Fredrik Backman's writing and storytelling are like no other. The Winners gives an insight into some of our favorite characters, introduces some new ones, makes you cry, and forces you to stay up all night to finish the novel, even when you are telling yourself to slow down so you can savor this. An incredible book.

Thank you, NetGalley, for an advanced copy of this novel.

Did this book really need to be 650 pages? No it didn't.

Did I still read every single page and soak in and enjoy every single word? Yes I most definitely did. It took me 10 days to finish it (a long time for me), and it is definitely not a fast read. But it was well worth the effort!

While I thought it could have been a bit shorter, the length of the book gives Backman plenty of time to really dive into the towns of Beartown and Hed one final time. He is in no hurry to tell the story, and in true Backman fashion, he meanders around the town for hundreds of pages, introducing a few new characters and zooming in on the characters we already know and love. I generally am not a fan of slow-burning storytelling, but Backman is a master at this style and knows how to do it well. The plot moves very slowly, but it moves purposely-- with each page a stepping block that is giving us more insight into the character's lives and pulling us closer to the final climax--which is heartbreaking but still hopeful.

The Winners, as with Beartown and Us Against You, is a beautiful story that paints a complex portrait of the highs and low of humanity. My favorite thing about Backman's writing is the way that he captures human life so authentically. His observations are always keen, genuine and relatable. There is a scene with a mother and a teenage daughter in this book, and I felt like he just copied and pasted it out of my own life. How does he know us all so well? I appreciate the way these stories remind us all of the many struggles that we have in common with each other.

I feel like this one is being marketed as a stand alone story (there is nothing on the cover that indicates it is the final book in a trilogy). And I suppose that you could pick up The Winners and read it as a stand alone book. But you would be missing so much!! I definitely think it needs to be read as a trilogy.

And a quick shoutout to Bobo! I really liked Bobo in the first two books, but I felt like he didn't get a lot of attention. Bobo shines in this third book, and I just loved him even more after this one.

To summarize this long review, I love this book and I love this trilogy and I love Fredrik Backman. The end.

Read if you like: character-driven stories.
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Well, this book just ripped my heart out. Backman is such a skilled writer. Not only are his descriptions beautiful, but the characters he creates are also superb and he connects the readers to every single one.
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This is the last book in the Beartown series and even though it is a big, thick book, I was fully immersed on every single page. I am usually a pretty quick reader but I found myself slowly savouring every page. It was just that good!
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CW: sexual harassment, assault, rape, violence, workplace accident, death of a baby, death of a loved one, childbirth, injury, gun violence.

Backman's writing is very special, as always. That being said, it's a wee bit too long and could have done with a little editing. In the end it rips your heart out just like you knew it would.

The Winners is my favorite of the Beartown trilogy. Propulsive prose, addicting characters and absolutely gutting. I especially love how Backman tied the plot to bigger themes and meaning.

I must confess that I’m glad this series is over. I liked it as a whole but I don’t think this needed to be a trilogy. I liked the first one and liked the second one more but if Backman was able to make that into one and call it a day, I would’ve been much happier with that.

I don’t think we needed this story. It only added more heartbreak to Beartown (which of course is the authors point given his past books lol) but I don’t know if it was necessary, in my opinion.

My issue is that this was so long and even in audiobook form it’s 21 hours. Finishing 1 chapter only moves you along 1% - if that, sometimes no progress it made.

Even though the series is revolved around hockey - I can’t get past that either. Especially in this book, I feel like it was more prominent than the other books with the details of the game. in my option, it got really boring. Of course that's my own fault since I knew it going into it and have read the whole series but I'm a loyal reader of Backman's even if I don't like it.

The book is great with characterization and definitely a big character study but I think this needed more editing. There were so many more characters added and some of their stories weren’t needed. Some were too long and some were too short, if that makes sense. I also started to lose track with all of the characters as well.

Overall I’m glad to see the Beartown series come to a close and will wait to see what Backman comes out with next. Thank you to Atria and Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book!

Such a satisfying ending to a masterpiece of a series. As I turned the last page, I broke out in sobs, the sounds of my wailing echoing off the walls in my apartment. Backman always does such a beautiful job of crafting his characters, to where although you know they won't get a complete happy ending, they will continue to soldier on, and it will be so worth it in the end. I love his work so much, and the Winners is no exception. I'm almost disappointed to see this series come to an end, but I know in my heart that these characters will never leave me.

Wow! Backman produces another classic! At his book event I attended last week, he mentioned that he lost some readers after releasing 𝘽𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙤𝙬𝙣, a book about a reclusive town that lives and breathes hockey. His agent fearing that his fans would fall off, urged him to pretend it was just a standalone. Let me assure you I’m not a hockey fan. However, the Beartown series while centered around hockey is more about community, and how community can come together or be torn apart. It’s a reflection of human nature, our triumphs and our failings. It’s about how we respond to sports and crisis, latch onto hope, and grimace at anything that might tarnish our glamorized view of any sport and the players because it painfully questions our own values.

Backman rounds off everyone’s storylines. You’re made aware at the start that there’s a pending tragedy and you know who it is. This is the dread I carried as I read on. Backman connects and draws parallels, and honestly, points out the obvious about our own psychology, but in an illuminating and eloquent way. And readers also get closure when it comes to the villain who started the chain reaction of events.

Backman is one of my favorite authors, an auto buy, and I recommend this masterpiece, and the entire trilogy to anyone.

*Thank you @NetGalley & @atriabooks for my ARC. This is my honest review.

Although I never wanted the Beartown story to end, The Winners is a fitting end to this series. It broke my heart in all the right places. I knew it was coming and yet, it still hit me. If you enjoyed the first two books, this 600+ behemoth of a novel is well worth your time. If you weren't into the othes, what is wrong with you? Just kidding. Not every book is for every person, but don't jump into this without reading and enjoying the beginning of the story. This isn't a stand alone novel or something you can read out of order. You need the emotional build up and connection. I love Fredrik Backman's writing style and The Winners was no exception. Five stars for me.

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The Winners by Fredrik Backman is the third novel in the Beartown trilogy. The novels take place in a small Swedish hockey town.

Two years after Maya Anderson’s rape by Kevin, a hockey star, which has turned the town against her, she finds herself far away in college. Benji Ovich, her friend has also left Beartown to find himself but is living a life full of drugs and alcohol.

The death of Ramona, the beloved barkeeper of the Bearskin Pub, brings the whole town together for the funeral. However, events quickly spiral out of control when the Beartown vs. Hed hockey rivalry leads to more than just two Swedish teams on the ice. Politicians, business-people, lawyers, and gangsters all get involved, and the citizens of both towns find themselves fighting for their clubs, towns, and humanity.

This was an outstanding ending to the Beartown trilogy of Beartown, and Us Against You. It is difficult to end a popular series, with beloved characters, but The Winners by Fredrik Backman managed to do it in style and flourish as well as an emotional ending to this beloved series.

All of the beloved characters from the previous novels are back, and certainly, others who are just as engrossing. Usually, in books with so many characters, the reader gets lost, but somehow Mr. Backman managed to make each character a real person which I found myself caring about. The mark of a gifted writer, if nothing else

The plot, or actually multiple plots, is engrossing as they are complex, just like life itself. However, I never found myself lost or losing interest. The narrative is straightforward and easy enough to keep track of the concurrent narratives. As with the other two books in the series, as well as with the author’s other books, there are foreshadwing of events that make one wants to keep on reading until the end.

The writing is powerful, engrossing, yet easy to read. The translation is expertly done, which is much harder than it sounds, to bring us a dramatic, and satisfying novel with a sense of humor.

Backman is such an amazing writer and I haven't found myself disappointed by any of his books yet. I'm happy to add this one to the pile of absolutely loved!

This book takes place two years after the events of the previous book in the series. Everyone gathers for the funeral when a staple of Beartown dies. Beartown and Hed's tentative truce is broken. An invisible forgotten boy is tired of being ignored and decides to do something about it. A scandal is uncovered, and someone may go to prison. Not everyone will make it to the end of the book alive. An amazing book with a super sad ending. Most of the characters got what they deserved.

This series, is absolutely one of my favourites, and I was so excited to received a digital ARC. The characters, the prose, the storyline, all tug at my heart in ways that I can't quite explain. Backman has this incredible way with words--I believe every word he writes, and know that each word is carefully chosen and arranged to convery just the right emotion. The story is incredible and I love how we see the characters grow over each of the three books. I often find that by the time book 3 rolls around, that I've lost interest. But not this series--Backman is brilliant, and I think for me, one of the appeals is that I see Beartown as any small town in Northern Canada. This book left me feeling exposed and raw, and with my emotions in a big bubbly mess. But in the best way possible.

I am glad to see that the phrase tour de force has not been used into meaninglessness much like awesome because how could I conceivably describe Fredrik Backman’s last book in his Beartown trilogy, The Winners, without using tour de force?

Coming in at 688 pages, The Winners is not a slight meditation. It’s a thoughtful novel in which its author tosses out red herrings and then herrings that are not red at all but ones over which, you, the reader who has lived with Beartown’s characters for several years, will weep. Backman does not just give us tears but also laughs, truths, injustices, and moments of great love and sacrifice.

The Winners occurs two years after Us Against You. For their sanities, Maya and Benji have both moved away from Beartown; Maya to study in the capitol and Benji abroad to as many places as he can. But a death brings them back to the town they have complicated feelings for. They are reminded of the good and the bad. Could things have been different? Could one slight change have averted tragedies?

Honestly, I was initially annoyed that The Winners was so long. My reading schedule is usually hanging by a thread as it is so I didn’t anticipate The Winners length. Of course, at another time I probably would have had the novel read well in advance and would never be writing this paragraph because, on the other hand, The Winners needed to be as long as it is and at another time I wouldn’t have minded.

Backman has a lot to say. We have a lot to live with as we go through two weeks with our characters. Despite my need for speed, I savored the words sometimes almost as much as I hated and wept over them. If there is ever an author who walks miles in the shoes of a disparate person, it is this one. Why is this young man the way he is? Backman provides reasons without judgement. I suppose it is up to the reader to decide or not to decide to judge and uncover, inevitably, what that means about each of us at the conclusion.

Why is this novel named The Winners? Each of us may draw our own conclusions. It certainly isn’t because a team wins a hockey match or because the corrupt achieve their gains or those with integrity win in the end or fate becomes re-written. Or is it?

While I remained blithely ignorant that Beartown was ever going to be a trilogy, I’m glad it was and wish it wasn’t because now I will no longer be magically surprised when a new installment enters my little world. I’ll miss these complicated and lovely characters. Of course, I suppose this ending makes way for even more character and stories to be crafted by Backman. And I will eagerly await them.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I consider Fredrick Backman one of my favorite authors. He writes like poetry. A Man Called Ove is on my favorite books of all time lists. I adored Beartown. I was awed that a man could write so convincingly about a woman’s reaction to rape. Anxious People was one of my favorite books I read in 2020. But for some reason, I found Winners tedious. I stopped reading it at about 60 %. I don’t why. I found the book to be long and I just wasn’t invested in the characters. It lacked the humor that I enjoyed in Ove and Anxious People. I’m glad that The Winners is the end of a trilogy. I look forward to Mr. Backman’s next book.

"This hurts too much to touch with words."

You're telling me. Whew! Fredrik Backman is such a talented and beautiful writer. I savor his words and observations of life, people, and human emotion. For some silly reason, I always forget what a brilliant writer he is and then I pick up one of his books and I am blown away. Over the course of these books, he has given us characters to fall in love with, to shake our heads at, to cry for and with, to be upset with and to root for both on the ice and off. There are some characters we feel for more than others. The characters are flawed, they are raw, they are beautiful, they feel real, and they all evoke emotion both positive and negative.

Talk about wanting a book to end and wanting a book to end so you learn all that you can. This book picks up two years after Us Against You. The town is still coming to grips with all that has happened in the last two books. People are trying to move on, some have moved on, but the one constant is hockey. The two teams are still rivals and emotions still run hot.

This one left me gutted.

My only issue with the book is its length. It did feel long at times. Having said that, I see myself reading this again - heck I might just start at the beginning with Beartown and read all of the books over again because it's hard to say goodbye.

In the first book we learn about Beartown and the passion for its hockey as well as the generations long rivalry with the neighboring town Hed. We learned about the townspeople and even fell in love with some of them. We can’t understand how a town can put hockey before the words of a young teenage girl. But this is Beartown.if you have read the previous two books in the Beartown series, your heart will already belong to Benji. you will know the boy with the sad eyes and the wild heart. you will know the kind of person he is. As the third and final book of the Beartown series. In the first book we learn about Beartown and its passion for its hockey. And we learn about the generations long rivalry with the neighboring town Hed. Mostly we learn about the people. We fall in love with some of them. We can’t understand how a town can put hockey before the words of a young teenage girl. But this is Beartown.The second book, Us Against You, reminds us of the simple game that hockey is. A couple of sticks, a puck, a goal. How simple hockey is compared to life. Beartown vs Hed, Us against you. A young man’s secret is spread when a young girl’s heart is broken. Violence and shame erupts. People get hurt. Lives change forever. But hockey in Beartown and Hed lives on.A whole lot of pain is packed into this story but we also get glimpses of how some things will work out for a few. How the good parts of Beartown might continue, maybe differently than before and helped by those who you'd least expect to make a good difference. It's going to take me a while to work through this story and let my thoughts and feelings settle but I enjoyed the story even if I wish I could stop some of it from happening.

I was so excited to read part three of this series. I loved "Beartown" and "Us Against You" and all other Backman books I have read.

I enjoyed this one and was glad to get some closure on several storylines. I loved catching up with Maya and Benji and the rest of the crew.

My biggest criticism is that this book is too long and there is too much repetition. We know they towns are mortal enemies and have known this since the first book. It was almost like this missed the final edit. Although the towns dislike each other over a game (hockey) the level of violence/hatred seemed blown out of proportion to me and the conflict became too much of the storyline.

Backman is a brilliant storyteller and the way he wrote the two parallel stories of both girls (and their brothers) was SO well done and so very sad. I kept hoping someone would notice the kid and intervene. That the home owners would see that someone had been in their basement. My heart was broken at the end of this one (no spoilers here) but Alicia ends the book with some hope so that made it bearable.

Would love to give it five stars and may read it again down the road and change my rating. For now it is a four star book because it was long and repetitive at times.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

The final story in the Beartown trilogy is everything you expect from Backman. Love, loss, anger, evil, grief, family, and hope. It’s brilliant and beautiful and you should read it.

A wonderful fulfilling reading experience for Beartown/Fredrick Backman fans. You will remember parts of the first two books you forgot and think through them all over again as the characters develop and wrap up their stories.