A review by bringmybooks
The Winners by Fredrik Backman

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Thank you to Edelweiss, Atria Books, & Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read and review this book before it's publication date! This in no way affected my review, opinions are my own.

✨ 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚 ✨ B̷O̷R̷R̷O̷W̷ B̷Y̷P̷A̷S̷S̷

Going to go back to Beartown #1 for a moment here, and share the opening lines:

"Late one evening toward the end of March, a teenager picked up a double-barreled shotgun, walked into the forest, put the gun to someone else's forehead, and pulled the trigger. This is the story of how we got there."

IF THAT ALONE DOESN'T WANT TO MAKE YOU READ THE FIRST BOOK (which will inevitably make you want to read the second, and then the third, because the first book is absolutely fantastic), I don't know what to do with you. (JK, but also not, but also yes, I'm kidding. Mostly.)

On a more serious note: These books have changed my life, truly & honestly. It's not hyperbole. Each one is better than the last, and each one has left an indelible mark at the very core of who I am. Backman sees the world and writes about it in a way that I feel to the absolute depths of my being, and - again, I know this sounds like Too Much, but it's not, it's true - I think about these characters as though I know them, as though their fictional pain and joy and struggles and laughter were my own - because, at the crux of it, we all experience pain and joy and struggles and laughter, and Backman writes about them in ways both poetic and base, cutting to the very essence of those feelings, and making it so that someone that has never even held a hockey stick in her entire life primally understands this hockey town and everyone in it.

Y'all, I just cannot recommend this series highly enough.

If you've read the first two, just know that this absolute monster of a book is worth every single page and concludes certain plot lines in beautiful (&heartbreaking, yes - but still beautiful) ways. You will not be disappointed.

If you have never read any of the Beartown books, I implore you to at least give the first book a try. (I have heard that his writing style isn't for everyone, which I can understand - but you'll know probably within 10 pages if that's the case for you.)

In conclusion, Benji Ovich is Tim Riggins and I will hear nothing against this.