waters of time soften our passion into unfailing love, and in the end the eyes we wake up next to and the horizon outside our window are the same thing: home.”
“Fairy tales are what help us cope with funerals.”
“The end of life is as unstoppable as its beginning, we can't stop the first and last breaths we take any more than we can stop the wind.”
“Everyone I know with any sense has two families, the one they were given and the one they chose. You can’t do anything about the first, but you can damn well take responsibility for the second!”
“One day you will be one of the people who lived long ago,” it says.”
“When you’re young and in love you think the difficult part of being in a relationship is admitting when you need help, but when you’ve been married for half your life you know that the hardest thing is admitting that you really don’t: you don’t need anyone’s help to feel inadequate and a failure and worthless.”
“Clichés may be clichés, but they often start out as truths.”
“If you want to achieve what no one else can, you have to do what no one else wants to do.”
“You get success by having extremely high integrity but absolutely zero prestige. Because integrity is about who you are, whereas prestige is only about what other people think of you.”