Beartown

Beartown by Fredrik Backman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I had no idea what to expect going into this book.
I just knew it had to do with hockey.... & didnt know how powerful & impactful the story was wrapped up in the world of hockey in this small town of Beartown.
I have to say, it made me nervous at first with all the characters in this book - I am someone who writes down character names to keep everyone straight & it literally was two pages long with everyone in this town. But by the end, I felt like I was a member of the town & knew everyone by name & by personality.
& SO many personalities.
I really dont want to say a lot to give away the book if you've never read it before so you can have the stomach punch that I had reading it.... but I closed this book feeling so many emotions, which just shows me now invested I was in the story.
I just love Backman's writing & glad I finally got around to this one.
& sort of torn on going into the next book "Us Between You" because I thought Beartown wrapped up so well. But I dont want to not know about some of my favorite residents of this small town & how they are fairing the summer after the town nearly became divided.


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People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. 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.