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A review by tabatha_shipley
Beartown by Fredrik Backman
5.0
What I Didn’t Like:
-Content Warning: This book contains description and discussion of sexual assault, crude jokes, homophobic behavior, and violence. They all are intentionally placed there in order to make the reader think and make the reader confront those things.
-I could see some people having a problem with the short sentence style. In my opinion, it worked, but it is a different style for Backman.
-There is a lot of head jumping as this story is basically about an entire town.
What I Did Like:
-That opening page. OMG what a way to hook people in. Do yourself a favor and check out this first page. It’s a masterclass in how to get the reader's attention.
-The characters. I wasn’t very far into the book before each one of these characters felt real to me. They feel like people I know and they read real. That makes what you know is coming (because of page 1) harder to deal with in the best way.
-Confront all the darkness in people. I love books that are going to jump right into a controversial topic and just swim around in it. This book takes some BIG concepts and just smacks you in the face with them. This book is not about hockey. It’s about a town with people who deal with real issues. It’s about real life.
The Verdict: 5 huge stars. The way Backman makes you think about major topics in this one is amazing. The way he makes you care about the characters is epic. This is a book worth reading.
Side note: This would be a great one to read with a book club because you’re going to want to talk this one out.
-Content Warning: This book contains description and discussion of sexual assault, crude jokes, homophobic behavior, and violence. They all are intentionally placed there in order to make the reader think and make the reader confront those things.
-I could see some people having a problem with the short sentence style. In my opinion, it worked, but it is a different style for Backman.
-There is a lot of head jumping as this story is basically about an entire town.
What I Did Like:
-That opening page. OMG what a way to hook people in. Do yourself a favor and check out this first page. It’s a masterclass in how to get the reader's attention.
-The characters. I wasn’t very far into the book before each one of these characters felt real to me. They feel like people I know and they read real. That makes what you know is coming (because of page 1) harder to deal with in the best way.
-Confront all the darkness in people. I love books that are going to jump right into a controversial topic and just swim around in it. This book takes some BIG concepts and just smacks you in the face with them. This book is not about hockey. It’s about a town with people who deal with real issues. It’s about real life.
The Verdict: 5 huge stars. The way Backman makes you think about major topics in this one is amazing. The way he makes you care about the characters is epic. This is a book worth reading.
Side note: This would be a great one to read with a book club because you’re going to want to talk this one out.