2024 the best hbo series review

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2018 Audie Award Finalist for Fiction

The number-one New York Times best-selling 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 semifinals, 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 semifinal 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.

Reviewer: Elizabeth H. Cottrell
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Thought provoking and soul nourishing...
Review: BEARTOWN: A NOVEL is remarkable on many levels. By the author of A MAN CALLED OVE, we see a similar skill in plumbing the heights and depths of the human psyche. In the characters, we see strength and weakness, courage and fear, goodness and meanness—often in the same character. There are no stereotypes here -- only well-developed characters you get to know intimately and understand why they're the way they are. If there is a theme or moral, it's that you should never judge a book by its cover or a person by their first impressions.The storytelling style is unique and very effective. Without being at all choppy or disjointed, the author goes back and forth in time in a very effective way to create puzzle pieces -- or parts of a collage -- that he trusts the reader to piece together into a whole.The story itself can't explain why this book had such a profound effect on me. The characters became so real, and I experienced such wide-ranging emotions throughout...but never too much. Just when you think your heart will break or that you can't bear a particular gut-wrenching experience, the scene will change and there will be another that is redemptive or heroic.Beartown is a tiny place nestled deep in the woods, and in severe decline economically and otherwise. But it's a hockey town, and its junior team has revived hope for the future by making it to the national semi-finals with a good chance of winning. That's a lot of pressure on a bunch of teenage boys and their coaches -- pressure that is well conveyed and felt by the reader.A violent act sends the town into turmoil, pits one against the other, and brings out both the worst and best in the town.Perhaps the most powerful impact of this book is the author's ability to inspire empathy for even the most unlikable of his characters. It is a reminder that you can never know everything about someone's past, secrets can tear you apart, and it takes enormous willpower to go against the crowd. But when courage and love prevail, it warms the heart and elevates the mind.This was more than just a novel—it was a spiritual experience that I found both thought-provoking and soul-nourishing, in spite of its dark moments.

Reviewer: RSW Kindle Customer
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: 4 Stars
Review: This contemporary fiction / family drama has been a highly acclaimed bestseller in many countries. The message, clearly, resonates across the globe. It is relatable any place where there are 'haves and have nots,' or over achieving kids with overly competitive parents, or neglected kids, or over indulged kids, or loving parents, or great coaches, or tired teachers, or bullies and victims.SUMMARYThe book opens with one teenager walking into the woods, pulling out a gun, pointing it at another teenager and pulling the trigger. The rest of the book explains the events leading up to this act.The book takes place in a small town on the edge of a forest called Beartown. I'm not sure exactly where Beartown is supposed to be located, but I think it's Sweden. The town has a small competitive hockey club which provides a social life as well as a source of pride for the town. Actually, that's an understatement. This town doesn't have a lot going for it at the moment; the local factory has eliminated a lot of jobs, people are moving away, those who stay don't have many employment options and to some people, the club is everything.The junior hockey team (made up of 16 and 17 years olds) is having an amazing season due, in large part, to their star player Kevin.Their coach, David, has been grooming them since they were seven years old, training them to become the stars they are today.Peter, a former Beartown Hockey star who made it to the NHL, returned to Beartown ten years ago with his family to serve as General Manager and turn the club into a national contender. Ten years of hard work has paid off and the team is about to play in they semi-finals for the junior NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!The town has so much riding on this. They are hoping that if they win the championship, the government will decide to build their new national training center in Beartown. Along with the training center would come more shopping, restaurants, commerce and JOBS. They NEED this. This is their time. The undefeated junior team just needs to make it through two more games.But, as the reader knows, it's not going to be that simple. We know that something is about to happen which will culminate in one teenager pulling the trigger of a gun on another...WHAT I LOVEDWow!!! So much to love! How could you not be riveted by a book with an opening chapter like that? Every time a new character appeared in the book, or when two characters interacted, I obsessively over analyzed the circumstances, looking for clues as to whether or not these characters were involved in the opening scene. Trying to determine if they were the one pointing the gun or the one with the gun pointed at them. Each slight made me read too much into the offended persons reaction. Would that be enough to trigger a tragic chain of events? I couldn't stop theorizing. I needed to know.I loved the setting; a snowy small town somewhere very far north. I both loved and hated that the country was never officially named. Loved because it gave me yet another thing to obsess over and hated because I never could get a straight answer.The book cover was LOVELY! The picture of the frozen lake and surrounding town was just what I imagined.I loved the narrative style. It was almost as if the story was being told orally, from the memory of an observer, with little snippets of wisdom and knowledge of future events which the narrator had witnessed.The characters were to compelling. They all had so many dimensions. There were several characters I was ready to write off as total 'bad seeds' in their first couple of appearances, who later redeemed themselves. On the flip side, some who initially seemed quite decent disappointed me.Benji and his family were very interesting; I loved how they very loudly loved each other while simultaneously calling each other out on bad behavior. They were all up in each other's business, they were always cramming themselves into small spaces so they could be together. On the polar opposite is Kevin's family. Cold, controlled, uninvolved. His parents started leaving him alone overnight when he was like twelve years old!! What the heck!!! On the outside, it looked like Kevin had everything; money and every advantage money could buy, intelligence and an excessive amount of talent. But did he really have more than Benji?There is so much to love in this book, I could go on for days, but I won't.WHAT I DIDN'T LOVEToo much hockey detail for me. I'm not anti-hockey, I'm just not obsessed. I understand the author was trying to create a feeling of an entire town living, eating, breathing hockey but it was too much for me. I get being in a town that loves its sports. I live in Texas. It's what we do. I felt like he could have created the feeling in fewer words.OVERALLA great book. Touches on my many important topics.

Reviewer: Kindle Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Incredible
Review: This book was both easy and incredibly difficult to read. I've only ever read one other book that made me feel all the things this book made me feel. Excitement, anger, resignation, heartbreak, the joy of first love, the strength of doing the right thing. One of the best written books I've ever read in my life.

Reviewer: Criss
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Love this author
Review: Well written. Another gem by this author. Can't wait to finish all 3 books in this series.

Reviewer: Kindle Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: OMG
Review: I CRIED SO MUCH, THE BOOK WAS INCREDIBLE! The best book ive ever read so far this year! absolutely worth it!

Reviewer: André Martins
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Aborda temas importantes usando a temática do esporte.Li em dois ou três dias. Recomendo o livro e também sua continuação "Us Against You".

Reviewer: Carolyn
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: 4.5 starsThe opening drew me right in and kept hold of me. " Late one evening toward the end of March, a teenager picked up a double barreled shotgun, walked into the forest, put a gun to someone else's head and pulled the trigger. This is the story of how we got there.Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang" This is a book where hockey plays a vital part. If, like me, you don't follow hockey, don't let that deter you. It is also the story of a small town in decline. Beartown is set deep in the Scandinavian forest, and could be the story of any small town undergoing economic decline. The town has high hopes that there will be a resurgence in fortune if the Junior Boys' team wins first place in the provincial finals, bringing with it a new rink, a hockey school, more businesses and maybe even a shopping mall. There is no girls' team and the girls want to date the hockey players who generally regard them as groupies or sluts. The older men sit around in the tavern, reminiscing of their glory days in hockey. The book delves deeply into the souls, hearts, minds and opinions of the characters. There are themes of friendship, parenting, friendships, prejudice, bullying and betrayal. It is rich in a large cast of characters and supporting cast. They are so well defined that we feel we know them, and through them know the town. High expectations and pressure are placed on the young boys to perform well in hockey. To win is essential. Second place is never enough. School rules and even the legal system gets bent to accommodate the star athletes. The hopes of the entire town rests on the young athletes and their hockey coaches. Winning would bring in more funds and sponsors. This is compelling, character driven writing, emotionally moving, incredibly sad and insightful. Something bad happens and we wonder will people stand for loyalty to the club or will justice prevail? Will there be redemption for some? At the ending I was left wanting more, wondering what would happen next. I was delighted to learn that a sequel will be released in Sweden this summer. I hope an English translation happens in due time. The translation of this book was superb, and I often forgot I was reading a book written in another language and set in another country.

Reviewer: Geraldine
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Ho amato moltissimo questo libro. L'ho letto in lingua originale: una scrittura asciutta e incisiva che arriva dritta al punto ed è facile da comprendere (per contro ho voluto leggere un estratto del primo capitolo in italiano e la traduzione è davvero terribile non c'è paragone) una storia interessante dove il tema centrale (la valenza dello sport/hockey in questo caso) diventa una scusa riflettere in modo altrettanto profondo su tante altre tematiche alle quali personalmente mi sono sentita molto vicina. I rapporti fra le persone, il mondo degli adolescenti, l'emarginazione/discriminazione, il valore dei principi, l'importanza della famiglia, gli equilibri di coppia. Insomma non è un tema nuovo..lo sport come una sorta di metafora della vita, però devo dire che il libro si legge volentieri anche se non si è appassionati di sport perché i personaggi sono interessanti e ben delineati e la storia ha un senso compiuto. Bello.

Reviewer: ダン・ケニー
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: best

Reviewer: Fuchs Joan
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Dieses Buch ist echt der Hammer, brandaktuell, mit einer Intensität, die chronische Übelkeit verursacht, aber wie bei einem Unglück, kann man einfach nicht wegsehen. Am Anfang muss man sich etwas darauf einlassen, aber schon bald kann man es einfach nicht mehr weglegen, auch wenn es die Grenze des Erträglichen oft nicht nur touchiert, sondern überschreitet. Auf fast jeder Seite findet sich eine Wahrheit fürs Leben, die Geschichte aus verschiedenen Sichtwinkeln ist extrem eindrücklich. Hier fehlt der Humor der anderen Bücher des Autors, der wäre hier aber wahrscheinlich fehl am Platz. Ich bin noch ganz weg.