Reviews with content warning for Transphobia - Beartown

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Beartown by Fredrik Backman

18 reviews

almaprincess66's review against another edition

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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pbraue13's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

majca's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-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

3.75

If only she hadn't existed, then none of this would have happened, why didn't she think of that.

This turned out to be the wrong read at the wrong time for me. I didn’t expect the “event” to be what it was, and the emotions it stirred felt uncomfortably close to current real-life frustrations. Sadly I just wanted the book to be over at a certain point.

That said it's still a good novel, as the conflict and characters are deeply heartfelt and realistically drawn. With a large cast like this, it’s impressive how coherent and authentic each character feels. However, the rapid shifts in perspective may not suit everyone.

I docked 1–1.5 stars for a few personal grievances. Even under different circumstances, the topic is too authentic and painful and too frequent a real life story that I don't particularly enjoy reading about it in fiction. Additionally, the narrative style didn’t work for me. The heavy, intentional repetitive phrasing. The foretelling and narrative prolepsis. And perhaps most of all the decision to resolutely use the characters roles instead of their names. Initially just distracting, this became grating by the end.
It's admittedly very quotable though, sometimes contrived or nonsensical, but often on the spot as well.

And when enough people are quiet for long enough, a handful of voices can give the impression that everyone is screaming.

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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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emilywemily6's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

This book was emotionally heartbreaking but also heartwarming. Many tears were shed, both joyful and devastated. It’s mostly a story about hockey and how the members of a small rural community put hockey above all else, even morals (sometimes). It was hard to understand who was who are the beginning of this book because the cast of characters is huge and the backstories blend together, but the characters became more distinct over time. This writing is very different than Backman’s more lighthearted, fun writing. Lots of really good one-liners about moral implications of people’s thoughts and actions. This book felt very human, but was a bit difficult to read sometimes. Read when you are in a good place personally! Also winter vibes because of hock eye and the setting.

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hoppyread's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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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infinite_mirrors's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective 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? Yes

4.25

The writing in this book is lovely. I can't help but wonder how much is lost in translation from the original Swedish version. I love stories like this too, where small town culture gets rocked by An Event and changes the course of everyone's lives forever. Also, hockey!! What is it about sports books? I don't even like sports (but as a Russian I am obligated to like hockey). Anyway, I enjoyed this book. It didn't really say anything new in my opinion, but the focus on culture and community and individual actions and how all of them tie into one-another was interesting.

At times I did get tired of the sort of passive, anecdotal nature of the prose. It really slowed the narrative down and made every moment a meditative think-piece, which is great and moving once in a while but is tiresome when employed in every other paragraph of a novel.

There were many characters in this book. The first third or so of the novel dragged a bit as every one of them had their backgrounds, beliefs, and interpersonal relationships dissected; not that it wasn't enjoyable or well-written! It was just very slow. Speaking of the characters, they were real, nuanced, flawed human beings... except for the times when they were caricatures of good and evil. Maya in particular, the victim of a horrible crime, ceased being a regular 15-year-old as soon as the crime was committed and became a paragon of ideal martyrdom. Most of the other characters had their mistakes and good and bad moments in turn, but Maya was like wise and mature saint, more a stand-in for victims everywhere than her own person. I'm not sure if this was intentional on the author's part or a very ironic outcome of trying to treat victims with respect and dignity. This is a minor grievance and didn't detract too much from the story for me, but it was noticeable.

A warning, because I didn't get one: sexual assault was a major plot point, and a catalyst for the events of the novel. The topic was treated with the care and gravitas it deserves, but the author did not gloss over or shy away from the horror and trauma of it. So read with caution.

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lizziaha's review against another edition

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Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

Goosebumps, chills, tears. I cannot express how much this book got under my skin. It took me a little bit to get into it—I wasn’t sure I was going to like it—but before I knew it, I was deeply invested in this town and these characters. I was never quite sure what they were going to do—characters I trusted made choices that hurt me and characters I hated made choices that I was rooting for. And some characters I just hated and some characters I just loved (one of those hockey boys in particular has my whole entire heart and then some). The reading experience is really immersive. I felt like I was somewhere in that town, in the forest. And Backman has a way of writing that takes such complex topics and puts them into really simple words. It’s sort of a detour from what I usually love but there’s just something about the way that he uses repetition is just so compelling and powerful.

I also really like the way that, even though it’s the first in a series, it can also stand on its own. Even though I want to stay with these characters and see what happens next, it felt complete.

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te_ss_i's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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katharina90's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

I adore the Beartown series.

This story captures so beautifully what it means to be human and all that we're capable of... the best, the worst, and everything in between. It is emotional and captivating, at times heartbreaking, funny, tense and hopeful.

Backman's characters are wonderfully complex, imperfect like the rest of us, and utterly lovable (or at least most of them...).

The writing style is simple, succinct and fairly blunt, and there's a lot of foreshadowing.

I was hooked immediately and will definitely be rereading this in the years to come.

Quotes:

"Words are not small things."

"Difficult questions, simple answers. What is a community? It is the sum total of our choices."

[I listened to the audiobook this time. It is well narrated and I enjoyed it a lot, but definitely prefer reading this story myself so I can reread sentences and paragraphs to my heart's content.]

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