Beartown by Fredrik Backman

At first, I had the hardest time getting into this book. I’ll fully admit that I forgot what the book jacket said (ebooks are funny that way), thought it was going to entirely be about hockey (I’m a “bad” Canadian and don’t follow hockey all that closely anymore), and I nearly gave up on it because I found myself nearly falling asleep while reading through the first few chapters.

I’m glad I didn’t.

Once I got through the first few chapters and got to the “main event” I was shocked and angry and couldn’t put it down. It reminded me a lot of Emily Giffin’s All We Ever Wanted in the way that it discusses entitlement and privilege and the Blame Game.

While I’m late to the game (no pun intended) to reading any of Backman’s work, overall I really enjoyed his style of writing in this particular book. It was very “matter-of-factly” which reflected most of the town’s attitude towards hockey and what winning meant.

The ending? It was wonderfully wrapped up and I wouldn’t ask for any more.

I encourage anyone who picks up this book to push past the first few chapters of “hockey stuff” – you won’t be disappointed by the rest of it.

My rating: ★★★★/5