Reviews with content warning for Self harm - Beartown

Rating: 4 stars

i have so much to say about this book!! it did what it set out to do so well - i'm just not sure if what it set out to do was 100% my thing. the focus on community and the intersection of lives was fantastic and reminded me of this is us in the way it was constantly switching between both characters, slowly adding more and more, and times. the way the interpersonal relationships were portrayed felt very complex and cool - there's a review on the back of the book that says that "in this small town, backman shows the world", and i think that's pretty true. it can be applied to a lot of tightly-knit communities (i saw my robotics team in some parts of this book). i like how there's no clear main character - though if i had to pick, i'd say it's peter and kira.

i think what fell flat for me was the characters - while the relationships between them were fleshed out beautifully, the characters themselves felt semi-cliched and vague (at least some of them. i'd say a couple felt like they could be real people - peter, kira, ana, and david at times). i wanted less of an overarching, faraway look at what was happening and more of the zoomed-in, real-time emotional reactions of the characters to the rape accusations - especially the reactions of maya, kevin, and benji. i do think there was more of a focus on the adults, which makes sense because it's an adult book, but that made a lot of it feel detached to me. i think if some of the characters felt more personable, it'd be SO much more agonizing to read about their actions - especially the more "gray" characters.

i like the truth-telling writing style - it reminded me of my favorite parts of the raven boys. it felt a little heavy-handed and pretentious sometimes, but i like that sort of thing. i haven't read the reviews yet, but i suspect that's probably most people's gripe with this book if they have any. that, and the pacing, which was admittedly pretty slow for like...the whole book (i was expecting the party to happen a lot earlier in the book, not halfway, and...thought there's be more action/plot?)

that being said, i really loved how much the book tackled and how well it did it. the way it talked about rape culture felt so real and ugly and i wanted to reach into the book and punch pretty much everyone but ana, benji, ramona, and the anderssons. i loved the climax -

i was like no WAY she's gonna kill him and then she pulled the trigger and my mouth dropped. but she's better than him. so the line "now you're always going to be scared of the dark" interspersed with them ten years on. oh god. the cinema. i adore backman's mind for this. there are so many LAYERS.
i could talk about the symbolism in that scene for days.

and the way it both praised loving a sport (or, really, being obsessed with anything), and how that's a lifeline to the people who need it, and how excluding it can be to those who aren't let in (robotics call out again, yay). the page where ana talks about how much she loves hockey and how they won't let her made me start crying. her frustration was so tangible and i wish we could've seen more about her.

i'll definitely finish the series if only to find out which of the boys dies, becomes a father, and plays professional. that was so out of pocket. selfishly, i'm hoping the next two books have more of a focus on the teenagers.

Content Warnings

julessssss's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I really do think the published description of this book does not do it justice in the slightest and that it is misleading. If I had been aware that a detailed rape would be the main conflict of this whole slow-paced novel, I would not have wanted to read it.

I cannot say that it is badly written, which is part of why I gave it two stars as opposed to one, but I also have no idea what the point of this book was. Backman's ability to bounce between characters while also making them real in some ways should be recognized at the very least.

With that said though, I could not care about most of the characters, and even though they felt like they could be real people, everything they gave to me felt like it was being filtered through Backman as the author, to the point of it feeling ingenuine. I also really hated the Facebook-status-like altruisms that seemed to follow every emotional or important scene. Honestly, in some ways, it felt like I was being talked down to, as if I couldn't just take what was being given to me and understand it.

Overall though, it seemed like a lot of nothing and too much of a rape story I have heard too often, and one that seemed to have no discourse in the text about it other than the same feminist notions I hear all the time. The book is fine, read it if you'd like, but I would not recommend it.

If you are going to make me read a detailed rape scene, make it worth it.

Content Warnings

xiggy's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

I thought I was going to hate this book. It’s not a book I would typically pick up. I hate so many of the characters in this book and the mentality but that’s the point. The good characters continue to grow and be good and the bad ones well some grow up and learn something and some don’t. Most don’t. I wanted so badly for justice if there wasn’t any I would still hate this book.

Content Warnings