Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - Beartown

Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Beartown by Fredrik Backman

248 reviews

melba1975's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

4.0

Beartown is a great read. It starts off rather interestingly and then gets *really good about 1/3 of the way in. There are quite a few characters routinely involved in the story. For a while, I wasn’t sure which ones were MCs and which were supporting. The first 1/3 of the book was a bit hard to follow. As a listener, I needed to back up several times in order to keep the story straight. More/deeper character development from the beginning would make this better.

The author does an excellent job of making the reader feel included in the story. As the tale unfolds, it’s almost as if the reader is also an interested Beartown dweller who is trying to understand what’s happening. There are some very difficult topics embedded in this story. Depending on one’s perspective, there could be some triggers. The relationships between characters throughout the book are beautiful and go a long way toward making the tragedies easier to process. My interest is more than piqued—I can’t wait to read about what happens next in the lives of these people.

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whoisolena's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful slow-paced

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

4.5

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madelinedalton's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective 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

Okay WOW. First five star read of the year and I cannot believe I’m giving it to a Fredrik Backman book considering that I, controversially, did not like A Man Called Ove or Anxious People. Beartown was his last chance with me and boy did it deliver. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I want to read Us Against You now.

Despite there being so many POVs, the characters each become vivid in a short amount of time and the narrative remains clear. The use of this many POVs really supports the idea that many individuals collectively make up the Beartown identity. Toward the end, the town’s

rape culture

& patriarchy filled me with a fiery rage. I’ll be thinking about this for a long time.

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elizzabethanne's review against another edition

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challenging dark inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

I wish all men would read this book. While this was very difficult to read at times because of the content, it was so beautifully written and handled so sensitively that I don’t feel emotionally destroyed or despondent about the state of the world but rather reminded that there are people out there that stand up for what’s right. We don’t need a culture of silence. We need a culture where we can talk about the difficult things with those we love and raise the next generation to not make the same mistakes over and over again. If you have a son, a brother, a father, a boyfriend, a husband, etc. please put this book in his hand and talk about it.

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oliviajreads's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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almaprincess66's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-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

4.75

Ah shit. This book made me just as emotional as I thought it will make me. And honestly? I'm angry at it.

I feel like I have to start out that I don't like sports. But I expecially hate competitive sports. I will never understand them, never understand why would anyone like doing them. There are so many problems with competitiv sports and this book just proved it for me.

Like yes, oh my fucking god. Hockey is a violent sport. And for one to exceed in a violent sport they need to be in a certain headspace. They need to be raised in a certain headspace. One, in which men excell at briliantly. One that described this whole fucking town. Because the men raisd their boys to be hockey players. But they never taught them to leave it on the ice. That is why this whole book happened.

This is so incredibly written because it explains every single thing that is wrong with men, and then reasons it with both how it's wrong and how people can believe it's right. How soceity hurts the people. How they treat women. How they treat victims.

The whole aftermath of Maya's rape case boiled my blood. Because the town made Kevin, the older, stronger, more responsible out to be the victim. And while doing so Maya lost her name, she became the young woman, the liar, the bitch. I would point out how clever it was that they called Kevin a boy but Maya a young women. She was 15. She was younger, but they used the words to make her the villain. They put the blame on her just because they didn't wanted to deal with thinking that their star player did something bad.

And Maya? You are the strongest girl out there. I could have not done what you did. What any of the supporting characters did. I would have crumpled. But neither did Ana or Amat.

And as last. Benji deserved better. All characters deserved better, and I know that is the point. That they are set out for greatness but it's the town that they need to think of. But Benji. He was the person beside Maya who should have been allowed to burn the world down. I think I know how your story will end and I don't like it.

The conversations and viewpoints that I didn't mention, but were in the book should be checked out because they are amazing. They make you think. They make you understand even if you don't agree.

Still an amazing read from Backman. I'm just not putting myself trough more of it because then I can think of an ending that I like.

Thanks for my bookclub that we read this book! I hope we'll have an amazing conversation about it!

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