Name: Beartown
Rating: 4.388524590163935 (488 reviews)
ISBN: 9781982177973

Fredrik Backman

A poignant story of a hockey town paralyzed by scandal. Jobs are disappearing and Beartown is slowly dying, so for its citizens, hockey is everything. This is the story not just of hockey, but of a 15-year-old named Maya Andersson, whose father, Peter, the general manager of the hockey club, loves hockey, but loves his family more. Seventeen-year-old Kevin Erdahl is the star of Beartown, with a chance to go professional. One night, after a huge win, Maya goes to a raucous party at Kevin's house and is thrilled at his attention, but things get out of hand, and what takes place changes Beartown forever.

A Novel

Beartown

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove returns with a dazzling, profound novel about a small town with a big dream—and the price required to make it come true. 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.

Pretty good book honestly considering this is the first out of the three parts. The book revolves around the small swedish town called Beartown and its local hockey team. The major plot are the consequences that result after the star player of the hockey team r@pes the coach's daughter. The plot is very well executed alongside the fact that we get to learn how to stand up for ourselves and remain courageous like how Amat does and how you can get your own way of justice which Maya ends up getting. Moreover, the consequences like bribery of the coaches and the treatment one faces in school from either side of the story is very much accurate to say the least as the setting was shown really well. Very strong start to the first out of the 3 series and I am looking forward for what lies ahead!

Aarush Arora

baku

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Winning a junior ice hockey championship means everything to the residents of Beartown, a struggling community slowly being eaten alive by unemployment and an steadily encroaching wilderness. Victory could attract government funding and an influx of talented athletes who would choose Beartown over the big nearby cities. Victory would mean everything to outcast Amat, to golden boy and star player Kevin, and to dedicated general manager Peter, whose own professional hockey career ended too early. When scandal erupts following a drunken celebration after a key win, no resident is unaffected. With so much riding on the success of the team, the line between loyalty and betrayal becomes difficult to discern.--

I genuinely don’t know how to explain how much this book affected me. Fredrik Backman has quickly become one of my favorite authors, and Beartown is a big reason why.

This book isn’t just about hockey. It’s about a town, a community, loyalty, pressure, silence, and the way people protect the things they love... even when they shouldn’t. Every character feels painfully real, and the story forces you to sit with uncomfortable truths about power, responsibility, and what happens when a whole town decides what matters more than the truth.

What really makes this book special is the characters. I loved so many of them:

They’re flawed, messy, brave, and human in ways that feel incredibly authentic. I also started watching a few episodes of the Swedish TV adaptation, Beartown (also known as Björnstad), and it reminded me how powerful this story really is.

Honestly, I could probably talk about this book for hours, but at the same time I feel like I don’t have the words to explain why I love it so much. Maybe if a cardiothoracic surgeon took my heart out, it would explain it better than I ever could. All I know is that this book stayed with me long after I finished it and that’s the mark of something truly special.

Tali ⋆.˚🦋༘⋆

The Town of Beartown
I genuinely don’t know how to explain how much this book affected me. Fredrik Backman has quickly become one of my favorite authors, and Beartown is a big reason why.

This book isn’t just about hockey. It’s about a town, a community, loyalty, pressure, silence, and the way people protect the things they love... even when they shouldn’t. Every character feels painfully real, and the story forces you to sit with uncomfortable truths about power, responsibility, and what happens when a whole town decides what matters more than the truth.

The Characters
What really makes this book special is the characters. I loved so many of them:

The Souls of Beartown
- Benji Ovich
- Maya Andersson
- Kira Andersson
- Ana
- Bobo

They’re flawed, messy, brave, and human in ways that feel incredibly authentic. I also started watching a few episodes of the Swedish TV adaptation, Beartown (also known as Björnstad), and it reminded me how powerful this story really is.

Final Whispers
Honestly, I could probably talk about this book for hours, but at the same time I feel like I don’t have the words to explain why I love it so much. Maybe if a cardiothoracic surgeon took my heart out, it would explain it better than I ever could. All I know is that this book stayed with me long after I finished it and that’s the mark of something truly special.

Nadine MacDonald

So far, the two Fredrik Backman’s books I’ve read have both had a main character going through something very heavy, and heartwarming characters that leave you believing there are more good people in the world than bad. His books are a little sad for my taste but glad to have read this one that takes place in Sweden before I leave Malmö &lt;3 (plus Canada mentioned! woo!)<br /><br />“All your best qualities come from the fact that you've been raised in a house full of women.”

Winning a junior ice hockey championship might not mean a lot to the average person, but it means everything to the residents of Beartown, a community slowly being eaten alive by unemployment and the surrounding wilderness. A victory like this would draw national attention to the ailing town: it could attract government funding and an influx of talented athletes who would choose Beartown over the big nearby cities. A victory like this would certainly mean everything to Amat, a short, scrawny teenager who is treated like an outcast everywhere but on the ice; to Kevin, a star player just on the cusp of securing his golden future in the NHL; and to Peter, their dedicated general manager whose own professional hockey career ended in tragedy. At first, it seems like the team might have a shot at fulfilling the dreams of their entire town. But one night at a drunken celebration following a key win, something happens between Kevin and the general manager's daughter--and the next day everything seems to have changed. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected. With so much riding on the success of the team, the line between loyalty and betrayal becomes difficult to discern. At last, it falls to one young man to find the courage to speak the truth that it seems no one else wants to hear.

What a great story. Definitely read like a book created for homework but it wasn’t! It just fits so nicely and I’d say that’s a good thing. Forgot about who Backman was for a sec and when I realized it didn’t take place in the states I started to like it a lot more. Someone the character POVs felt nonessential, but maybe that was the point. Not everything has to be entirely plot relevant and circle back, Eli! Thank you Billie Fogarty for telling me to read this like six years ago, you were right and I liked it a lot. I only found one translation error and it wasn’t even a big deal.

Eli Alvah Huckabee

Sarah Erle

Maureen

"So the first thing that happens in a conflict is that we choose a side. Because that's easier than trying to hold two thoughts in our heads at the same time."

***

Honestly worth all the hype it's received. I don't care much for sports, but there's just something special about the way Backman writes about hockey— he makes it come alive. There are so many characters that it was hard to keep up with all of them at first, but they're all fleshed out so well throughout the story that by the time you get to the end, you feel like you know each and every one of them by heart. 

Beartown is not just about hockey. It puts a premium on community and tackles heavy themes like blind loyalty, victim blaming, and gender inequality. But really, this book is packed with so much more. 

I've been putting off Book 2 because I don't feel quite ready for it yet; but it's safe to say that reading Beartown has been a pleasant experience.

Ryan Mateyk

Ehhh was debating between 4 and 5 stars, but any book that has me reading 250 pages in one day is definitely deserving of 5. I know I’m a few years late on this one. It reminds me of a simpler but no less affecting We Were The Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates - how the actions of one night can have lasting impacts. Rather than examining the family as in the Mulvaneys, this looks at the effects that one night has on a whole town. I wasn’t really drawn in for the first 100 pages or so (hockey is... boring!!!) but it obviously had my interest after the ‘event’ happened (tryna keep it spoiler free hun)

Jordan

karo

this was beautiful. but also very very ugly and awful. not the book itself, the people. the story is rough, but its real. heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. in the first half of the book i wanted to hug and protect every single person in this book. in another half, i wanted to kill some of them and see them suffer, and to protect even more the rest. no book made me feel such a rage. i wanted to scream. i cried. i loved the writing. i loved the storytelling. it was incredible immersive it felt as i live with them in that small town. beautiful. tragic.
and i like benji

Jasmine Ghartey

backman has mastered the art of seamlessly blending the lives of 50 million characters in one book. I don't know how he does it. I think he did an amazing job at depicting rape culture and what being in a small town where the same ideas are recycled through generations without anyone questioning them, does to people. there were times where I felt like he let the bubble of this being a fiction book pop and poured his feelings of anger and disgust of how the rapist is coddled and victimized while the victim themselves, is villainized. It read like a condemnation of rape culture and groupthink. 

choosing to write about a small, financially insecure town whose only form of light and hope is not just hockey, but whoever the star player is, was a brilliant backdrop to condemn these faults in our society because its more explicit with less distractions to shy away from the faults with influences of a larger society. the star player is supposed to be their way out, a way to their make their lives better and worth living. so they choose blissful ignorance. their money makers can do no wrong, because their money makers are their beacons of hope. 

this way of thinking is fucked up and unhealthy and breeds young boys into young men into fully grown men who were never allowed and taught to be human. only to be winners. and if they're not treated as such, they lash out in anger and throw temper tantrums because you won't treat them as immortal and give them what they want. and this extends beyond sports, as we all already know. 

thank you sm if you read all of this, I know its a lot to read and digest, but this is what “beartown” is. when I talk to my friends about SA, we always say "when" it will happen to us instead of "if", and it shouldn't be like that at all.

Loved the writing. Definitely a tough read at times, but it’s hard to put it down once you hit the last third. 

Beartown A Novel

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