Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Beartown

This book is why I read. The characters are flawed but so human that they carve a place in your heart. I never thought I would care about a fictional hockey team. I legit sobbed through the last 50% of this book. I am so emotionally invested in this team and my boys…especially Benji. Benji may be my favorite fictional character ever. The writing style is unique and will keep you engaged because you get pieces of everyone’s thoughts even unnamed characters. It’s just brilliant. The hard topics are handled with such respect and tact that I was honestly impressed. My friend said it best, there is a you before Beartown and a you after Beartown.

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jenlengland's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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alexashabit's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

4.5

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oatmilktea's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I don’t know why, but I expected this book to be lighthearted and cosy, going in. Probably because of the German title, which roughly translates to “Small Town, Big Dreams”. A bit misleading imo, but on me for not looking it up prior to reading. Also, I don't think I would have picked it up if I had known that most of the book is about SA and how the town handles it (not well. At all.), but that's also on me.

All right, let's do this. I did not really enjoy this book but I can recognise it for what it is and/or tries to achieve. The way I see it, it’s mostly a character study as well as an analysis of society, in the broadest sense. There are almost as many themes as pov characters, so, a lot: (club) hierarchies, peer pressure, esprit de corps, hush-up/rape culture, abuse of power, classism, sexism, homophobia, lynch law, child abuse… I could go on. Some themes take the spotlight, others are only touched upon, but overall there's value here.

Despite not being a fan of an omniscient narrator with an unlimited pov, especially one who keeps jumping back and forth in time and place, I thought the author handled it rather well. I may not have liked the narration style, but there were only a few characters, like Benji’s sisters, that I failed to tell apart from one another. Most characters were discrete, and I don’t think that’s easy to do.

However, I have gripes. This book is way too long. It could have easily done with a hundred pages less. It moves very slow and I get it, it’s all about the characterisation, but then the book is so repetitive in places that it added unnecessarily to the word count. Especially with the constant foreboding, ice hockey analogies, and telling-not-showing statements about friendships or how things work in this town. Because, you know, it’s Björnstad, after all, and ice hockey is ice hockey, so... cherry blossoms?

I found Bear Town intriguing enough, but for the most part I wanted to finish it for the sake of moving on to another book.

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mariahkc10's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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oceanwriter's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I’ve really enjoyed other books by Fredrik Backman and his writing never fails to speak to me. I wasn’t super into the plot of this one not being a hockey fan (or sports fan in general), but there were a lot of passages and moments I really liked. I did go into this thinking my heart was going to shatter completely… I think I made it more devastating in my mind than it turned out to be.

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