i'm gonna just go over the list of gripes i have with this book first, so that i can go on record to say that this isn't a perfect book by any means. it's far from that. here goes:

a. some of the characters from previous books are just forgotten in this one. like they didn't even exist in the first place. i get it, this is a long book, not everyone's story can be told, but still, it sucks that they didn't get so much as a mention.

b. this is more of a nitpick but sometimes backman got really repetitive with his sentences, to the point where i was annoyed everytime he repeated a particular sentence or metaphor. i think i noticed it more because this is a longer book, so stuff gets repeated a lot. i get that it's the way fredrik backman writes, but god did i really not like it as much as i usually do this time.

c. this wasn't a problem for me specifically but it might be for a lot of people, so i'll admit, the pacing is slow. not a lot happens in the first half and that could be a problem for a lot of readers because as stated before, this is a long book.

that's all i can think of off the top of my head. on to the gushing.

the winners feels like coming home for me, like it did for maya and benji. it's a sad book, all of the beartown books are, but this last one feels hopeful somehow.

the characters are endearing as always, fredrik backman really knows how to write people. there's a paragraph where maya thinks about how there's always a benji, a bobo, an amat, and a kevin in every small town and i found myself agreeing, because yes, there really is. and i hope, for all the mayas out there, that they have an ana and a kira and a leo and a peter too.

there are so many keen observations made in backman's unflinchingly honest and unrelentingly empathetic writing. terrible things happen, due to the people who live there and to the people who live there. there's violence, bloodshed, politics, but there's also friendship, love, loyalty and bravery.

all of it comes back to the two people who've suffered the most, and who've survived, despite it all and because of it all, who've seen the worst this town can do, and still manage to be the best of it. one of them gets a happy ending, one of them doesn't. and life goes on and little alicia's story begins.

it's not a perfect ending, but nothing ever is. it's heartbreaking, painful, bittersweet, but it's cathartic, and it's enough.

beartown is a simply complicated place, and the final part of its story is somehow complicatedly simple. and i wouldn't have it any other way. i love this small town at the edge of the forest, and will continue doing so for the rest of time, because that part has been surprisingly simple, and always will be.