Look, I still really like Backman’s writing, as I’ve noted in my reviews of the previous books. But if I had to summarize my feelings on this book, it’s “schtick has run its course.” spoilers for the previous two installments! Here we return once more to Beartown and Hed, two towns alike in dignity in fair northern Sweden where we lay our scene. We’ve already had ancient grudge break and new mutiny, and blood has already been spilt over the hockeyball that seems to define […]

I never wrote a review for this one because it was before my quest to review everything I’ve read, but I really wish I had because my view on these books has changed pretty dramatically in the three and a half years it’s been since I first picked these up on the recommendation of my good friend and voracious bibliophile Aileen. Things I still think are true: Backman is one of my favorite authors writing today, for all that I’ve only read his works in […]

Trigger Warning: sexual assault  I do not know much about hockey, I live in Texas and while Dallas has an NHL team the whole sport tends to fly under my radar, but you don’t need to know anything about hockey to be enraptured by Beartown. Saying I “enjoyed” Beartown doesn’t seem right, it isn’t a particularly enjoyable story, but like A Man Called Ove Backman delivers a very sad but beautiful story this time about life in a small Swedish town whose entire focus is on their youth hockey team. I’ve […]