A review by znvisser
The Winners by Fredrik Backman

emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I have been ready for this story ever since I read the first two books in a few days almost two years ago. So obviously my hopes and expectations have built sky high since then, and yes, of course that is dangerous. Sooo you can guess it: this book didn’t really give me everything I was hoping for. But at the same time: I was back in Beartown! So I’m not too sad about it. 

My biggest problem: this is a 700-page book leading up to one singular event of a few pages. If there is not an actual storyline that ties all these lives together (which the first book did so, so well), there is only so much you can write around this incident. Unfortunately however, that is precisely what Backman tried to do here. In his very characteristic style, there is a lot of foreshadowing (sometimes misleading, sometimes not) so you’re just waiting for it to happen. For hundreds of pages. And of course in the meantime there are characters and they are not sitting around waiting so they are living their lives, but too many subplots and characters had no real impact in the end. So most of it just ended up back at where they were before this book even started. 

But despite all that, the writing did all the work it had to do to bring me right back into Beartown. And I didn’t need the 100+ page refresher at the start to do that for me, or all the repetition of more recent events or introductions after that: because as soon as I read about the Anderssons, Ovich’s, the Pack and all the others I really was right back there with the forest people. And if this book has made me want to reread the first book, then it has succeeded in a way, hasn’t it?
Expand filter menu Content Warnings