Hello, Fellow Readers!
I just finished the book Beartown by Fredrik Backman and it is now one of my top 5 favorite books.
Review: People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground, but down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is 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.
Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semi-final match is 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, leaving no resident unaffected.
Beartown explores the hopes that bring a small community together, the secrets that tear it apart, and the courage it takes for an individual to go against the grain. In this story of a small forest town, Fredrik Backman has found the entire world.
The books starts a little slow,which is needed to introduce and to get to know the characters. Stay with it. The development of the characters is fabulous, the way the books goes back and forth between characters and their feelings is done in a manner that I have never read before.
The book is not a feel good book, it is dark. I got angry at the characters, then I understood them, I teared up and cheered for certain characters. It really is a story about people and how they deal with a situation that they know is wrong, but try to make it right or okay in their mind…