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A review by ciuli
Us Against You by Fredrik Backman
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-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
5/5
Edit 29/09/2024: this book managed to destroy me once again I have been ugly sobbing for the second half of the book and I can't seem to stop.
Some things I want to comment on that I left out of my original review: Bobo is such an underrated character, my heart ached so much for him and his beautiful family. The way he just stepped up and got in charge of everything without anyone even having to ask him to, just because he knew his father was hurting, even though he was hurting himself.
Vidar deserved better: he was dealt such a shitty hand in life and he was finally on the way to have something good for himself, he deserved so much more than the little time he got.
***
CW: self-harm; PTSD; violence; homophobia and homophobic slurs;
I kept delaying writing this review because I wasn't ready to let go of these characters. I knew that the moment I would have posted this it would have meant that it was over, that there would be no more Beartown, no more hockey games to fight for, no more beers at the Bearskin, no more teenage babies to protect. I still don't think I am ready to let them go but it has to happen sooner or later.
I believe I have said this on every single one of my reviews for Backman's books, but he is definitely my favorite contemporary novelist. His writing style is undescribable, he manages to touch your heart strings you didn't even know existed. He breaks your heart and then mends the pieces together beautifully.
While in 'A man called Ove' what had me gripped to the book was the story and how he dealt with and explained grief, with 'Beartown' and 'Us Against You' it's all about the characters. Yes, the plot is beautiful and gripping and heart-wrenching in both books, but what keeps you reading until 3am is the characters. By the end of book 1 you already consider them friends, by the end of book 2 they're your brothers and sisters. I'm not joking when I say that I stayed up until 2am reading and when I woke up the following day my first thought was 'i need to know if Benji is okay'. That's mind-blowing for me. Getting so attached to a group of characters that my first thought in the morning is knowing whether they're okay.
I expected the book to start with a quicker pace considering it's a sequel, and I guess that's the only bad thing I have to say about this novel. However, once you hit the first quarter/half you get sucked into it and I couldn't put it down anymore. I had to know what was going to happen, I had to know if my babies were going to be alright, and I had to know who was going to die.
It's more political than the first book. One of the main characters in 'Us Against You' is Richard Theo, the politician who saves the hockey club, so I was expecting for politics to play a part in the plot. It was interesting to see how everything works from a political pov, how politicians can make a profit out of every situation but I have to be honest and say that those parts bored me a little bit.
While the first book revolved around rape and victim-shaming, the main focus of this book is violence. It's everywhere in this book, starting from the first page to the very last. We see Leo, who is filled with anger for what happened to his sister, turn to violence. There is William Lyt, who was jealous of Benji and will always be, filled with anger to the very point of his toes. Teemu and the pack, who care so deeply about their town and their hockey team that they would do anything to protect them. And then there are the passerbys, the citizens of both town, the bears and the bulls, who absorb that violence and anger just by being around this environment.
Let's talk now about the star of this book: Benjamin 'Benji' Ovich. I already loved him to the moon and back in book one, and book two just confirmed my feelings for him and he must be protected at all costs. At the end of book one I kind of wished that this sequel would be focused on him but, yeah, I definitely didn't want him to go through what he had to. I love that he is such a contradiction because while everyone sees him as this untouchable tough guy, in reality he's the one who wears his heart on his sleeve the most.
He gave Maya and Ana his island, his secret place, the one where he was safe from the world, where he could be himself and no one would could judge him there. That is such a selfless thing he did there and I don't think it's given as much importance as it deserves.
It's needless to say that I want Ana's head on a spike. I don't care that she apologized, I don't care that she was going through some shit at home, I don't care that he had rejected and felt hurt and I don't care about what happened after, I don't care that both Benji and Maya have forgiven her: I won't. What she did was despicable and selfish and I will never forgive someone who did what she did. She had no right.
My favorite part out of the whole book is definitely the parallel with 'Beartown' we see him in with Maya. In 'Beartown' he trashed a school bathroom and got a suspension because he didn't want people to know Maya had punched a mirror. In 'Us Against You', we see Maya helping Benji this time, giving him courage to walk into school, walking with him inside and that filled my heart with hope and love.
I loved Beartown, the book, the town and its citizens and I will definitely go back there in a while because I already miss these people.
Edit 29/09/2024: this book managed to destroy me once again I have been ugly sobbing for the second half of the book and I can't seem to stop.
Some things I want to comment on that I left out of my original review: Bobo is such an underrated character, my heart ached so much for him and his beautiful family. The way he just stepped up and got in charge of everything without anyone even having to ask him to, just because he knew his father was hurting, even though he was hurting himself.
Vidar deserved better: he was dealt such a shitty hand in life and he was finally on the way to have something good for himself, he deserved so much more than the little time he got.
***
CW: self-harm; PTSD; violence; homophobia and homophobic slurs;
I kept delaying writing this review because I wasn't ready to let go of these characters. I knew that the moment I would have posted this it would have meant that it was over, that there would be no more Beartown, no more hockey games to fight for, no more beers at the Bearskin, no more teenage babies to protect. I still don't think I am ready to let them go but it has to happen sooner or later.
I believe I have said this on every single one of my reviews for Backman's books, but he is definitely my favorite contemporary novelist. His writing style is undescribable, he manages to touch your heart strings you didn't even know existed. He breaks your heart and then mends the pieces together beautifully.
While in 'A man called Ove' what had me gripped to the book was the story and how he dealt with and explained grief, with 'Beartown' and 'Us Against You' it's all about the characters. Yes, the plot is beautiful and gripping and heart-wrenching in both books, but what keeps you reading until 3am is the characters. By the end of book 1 you already consider them friends, by the end of book 2 they're your brothers and sisters. I'm not joking when I say that I stayed up until 2am reading and when I woke up the following day my first thought was 'i need to know if Benji is okay'. That's mind-blowing for me. Getting so attached to a group of characters that my first thought in the morning is knowing whether they're okay.
I expected the book to start with a quicker pace considering it's a sequel, and I guess that's the only bad thing I have to say about this novel. However, once you hit the first quarter/half you get sucked into it and I couldn't put it down anymore. I had to know what was going to happen, I had to know if my babies were going to be alright, and I had to know who was going to die.
It's more political than the first book. One of the main characters in 'Us Against You' is Richard Theo, the politician who saves the hockey club, so I was expecting for politics to play a part in the plot. It was interesting to see how everything works from a political pov, how politicians can make a profit out of every situation but I have to be honest and say that those parts bored me a little bit.
While the first book revolved around rape and victim-shaming, the main focus of this book is violence. It's everywhere in this book, starting from the first page to the very last. We see Leo, who is filled with anger for what happened to his sister, turn to violence. There is William Lyt, who was jealous of Benji and will always be, filled with anger to the very point of his toes. Teemu and the pack, who care so deeply about their town and their hockey team that they would do anything to protect them. And then there are the passerbys, the citizens of both town, the bears and the bulls, who absorb that violence and anger just by being around this environment.
Let's talk now about the star of this book: Benjamin 'Benji' Ovich. I already loved him to the moon and back in book one, and book two just confirmed my feelings for him and he must be protected at all costs. At the end of book one I kind of wished that this sequel would be focused on him but, yeah, I definitely didn't want him to go through what he had to. I love that he is such a contradiction because while everyone sees him as this untouchable tough guy, in reality he's the one who wears his heart on his sleeve the most.
He gave Maya and Ana his island, his secret place, the one where he was safe from the world, where he could be himself and no one would could judge him there. That is such a selfless thing he did there and I don't think it's given as much importance as it deserves.
It's needless to say that I want Ana's head on a spike. I don't care that she apologized, I don't care that she was going through some shit at home, I don't care that he had rejected and felt hurt and I don't care about what happened after, I don't care that both Benji and Maya have forgiven her: I won't. What she did was despicable and selfish and I will never forgive someone who did what she did. She had no right.
My favorite part out of the whole book is definitely the parallel with 'Beartown' we see him in with Maya. In 'Beartown' he trashed a school bathroom and got a suspension because he didn't want people to know Maya had punched a mirror. In 'Us Against You', we see Maya helping Benji this time, giving him courage to walk into school, walking with him inside and that filled my heart with hope and love.
I loved Beartown, the book, the town and its citizens and I will definitely go back there in a while because I already miss these people.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, and Self harm