Reviews with content warning for Vomit - Beartown

This is one of the best books I have ever read that is just about people. It flits through so many different povs from people in Beartown, yet somehow makes them each a complete and whole character, by showing them through the angles of themselves and everyone they know. It is really masterful.
This book is also insanely sad. It is heart-wrenchingly devastating in a way that makes you feel this old, deep misery in your stomach. I felt genuine pain reading this and also thinking about it. I had to put it down sometimes not just because it's heavy (I've read much heavier books), but because every character is going through so much pain. Every person in the community whether you like them or not, is going through their own story and their own pain.
It's a book about hockey.
But it is not about hockey.
I don't play hockey. I have never seen a hockey game. But it doesn't matter, because the characters love hockey. It is what brings them together and that is what you can connect to.
This book is filled with so much love and sadness and hope and grief and pain, generally just so much emotion that it's hard to read sometimes from all the feeling Backman makes you do.
My favorite characters are Benji (boy with the sad eyes and the wild heart), Kira (the mother wolf), Peter, Maya, Ana, Romona and Amat. I don't know if David is the best character or the worst one.
The biggest tragedy is that in the first act Backman builds up all the pride and hope the town has for Kevin, that you start to feel that he's your hero too. So when the

rape

is committed, thats when you feel all of it fall away as if you are another person in Beartown. And then the rage comes, the rage at the fact that such an act can be committed and people will still say that the boy is innocent because they would rather

label a girl as a slut

than look in the mirror and see what their community as done to themselves.
Last of all the writing is insanely gorgeous, simple at times but with lines that take your breath away.
I did cry.

Content Warnings

bellsdixon's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

ellenisntcool's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was a spectacular read. I didn’t expect to come away from this book so heartbroken yet wanting more, I think Fredrick Backman is an amazing writer and this book proves it as the characters and the writing was superb.

Content Warnings