Beartown (Beartown, #1) in Around the Year in 52 Books

Jun 19, 2017 Maryam rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, fiction, family

Fredrik Backman never stops to surprise us with his stories. When I read My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises I loved how he talked from a young girl point of view who had lost her grandmother, the only person who understood her. When I read A Man Called Ove I loved how he built a small community around an anti-social righteous man.

And now Beartown, this book is absolutely amazing. I felt heartbroken so many times reading the book and then felt happy and proud of some characters a few ...more

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May 26, 2021 Jaime rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, general-fiction, read-2021, 52-book-club-2021

Beartown is a small town in Sweden that is on the way out. One thing is keeping it alive -- a ice hockey team of teenage boys on their way to win the national championship. A win like that, used to entice a popular hockey organization to relocate there, could mean everything.

But teenagers are messy, and their parents are messy, and people don't always make the best decisions. Especially when drunk on alcohol and power after a big win.

Beartown could have been plopped down in almost any rural area ...more

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Jun 29, 2017 Joan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: novels

This is a rich, multilayered story about a town, a culture, and a sport, and the people who both create and are created by them. The characters are real. The conflicts are painful. Right and wrong are not the same as good and evil. The gentlest are the strongest, and the quietest are the loudest. I highly recommend it..

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Oct 01, 2018 Shasta rated it liked it · review of another edition

2.5 - 3* Just not for me. If you don’t hate sports, you might enjoy it. I also didn’t like the style of the writing/storytelling (it felt melodramatic and overwrought) or the way-too-many POVs.

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Jan 04, 2021 Ann rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2021-aty-52

Reminded me of a Celeste Ng book in terms of structure. I mistakenly expected a light read but this was grim.

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Jan 04, 2019 Ryan Mac rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook

This book was a little darker than the other books that I have read from this author but still well done. A small hockey town in the forest has pinned their hopes for the future (and a new hockey center that is planned to be built somewhere in the area) on the junior hockey team in Beartown. Things are going well for the team until something happens between Kevin, the star of the team, and Maya, the general manager's daughter during a party after a big win. Suddenly, the small town and its resid ...more

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Oct 02, 2017 Celeste rated it really liked it

Shelves: around-the-year-challenge-2017

This book wasn't what I was expecting, but Backman is such a great writer. He weaves the story until you are so caught up in it that you feel like it's real. I love his character development. This book, unlike his others, had way too much language and crass jokes which was disappointing. Overall, I liked it. (Around the Year in 52 Books: a book written or set in Scandinavia). Also reviewed on kissthebook.blogspot.com ...more

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