Us Against You: A Novel (Beartown Series)

This is book two in the series but could easily stand by itself. The writing is genuine, And the characters come to life and find a way into your heart. Saying the story is about hockey is a major understatement. It's about human nature, Both ugly and admirable, and finding the strength to survive.

With plot twists I didn’t see coming, characters finding strength by themselves or through others, death and love intermingle through this novel about hockey. A remarkable story authored by a profoundly talented Fredrik Bachman.

I don’t know where to begin. I loved all of the characters in this book. Some of it was so hard to read. Such a good story! The only thing I’m disappointed about is not knowing exactly what happened to Kevin. But what a story!

5 ⭐️ - it was perfect!🎶 Happiness - Taylor Swift“When you strip away all the nonsense surrounding it, the game is simple: everyone gets a stick; there are two teams, two nets. Us against you.”Us Against You was a stunning, heartbreaking, consuming continuation of the Beartown series. This one started a little slow in the beginning since it has a decent amount of recap from book 1, but I was happy to be back with these characters and immediately feeling an array of emotions as their new rivalry unfolded.Backman has a way of writing such complex characters that makes it difficult for me to hate even the very worst of them. I feel like I know this town and these people, so when they face difficulty or challenges or grief I feel it right alongside them. Despite being a hockey-centric series, it’s more so just an achingly realistic depiction of the human experience. Happy endings aren’t always reality, and there’s something tragically beautiful about being able to escape into a series like this. I’ve met some of my most favorite fictional people in Beartown, and while I’m scared for my mental state to read book 3, I’m excited to continue to see these characters grow.What you can expect:📚 contemporary fiction🏒 small hockey town👫 character driven novel😭 emotional story🌪️ consuming, atmospheric writing🧠 mental health representation⌛️ coming of age

That is what I experienced while reading the sequel to Beartown. Deep shuddering sobs. Have you ever read a book that shattered you into a million itty bitty pieces but then slowly painstakingly put you back together again? That is Us Against You. Another definite 5 star read that was so emotion evoking that at certain points of this book all I could do was gutturally sob. My undereye's are so irritated from all the wiping I have done. It was so good but never predictable and very fulfilling with all of the plot twists.

This is an excellent series. And I’m scared to read the next book because death. A bittersweet and real think that happens to us all is right around the corner at any second. These books do their job in making us feel, making us realize that very true fact. This installation in the series is slower than the first. And I had a hard time staying in the story. But that could be more of a me problem.

This story really captures life. The joy,the pain and how complicated life is. This could be any town,anywhere and any sport.

Overall: A beautifully written book with well-developed characters that will have you rooting, crying, laughing, and smiling with them. Fans of Beartown will enjoy this sequel but it is not up to the same level as the first. 3.5/5 or 6.5/10The Good: The author and translator are absolutely incredible. I love the writing and overall tone in all of his novels and this one was the same. I loved Beartown and the characters in it, and many of them are back in this sequel. I especially loved Benji and the layers and development you experience with him throughout the course of the story. Maya and Anna were also strong characters that stood out and continued to grow more throughout the book. For new characters, I absolutely adored Elizabeth Zackell and wish there was more time devoted to her. There are some very strong themes and important points made throughout the course of this book and they are all made beautifully. Even though many bad things happen, this story has an overall positive and empowering theme of surviving.The Bad: I find it very difficult to write reviews for sequels because it is almost impossible to not compare the books to each other. So therefore, full disclosure, I am going to compare them and many of the negatives may not be negatives to me if this were a stand alone book.Beartown was a phenomenal book; Us Against You was a good book.One of the things I loved about Beartown was all the different character perspectives and how this strengthened and added to the story overall. In Us Against You, I almost feel that there were too many characters so you did not get the depth you got in Beartown (minus Benji, Anna, and maya), so this overall was a negative. I also think there were two many events, twists, and tragedy in this novel that it actually took away from the story. By the end, it was almost predictable that something terrible was going to happen to yet another character. There was no real peak in this, but rather bad thing and twists just kept happening repeatedly over and over that this really did take away for me. Still a good read but not to the same level as Beartown.Favorite quotes:“Everyone is a hundred different things, but in other people’s eyes we usually get the chance to be only one of them.”“The complicated thing about good and bad people alike is that most of us can be both at the same time.”“Sometimes people have to be allowed to have something to live for in order to survive everything else.”“At some point almost everyone makes a choice. Some of us don't even notice it happening, most don't get to plan it in advance, but there's always a moment when we take one path instead of another, which has consequences for the rest of our lives. It determines the people we will become, in other people's eyes as well as our own. Elizabeth Zackell may have been right when she said that anyone who feels responsibility isn't free. Because responsibility is a burden. Freedom is a pleasure.”"Guys never think about light, it just isn’t a problem in their lives. When guys are scared of the dark, they’re scared of ghosts and monsters, but when girls are scared of the dark, they’re scared of guys.”“It’s hard to care about people. Exhausting, in fact, because empathy is a complicated thing. It requires us to accept that everyone else’s lives are also going on the whole time. We have no pause button for when everything gets too much for us to deal with, but then neither does anyone else.”“Anyone who devotes his life to being the best at one single thing will be asked, sooner or later, the same question: “Why?” Because if you want to become the best at something, you have to sacrifice everything else.”

Read Bear Town first, then Us Against You. What delightful reads. Fredrik Backman is an incredible storyteller, and his books are hard to put down.

Lost count how many times I wanted to cry whilst reading this moving story. Wonderful characters. I don't even like hockey but Backman made me understand why people do !

"Us against you" è il sequel del primo libro della trilogia, "Beartown".Quando in una città come quella di Beartown, nella quale la vita di ogni singolo individuo è strettamente legata a ciò che accade a causa dell'Hockey, un giocatore si trova protagonista di una terribile accusa e molti degli altri decidono di giocare per la città rivale Hed, è chiaro che tutto sta per andare a rotoli. Tuttavia, in un modo o nell'altro, i suoi abitanti riusciranno a rialzarsi.Backman non si smentisce mai. Solitamente dai sequel di libri fantastici ci si aspetta che non siano belli tanto quanto il primo, ma questo non è il caso con "Us against you".La caratterizzazione dei personaggi è divina: non si finisce il libro senza aver pianto per ognuno di loro almeno una volta. È interessante come l'autore riesca, se non a 'giustificare', a far capire tutte le motivazioni che spingono i personaggi a comportarsi nel modo in cui si comportano.Un libro che non si riesce a mettere giù, ma che in ogni pagina fa riflettere, piangere, e ridere, tutto allo stesso tempo.Beartown non aveva necessariamente bisogno di un sequel, sarebbe potuto essere tranquillamente autoconclusivo, però "Us against you" esplora realtà ancora diverse rispetto al primo, portando avanti la storia in maniera inaspettata.Ho letto entrambi i libri sia in italiano che in inglese, e devo dire che in inglese hanno avuto un effetto completamente diverso. La traduzione italiana è accettabilissima, ma allo stesso tempo credo che in inglese si riesca a rendere molto di più lo stile molto diretto dell'autore, e quindi che la storia arrivi in maniera diversa penetrando più a fondo.In quanto all'edizione, quella della Penguin lascia un po' a desiderare: per rendere il libro più compatto le scritte sono piccole e la carta è sottile e di bassa qualità. Purtroppo qui su amazon c'era solo questa opzione ma avrei preferito la stampa della Sperling.Personalmente credo che sia una di quelle serie che ciascuno dovrebbe leggere almeno una volta nella vita. Non vedo l'ora di leggere anche il terzo della trilogia.Consigliatissimo!

Book came in good condition. Delivery was on time. About the story, Fredrik Backman never disappoints.

Get ready to cry ugly. This isn't an easy breezy book to read.