A review by megansmith
Beartown, by Fredrik Backman

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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

4.5

The writing in this book is well done - for having so many characters, its easy to follow who is who and remember each of their stories as the focus constantly shifts. Even some of the worst characters could be seen as products of their environments rather than generic representations of people. If you love digging into character backstories and psychologies, this is a great read. I have a hard time finding reasons to critique this book, my only cons were
Spoiler the discourse the characters had around the rape was hard to read, but only because it was (unfortunately) realistic to what youd expect in real life to hear in this kind of scenario. It doesnt make it any easier to read, but I give props to the author for the realism.
My only other critique is it was sometimes difficult to get a sense of Beartown’s location - we got the sense some of Peter and Kita’s life was in Canada, but with the mention of moving to North America later on in the book, I got the sense this town isnt actually in Canada. Could be some late night reading confusion, but also this town could be in so many places. Overall its a well written, hard to believe its fiction novel. A hard read for sure but thought provoking if you can read it.
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