Beartown: A Novel (Beartown Series)
Now an HBO Original Series "You'll love this engrossing novel." --People Named a Best Book of the Year by LibraryReads, BookBrowse, and Goodreads From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anxious People, a dazzling and profound novel about a small town with a big dream--and the price required to make it come true. By the lake in Beartown is an old ice rink, and in that ice rink Kevin, Amat, Benji, and the rest of the town's junior ice hockey team are about to compete in the national semi-finals--and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys. Under that heavy burden, the match becomes the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown. This is a story about a town and a game, but even more about loyalty, commitment, and the responsibilities of friendship; the people we disappoint even though we love them; and the decisions we make every day that come to define us. In this story of a small forest town, Fredrik Backman has found the entire world.
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Community Reviews
Equal parts heartbreaking and eye-opening. Once again, Backman’s representation of the human condition is masterfully portrayed through devastating situations for humans to endure. His characters come to life through his writing.
He does like to drive his points home, and then hammer on them a few extra times to make sure they sink through your thick skull. That aside, it's an interesting, complex approach to a difficult subject (a few of them, actually), and I greatly enjoyed the read.
Beartown employs Backman's nuanced and humanistic writing style I come to love, yet also dared to venture into new territories. I'm amazed by the intricate lives he breathes into the many characters, where everyone's story is linked with one another in the end.
4/5
this had a slow start and was based around a town, sport, and characters that i honestly couldn’t care less about. but strangely enough, i started to care more and more with each chapter, until i realized that i loved it. that alone should be a testament to backman’s writing skill.
i can confidently say i’ve never read anything like this before. these characters are so perfectly developed. it unfortunately dragged a bit too much for me to give it 5.
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