A heart-wrenching exposé…I’m glad I read this last installation of the series, but I have to say I’m also glad it’s the last one. I don’t know that my emotions can handle much more of the Beartown drama. It was a very intense journey with a group of shockingly wonderful people—desperately messed up people, but wonderful, even in their horrendous flaws. I liked meeting the new folks from Hyet in this one also, especially Hannah and Johnny. 

 

But Benji… oh, he’s the best… when the book opens up with Benji, already I knew it was going to be a good story…and it was all that and more, because: Benji. 🥹

 

Backman’s style is unique, he drops a grenade, then backtracks and unfolds how we got to this point; and sometimes, it’s a dummy, and we’re relieved, but we just never know when it might be for real, and so it’s this tug of emotions, highs and lows, and we fall in love so easily with his characters (why is that?) that it hurts when they hurt, and we hurt so much in this story… 

 

I love how this ended, even if it also hurt. I’m not one for tying up all the loose ends, I don’t mind leaving things in the air, but in this case, I found it beautifully satisfying to know the futures, the endings, the fulfilled promises, and to see what good came from such fatal mistakes and horrific misunderstandings. 

 

It was a rough few winters, but I’m ever so glad I spent time with this cast of characters in a cold, northern, hockey-obsessed town. 

 Thanks, Mr Backman.