Perfection Learning Corporation

Beartown

Alina

Benji isn’t like him, but he’s not like the people who live here either. Benji isn’t like anyone else at all.

That’s betrayal. David knows it’s a huge betrayal. There’s no other way to explain how much a grown man must have failed as a person if such a warrior of a boy could believe that his coach would be less proud of him if he were gay.

David hates himself for not being better than his dad. That’s the job of sons.

There’s no more loyal player than Benji. No one whose heart is bigger than his.

People don’t often say thank you in Beartown. Nor sorry. But this is their way of showing that some people in this town can actually carry more than one thought in their head at the same time. That you can want to punch a man in the face but still refuse to let anyone hurt his children.

And that you respect a crazy bitch who walks in here without being afraid. No matter who she is.

As he gets to his feet, the expression on Kevin’s face changes in the space of a breath, from hate to terror, from threat to plea.

Kevin smiles with a self-confidence that only Benji’s presence can give him.

Benji has always felt that he has different versions of himself for different people. He’s always known that there are different versions of Kevin too. The Kevin who exists on the ice, the Kevin in school, the Kevin when they’re on their own. Above all, there’s a Kevin out on the island, and that Kevin is Benji’s alone.

Benji walks all the way through the forest, in the snow, on his broken foot. He knows that’s exactly what Kevin wants. He wants proof that Benji is still his, that he’s still loyal, that everything can go back to the way it was.

Another morning comes. It always does. Time always moves at the same rate, only feelings have different speeds. Every day can mark a whole lifetime or a single heartbeat, depending on who you spend it with.

Perhaps one day the man in the black jacket will think about this too: why he only wondered if it was Kevin or Amat who was telling the truth. Why Maya’s word wasn’t enough.

There are few words that are harder to explain than “loyalty.” It’s always regarded as a positive characteristic, because a lot of people would say that many of the best things people do for each other occur precisely because of loyalty. The only problem is that many of the very worst things we do to each other occur because of the same thing.

“You may not be an angel, Benjamin, I know that much. But, dear God, you haven’t lacked a role model. All your best qualities come from the fact that you’ve been raised in a house full of women.”

Because in the end that’s all anyone can ask of another person. That we are prepared to admit that we don’t know everything.

“When I was little, my dad used to hit me if I spilled my milk, Leo. That didn’t teach me not to spill things. It just made me scared of milk. Remember that.”

He doesn’t ask about the violin. The bass player likes that, the fact that Benji’s the sort of person who isn’t surprised that someone can be more than one thing.

Adri only knows three phases of exercise in normal people: when you put up with the pain, when you learn to enjoy it, and when you start to look forward to it. Her brother is way beyond that. He needs the pain. Has become dependent on it. Can’t survive without it.

David gets them to run, and Filip comes in first every time. Next season will be his biggest, the year when everyone else sees how good he really is. They will say that he is an “overnight success.” Sure, it’s only taken all his time since he was five years old, only taken everything he and his mom had. “Overnight.” Christ. It’s only taken his whole life.

Jeanette stands and stares at the wreckage, meets Benji’s gaze, and watches as he is led away. The boy smashed up an entire bathroom and accepted both suspension and liability for the cost of repairs without blinking, all because he didn’t want anyone to know that Maya had smashed a mirror. He decided that she had already bled enough.

Benji always sought out the strongest physical sensations because they displaced other feelings. Adrenaline and the taste of blood in his mouth and throbbing pain all over his body became a pleasant buzz in his head. He liked scaring himself, because when you’re scared you can’t think of anything else. He’s never cut his own skin, but he understands those who do. Sometimes he has longed so much for a pain he can see and focus on that he’s taken the train to a town several hours away, waited until dark, and then sought out the biggest bastards he could find to start a fight with, and then fought until they had no choice but to give him a serious beating. Because sometimes, when it seriously hurt on the outside, it hurt a little bit less in other places.

When Gaby finds Benji she starts by telling him she loves him. Then she says it’s damn lucky for him that their mom had to work today and couldn’t come, because if she’d known that her son had played almost the entire third period plus fifteen minutes of overtime with a broken foot, yet still skated more than anyone else, she’d have killed him.

One of the first things you learn as a leader, whether you choose the position or have it forced upon you, is that leadership is as much about what you don’t say as what you do say.

What an uncomfortable, terrible source of shame it is for the world that the victim is so often the one left with the most empathy for others. There will be days when Maya is asked if she really understood the consequences, and she will nod yes, and of all the feelings inside her then, guilt will be the greatest. Because of the unimaginable cruelty she showed toward the people who loved her the most.

She’s fifteen, above the age of consent, and he’s seventeen, but he’s still “the boy” in every conversation. She’s “the young woman.”

Benji has never been worried about being beaten up or hated if anyone finds out the truth about him; he’s been hated by every opposing team since he was a child. The only thing he’s scared of is that one day there will be jokes that his teammates and coach won’t tell when he’s in the room. The exclusivity of laughter.

sani

5/5 bro this book was a rollercoaster evervone and their dads should read this bcs it made me understand the nature of men and at the same time made me feel heard as a woman like it's so mind blowingly eye-opening and honest and evervone was so deeply flawed and alive and now i have a tiny spark of hope for humanity

kamilia

5/5 bro this book was a rollercoaster evervone and their dads should read this bcs it made me understand the nature of men and at the same time made me feel heard as a woman like it's so mind blowingly eye-opening and honest and evervone was so deeply flawed and alive and now i have a tiny spark of hope for humanity



This book is well and truly a masterpiece! I’m so glad that Sofie recommended this one to me for my 12 books in 12 months challenge, whilst simultaneously feeling sad I hadn’t read it way sooner.

Admittedly, I was nervous going into this book as the blurb had me thinking this had thriller-y vibes but man I was so so wrong

This book has everything, it has hockey, community, family, friendship and teamwork. I felt overwhelmed by the amount of characters I was introduced to at the start that I had to write them down on a notebook as a mini glossary as well as how they were all connected 😂 but I came to love almost all the characters - Benji forever has a special place in my heart!

I enjoyed that each chapter flipped through multiple characters’ POV’s, as it kept the story moving, but most importantly, it made me feel like I was seeing each moment through all of their eyes, seeing their reactions instantly and feeling everything as they feel it.

This is definitely a book I will be recommending for a very long time and one that has truly left it’s mark on me in the best way 🤍

Larissa Kirchberger

BOOK REVIEW

Bear Town / Fredrik Backman

Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book is well and truly a masterpiece! I’m so glad that Sofie recommended this one to me for my 12 books in 12 months challenge, whilst simultaneously feeling sad I hadn’t read it way sooner.

Admittedly, I was nervous going into this book as the blurb had me thinking this had thriller-y vibes but man I was so so wrong

This book has everything, it has hockey, community, family, friendship and teamwork. I felt overwhelmed by the amount of characters I was introduced to at the start that I had to write them down on a notebook as a mini glossary as well as how they were all connected 😂 but I came to love almost all the characters - Benji forever has a special place in my heart!

I enjoyed that each chapter flipped through multiple characters’ POV’s, as it kept the story moving, but most importantly, it made me feel like I was seeing each moment through all of their eyes, seeing their reactions instantly and feeling everything as they feel it.

This is definitely a book I will be recommending for a very long time and one that has truly left it’s mark on me in the best way 🤍

Beartown

Reviews

Highlights