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bookstashread 's review for:
Us Against You
by Fredrik Backman
medium-paced
In this sequel to Beartown, we return to the aftermath of what happened in the first book. We continue following some characters like Maya & her family, Ana, Benji, Amat, and Bobo, as well as meet some new ones including a new hockey coach, Elizabeth Zackell, who I wish I could channel her energy as she is essentially the opposite of my emotional self and I respected her character so much…Fredrik Backman’s writing is just one of a kind - plot aside there’s just so many insightful gems in this book - it’s guaranteed to make you feel something.
This one was easier for me to get into than the first as I already knew the characters and it jumps right back in where you left off in book one. Honestly, I hope they teach these books in school one day - it’s tough content, but portrayed in such a beautiful and raw way. Backman really just finds those tiny little moments that all humans feel and can relate to, and then exposes them in a way that is truly masterful. Just wow. Some of my favourite quotes below.
“Benji knows that grief and anger can reprogram a brain like chemicals and drugs do.”
“It’s impossible to measure love, but that doesn’t stop us coming up with new ways to try. One of the simplest is space: how much space am I prepared to give the person that you are so that you can become the person you want to become?”
“It’s hard to care about people. Exhausting, in fact, because empathy is a complicated thing. It requires us to accept that everyone else’s lives are also going on the whole time. We have no pause button for when everything gets too much for us to deal with, but then neither does anyone else”
“Anxiety. It’s such a peculiar thing. Almost everyone knows what it feels like, yet none of us can describe it.”
“It’s so easy to think that what we post online is like raising your voice in a living room when it’s actually more like shouting from the rooftops. Our fantasy world always have consequences for others peoples realities”
“Our spontaneous reactions are rarely our proudest moments. It’s said that a person’s first thought is the most honest, but that often isn’t true. It’s often just the most stupid. Why else would we have afterthoughts?”
“Death does that to us, it’s like a phone call, you always remember exactly what you should have said the moment you hang up. Now there’s just an answering machine full of memories at the other end, fragments of a voice that are getting weaker and weaker.”
“Life is a weird thing. We spend all our time trying to manage different aspects of it, yet we are still largely shaped by things that happen beyond our control.”
This one was easier for me to get into than the first as I already knew the characters and it jumps right back in where you left off in book one. Honestly, I hope they teach these books in school one day - it’s tough content, but portrayed in such a beautiful and raw way. Backman really just finds those tiny little moments that all humans feel and can relate to, and then exposes them in a way that is truly masterful. Just wow. Some of my favourite quotes below.
“Benji knows that grief and anger can reprogram a brain like chemicals and drugs do.”
“It’s impossible to measure love, but that doesn’t stop us coming up with new ways to try. One of the simplest is space: how much space am I prepared to give the person that you are so that you can become the person you want to become?”
“It’s hard to care about people. Exhausting, in fact, because empathy is a complicated thing. It requires us to accept that everyone else’s lives are also going on the whole time. We have no pause button for when everything gets too much for us to deal with, but then neither does anyone else”
“Anxiety. It’s such a peculiar thing. Almost everyone knows what it feels like, yet none of us can describe it.”
“It’s so easy to think that what we post online is like raising your voice in a living room when it’s actually more like shouting from the rooftops. Our fantasy world always have consequences for others peoples realities”
“Our spontaneous reactions are rarely our proudest moments. It’s said that a person’s first thought is the most honest, but that often isn’t true. It’s often just the most stupid. Why else would we have afterthoughts?”
“Death does that to us, it’s like a phone call, you always remember exactly what you should have said the moment you hang up. Now there’s just an answering machine full of memories at the other end, fragments of a voice that are getting weaker and weaker.”
“Life is a weird thing. We spend all our time trying to manage different aspects of it, yet we are still largely shaped by things that happen beyond our control.”