Last year in July, I read Beartown, the first book in the trilogy of the same name, and I loved it. It was always just a question of time before I picked up the second book! Sometimes though, second books in a series can just not quite live up to the first book, but I loved this just as much as I loved the first book.
In Beartown, the town was torn apart by the events leading up to one of the biggest ice hockey games for the club in years. Now, in the aftermath, a lot of the players have moved to play for the nearby fierce rival town of Hed. When the local council announces that the Beartown hockey club is going to be closed down for good, the locals are disappointed.
Enter a shady politician who excels at manipulating people, mainly by pitting them again each other. He gives the club a lifeline in the form of a big name sponsor, but only if the General Manager, Peter, agrees to make certain changes to the club, which will put him in direct opposition to The Pack who are the die hard, extreme supporters who do, on occasion, tend towards violence.
Peter is a man under siege. He is blamed by many people for everything that has gone wrong, especially seeing as his daughter, Maya, was at the centre of the events. His family are receiving constant threats, his marriage is under pressure and his young son is making some bad decisions. It also seems that he can do nothing right at the club. No matter which way he turns, there will be someone who won't like it.
Given that they lost a lot of players at the end of the previous season, the new coach, who is a woman (shock horror) needs to build a new team around Amat, the fastest skater in town, and Benjy, who long has been the heart and soul of the team. And then there is Vidar, the troubled goal keeper.
Whilst this is a book about ice hockey, it is also a book about so much more. The way that Backman writes relationships is exceptional. Even the secondary characters can grab your heart and rip it out. In this case it was the relationship between Ann-Katrin (a player called Bobo's mum) and Amat's mother, Fatima, that really captured my heart.
Backman also has the ability to really make you care about individual characters. Benjy is one of my favourites. He has a secret but when it comes out, everyone has an opinion. Does his ability on the ice make up for his otherness or is too much for the town to accept. The one things that Benjy does know is that his fearsome sisters will always have his back.
I loved this quote about Benjy!
Everyone in this town knows that Benji is dangerous, because he strikes hardest. Yet few people seem to appreciate that everything about him does just that - strike hardest, beat hardest - the whole time. Including his heart.
Backman is fabulous at building the tension. You know that things are going to come to a head, but the question is what is going to be the catalyst, and what will the lasting impact be. The author has a very interesting way of writing. There is a lot of foreshadowing, some of which might be referencing things that will happen is two years or five years, so you know that your favourite characters are going to make it, but not everyone does.
Once again I was fully invested in the events that were occurring in Beartown. I have already picked the second book up from the library. I was surprised to see how thick the final book in the trilogy is! It's going to be a commitment, but I can't wait to read it and see how everything plays out!
I am sharing this review with the Books in Translation challenge hosted at Introverted Reader.
It's a 5/5 read for me!
