Us Against You, a refreshing piece of contemporary fiction, sees the return of the people of Beartown in their continuing battle to save their town, their hockey and even their lives in this emotionally charged description of life in a small community in rural Sweden. Maya, an emotionally destroyed teenager, Benji a star player with a secret, and “the Pack” are just of few of the protagonists we have missed since they were first introduced to us in Fredrik Backman’s Beartown.

Beartown is in peril. The hockey team is bankrupt and the town council has decided to support another team. The local factory is shutting down and jobs are being lost. People are divided over whether or not the team should be supported. An unknown sponsor buys the factory and supports the team, but not without conditions that put many people at odds with each other.

Backman sums it up best. “This has been a story about ice rinks and all the hearts that beat in and around them. About people and sports and how they sometimes take it in turns to carry each other. About us, dreaming and fighting. Some have fallen in love and some have been destroyed, we’ve had good days and some very bad days.”
The story is also so much more than this. It is emotionally draining and at the same time uplifting. It gives you faith in people and their resiliency in the face of adversity.

Backman is a master at Character development. He gives you so much detail about each person that you begin to know them personally and develop a vested interest in how well they do. Even Vidal, who is a boy bound for prison, is a person you can’t help but love.

“Have you ever seen a town fall? Ours did.”

Backman uses foreshadowing often and effectively. He creates a sense of anticipation that makes the book a real page-turner. Sometimes the event turns out to be anti-climatic but you still race to get there expecting something else. For example at one point someone dies of cancer when you have hurried to get to that point in the story thinking there was going to be a murder.

I highly recommend this book, but suggest that Beartown is a must read before you dive into Us Against You. I would give the pair of books a 10 out of 5 if possible. Five stars for sure for Us Against You

I want to thank NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with this book in exchange for a fair review.

Frederik Backman's Beartown series has been a truly enjoyable and emotional read. These books are set in a hockey town in Sweden, but they are nominally about hockey...their real focus is the trials and events that bring a community together and tear it apart. Backman has such sharp insights into human behaviour and an entertaining writing style. In this book, he focuses on many themes including relationships, politics, homophobia, coming of age issues, and parenting, amongst others.

Us Against You was an excellent follow-up to the absolutely outstanding Beartown. In this book, we follow the developments that take place in the year after the events of Beartown. We again view the progress of Benji (my absolute favourite in these books), Maya, Ana, Amat, Ramona, etc. and we are introduced to some new characters too. I found this one a bit slow to get into, but by the halfway point, I was again immersed in the stories of this town.

Thank you to the author, Simon & Schuster Canada, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this novel to read and review.

The sequel to Bear Town tells the stories of the the two towns and the people within them.
Well written ,the story evolves telling about the rivalry between people and towns and all the elation ships within them . A wonderful read , following up on the original Bear Town story .

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an advanced copy. What a thrill!
After reading the previous book, Beartown, which I loved so much, I was a bit sceptical about this follow up. The first 25% was mostly flashbacks from the first book, so I was a bit annoyed, but mostly because I started this book immediately after finishing Beartown, so I did not need to be reminded of the facts. Regardless, what a terrific book this one is. What a great insight of the human nature the author has. What a great way to write a book. It touched my soul. Most of the time I was on the brink of tears. Wonderful characters. I especially loved Benjamin and the hockey coach Elisabeth Zackell and Ramona. You don’t need to love hockey in order to enjoy both books. I hope for another follow up. These characters deserve a long life.

Wow; I finished Us Against You yesterday but needed to wait til I wrote my review.

I loved Beartown, and Us Against You is equally as good.

I could read this book again, something I never do, there was so many statements that when I was reading them I said, oh that is so true.

I loved all the characters, you know someone from the town will be dead at the end ; but who ?

I found myself saying, oh please no, not this person.

It's a story about a town that has had so many upheavals and are about to lose their hockey team; that is what keeps and makes the town

I can't recommend this book highly enough. You should read Beartown first to get the full effect.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this opportunity; I will pick up my copy as soon as it is available in Canada

This is a beautiful continuation of the 'Beartown' story. The book is full of lines that describe feelings we all have but could never express so eloquently. Backman is brilliant in his ability to write what we ourselves find hard to express, truly insightful.

The book is an emotional roller coaster. All the best books make us FEEL something and this book made me FEEL everything! I found myself stopping so that I could delay ending what I did not want to end. To parcel out the emotions that were always waiting. To savour the story line knowing that it would be some time before another Backman book was written and maybe the last time these particular characters were written about.

Do not be afraid that this book appears to be about hockey. Sport is the backdrop for the story but you don't have to like hockey to like the book. This book is about the people in two small towns that are pitted against each other in a variety of political, economical and emotional ways and that tension is targeted at the rivalry between the two teams.

You do not have to read 'Beartown' to appreciate this book. The author provides enough back story to help you understand the current situation, HOWEVER, having read the first book I became so quickly invested in the next stages for these characters and I would not have wanted to miss all the deeper details provided in the first story. .

I love how Backman gives us small glimpses as to the future of some of the characters yet is able to keep us emotionally tangled up into what is coming next.

Too many lines I loved, here are a few:

'The path back to normal life is indescribably long once death has swept the feet out from under those of us who are left.'

'The complicated thing about good and bad people alike is that most of us can be both at the same. time.'

'But when everyone is shouting it can be hard to hear the opposition, and once an avalanche of hate has started to roll is can be hard to tell who is responsible for stopping it.'

'Thanks. See you later.'
Those words are far too insignificant to topple a grown woman, but they mean the world if your'e someone's mom.

'Exclusion is a form of exhaustion that eats its way into your skeleton.'

'Life is so damn, damn, damn tough sometimes that it's almost unbearable. Even if that's the way it's supposed to be.'

Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for allowing me to read an early version of this book for an honest review.

I absolutely loved this book just as much if not more than Beartown. Everyone has to read this book! Please though read Beartown first. The characters in this story will stay with me for a long time after reading this story.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced readers copy of Us Against You, as usual all opinions are my own.

Do yourself a favour, go get this book, if you haven’t read Beartown get that one first, then get yourself a copy of this book when it comes out!
*
One of the worst things about books with compelling characters, the kind that you get attached to and laugh with and cry over, is that at the end of the book their story goes on without you. It may seem a strange thing to say about made up people living made up lives, invented by an author, existing only in ink on a page, but for anyone who is a reader these feelings are common. Beartown was one of these books, the kind that leaves you with a hangover, the kind that makes you think, the kind that leaves you wanting to know more about these fictional people you’ve fallen in love with; Us Against You gives you more, and again leaves you with that same hope that there will be another book, another glimpse into these people’s lives, some answers (some you’re going to want, and some that will leave you devastated I’m sure).

While Beartown centred around small town hockey culture, culminating in one event and its aftermath, Us Against You is more about the way people relate to each other—both good and bad. It’s a deep dive into society, politics, and relationships (with a side of hockey drama). Backman does what he does best and takes us fully into the layers of humanity, capturing love, hate, parenthood, friendships, grief, and how these emotions drive us. The story itself was compelling, emotionally rapt, and engaging, though it did get slightly repetitive with the armchair philosophies in the middle. Overall, a great followup to Beartown, and hopefully not the last we will see of Benji, Amat, Bobo and the rest of Beartown residents.

Backman has done it again.

Whether it's been Ove, Britt-Marie, Beartown, and now, Us Against You, I have been so engrossed in his stories that his characters stay with me long after I turn the final page. The characters in this novel are so complex and real that I feel as though they could be my next door neighbours and that Beartown is just a short drive away. I lost count the number of times I cried and gasped during this whirlwind of 24hr reading period and will now go through intense separation anxiety as I attempt to recover.

My 3rd book by this author. I really enjoyed Beartown, which should be read prior to reading this one. This book had the same characters and started approximately 3 months after what happened in Beartown. I found the end of Beartown seemed to end with everything tidied up, wrapped with a bow. And reading this one, I did question some of the characters actions from Beartown.

The book is a good and easy read. Characters you could invest in. Without giving away details, I did have some as “if moments.” Some of the chapter endings, where they do a big reveal to get you to read the next chapter, we’re of a dramatic flare that seemed overdone. But overall I did enjoy this one and excited to read more by this author.

As expected, this book made me feel a lot. From beginning to end it is filled with impact through the actions of characters and through Backman's writing. While I did not quite enjoy it as much as Beartown, it fits very closely to the first novel, and I think it would be hard to like one and not the other.

This one felt slower than the first novel, possibly because I was already familiar with the characters and setting, or because the main action takes place later on, but it does not disappoint. I also appreciated that Backman didn't try as hard to build suspense through his writing as in Beartown, which at times felt unnatural. There was still suspense, and some misdirection, but it felt more natural.

After reading this novel, I'm heartbroken and need a hug, but I loved every second of it.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for this advance copy of Us Against You. I was thrilled that my long wait for the sequel to the wonderful Beartown had finally come to an end. After finishing Beartown, my favourite book of fiction in 2017, I was impatient to learn what was next for the town and its people. I felt a deep connection with the deeply drawn characters. Love some and hate some; they were always intriguing and compelling. The author has a great understanding of human nature. Us Against You doesn’t disappoint. It was possibly even better than Beartown.

Fredrik Backman writes with emotion and is an exceptional story teller. His characters come to life on the pages and in our hearts and minds. There is humor but also great tragedy and passages of wisdom. At times heartwarming, but also heart wrenching and heartbreaking, I found it an intense reading experience as there was foreboding throughout which made me worry that something bad lay ahead on the pages.

This is the story of a small town in decline set in the Swedish forests. The people live for hockey and the local games are the highlight of the lives of players and their many fans. This should not deter any reader. I have no interest in hockey, but none is needed. It is about so much more: it is about the lives of people and the good and bad choices they make. It involves family connections, friendship, love, hate, rivalry, violence. Sometimes I had to interrupt my reading to wipe tears from my eyes.

I have heard there will be a third book and hope it is true. I want to know the future for Maya, Ana, Benji and his sisters, Ramona, Peter, Amat, Leo, Bobo, Zackell, Alicia, Teemu and all the others I have to come to know and love. Have already ordered a book as a gift and one for myself. Now for the long wait for the next book in the series!
To be published in Canada Sept 4 9781501163128