Finally finished the Beartown Trilogy - It has been a long journey.
By AcarusBrisk
I’ve read the whole series over the last two years, which feels like forever, but it’s mostly because I get the books from the library and the waiting lists can be brutal. And yep, one of those years was basically just me trying to finish The Winners. I’ll still recommend the series, even if this might sound like I’m ranting a bit. The first two books are honestly what made me stick it out through 672 pages of Fredrik Backman refusing to let go of his characters (which I get). And then somehow he ties everyone’s lives up in the last 30 pages and it’s all like—people end up successful and things sort of work out. The most unbelievable part for me was Maya being a famous singer. Every time her song lyrics came up (and it was sometimes almost an entire page), I’d just skip it. Still, I’ll give him credit: Amat’s ending totally made sense, and it genuinely made me happy. By the end I went from “I really love Backman’s writing style” to “okay, I’m kind of getting tired of it.” That said, there were still some strong parts, and they were depressing in a way I couldn’t ignore—Ramona and Benji’s deaths hit hard since they’re basically the heart of Beartown and they absolutely wrecked me. On the bright side, Peter kind of pushed me to start baking bread, so I guess there’s that. And if I’m ranking the trilogy, it’s pretty straightforward for me just by release order: - Beartown - Us Against You - The Winners