I'm going to be honest here. I didn't know there was going to be a third Beartown book. I was disappointed that the author's next book was another Beartown book. I ADORE Backman's books, but the Beartown series is my least favorite. I don't like hockey in any way. Yes, I'm aware that these books are more than hockey, but still...I was annoyed.

I kind of didn't want to read this one, but felt obligated because 1) It's Fredrik Backman, and 2) the publisher sent me a copy without me even asking for it, so I chose to buckle down. I was waffling back and forth about finishing it until about 75% of the way in (yes, really. It didn't fully grab me until the last quarter.) Here's my pros and cons list (spoiler free)

Pros:
I adore Ana. Did from the first book. She's hilarious and loyal and the kind of person I would want on my side. I adore her and Maya's friendship. So it was nice to see them together again.

Backman really seems to get women and why it's really hard to be one, particularly in a sports town.

The setting is as gorgeous as always. I really felt like I was there in the storm that opens the book.

Backman's writing is gorgeous. Always.

Cons:
WAY. TOO. LONG. Seriously, this book could have lost half of itself and it would have been even more compelling than it was.

Did you know that Hed and Beartown hate each other? No? Don't worry, it will get shoved in your face about a thousand times.

The plotline about the corruption and the council and politicians and Tails felt unnecessary, confusing, and didn't seem to add anything to the story.

In summary, if you liked the first two, you'll like this one. I liked the first, was meh about the second, was mostly ok with this one, but I'm glad the trilogy is over.

This is a good book! I did not know this third book was in the works and based on my love of the first two books I did not want to rush through so did all I could to drag out the reading experience and fully savour the old characters and the new.

In preparation for reading this book I re-read Beartown and Us Against You. The magic of the two books held up and prepared me for the emotional journey ahead. Backman adds several new characters that keep the story fresh and evolving while continuing with the lives and loves of those from the first two books. There is a great deal of foreshadowed sadness throughout the story that sits uncomfortably in the back of your mind during all the funny and touching moments, adding a sense of dread to every piece of conflict.

This is a story about friendship and family, and how the lines blur between those two groups of people. I love how Backman gives us glimpses into the future about where these characters will end up. I have said before in Backman reviews, I wish I could write like this, but since I can't I will continue to wait for each new book of his with anticipation.

'But this town can be both the most beautiful and the most repulsive.' A fitting line for all the wonderful and awful parts of the towns of Beartown and Hed that are full of flawed people we have come to love.

'His skeleton creaks, his body aches, love never has enough space.'

'His shoulders ached every morning, at first from the exertion of training, later from the weight of expectations.'

'Where you are born and who you become is a a cruel lottery.'

'He's sweating, hyperventilating, wants to open the window but is scared all the secrets inside the car would just fly out.'

'We're your mothers. We loved you first. Maybe everyone else loves you now, but we loved you first.'

'This hurts too much to touch with words.'

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and Atria books for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

The blurb for The Winners states "Two years have passed since the events that no one wants to think about." Except, in reality, four years or more have passed since the second book in the Beartown series. I loved Beartown and was surprised because I'm not a hockey fan, but I felt that Us Against You didn't add much of anything to the story. I found more of the same with The Winners. I'm not sure if my reaction to the book was due to the story itself, or the (probably unavoidable due to covid) four-year wait for the conclusion of the trilogy. Yes, the story gets wrapped up and you'll find out the fates of Maya, Ana, Bobo, Amat, Leo, and of course Benji, but I grew tired of the corruption, violence, dirty business dealings, and everything else I felt I had to wade through to find out about the people I cared about. Fredrik Backman can tell a great story, but it could have been a lot tighter and better edited in this book.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book.

So hauntingly beautiful. The final installment of Beartown and Hed is not to be missed. Most certainly you need to read in order to get the full impact. I loved Beartown, then thiught Us vs Them was even better. But this is truly Backman at his most wonderful to date as we follow our beloved hockey towns two years after the initial events in Beartown. I will be sad to leave these characters.

I love, love, love the Beartown Trilogy and Fredrik Backman’s The Winners is another masterpiece. I am sad this is the end of the Beartown/Hed story as I have grown so attached to the characters and themes of the books. I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys realistic fiction.

There were several typos in this ARC that will need to be corrected prior to the book’s release. For example, ‘felling trees’ instead of ‘falling trees’ and ‘Anna’ for ‘Ana’.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my opinions.

I am SO thankful to Atria to be one of the first to read The Winners in English! Getting that Netgalley widget was such a surprise! This is the third and final book in the Beartown series.

It's taken me a few days to think about this review and how to digest everything that happened in The Winners. I will warn you it's long - at 688 pages is 200 pages longer then the first two books. I was a little worried that reading The Winners might change how I felt since I listened to the first two books (twice) but I couldn't wait for an audiobook! But I absolutely loved The Winners.

It might have been a hard read at times since so much of the book is about serious topics and from reading the synopsis you know something bad is going to happen so I was anxious all book waiting for it to happen.

It's now two years later and the events that happened and Beartown & Hed are still fresh.. the book synopsis perfectly describes this and the questions that Beartown & Hed are grappling with. What is a family? What is a community? And what, if anything, are we willing to sacrifice in order to protect them? And that's what this book is about.

The middle drags on a little with the corruption and political parts but ultimately it all comes together beautifully. While the ending was hard, I loved it. This book is the perfect ending to these characters we love and it's his wonderful writing and way he captures the human spirit and the people of Beartown.

Absolutely loved and of you haven't read the first two books yet do it.

True to the Beartown Trilogy. This followed the characters through a believable arc while introducing new conflicts. At times, I grew a bit impatient with the revisiting of past events in the extended exposition, but the narrative voice and subtle foreshadowing kept it interesting. While I didn’t love it as much as Beartown, I was compelled to finish it within 3 days.

In this hockey-obsessed town, I discovered some raw, complicated, and very real characters.
I adored these characters, the setting, this town.
The entire Beartown Series would make an amazing tv series. And I would totally watch it.
This writing style is one of the best I've ever seen or had the pleasure of reading.
Fredrik Backman is one of the most talented storytellers I have ever read.
He delivers a raw and beautifully well executed novel that makes you feel thing's in ways you can't imagine! 
His writing is so rich and full of life, it's hard for me to describe. He perfectly captures what it means to be human and the complexity of human relationships.
This book absolutely blew me away.
The Winners is the absolute best book I've ever read! Period!

“I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

Atria Books,
Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!
I will post my review to my platforms, blog, B&N and Waterstone closer to pub date.

Wonderful conclusion to the Beartown trilogy picks up the story 2 years on as Maya returns home to join the whole town for the funeral of a much loved resident in the aftermath of a terrible storm which has devastated both Beartown and it’s neighbouring “arch enemy” Hed. Although it could be read as a standalone novel as we are reminded of events in the previous books which have led us to this point, I’d strongly recommend you read the others first if you haven’t done so.
As always the book, like the lives of its characters, revolves around ice hockey and the struggle for people to live the best life they can in the harsh environment in which they live. When I first read Beartown I struggled a little with this as it seemed so alien to my way of life but underneath the characters could live in any poor towns and it’s easy to see parallels in our own society with Bachman’s keen eye for human frailty and social justice. What I really love is the way the characters look out for each other and the lack of judgement for different lifestyles. Some people appear to be good, some people appear to be bad, but as we get to know them we see the reasons they behave the way they do. Now the rivalry between the towns intensifies as Hed’s hockey pitch has lost its roof in the storm which means both teams will have to play under the new roof of Beartown’s pitch. A roof paid for by the council at Hed’s expense. Interwoven with the buildup of tension between players and fans are the stories of all our favourite characters as corruption and unexpected criminal activity is revealed and a terrible denouement is foreseen. In a less skilled author’s hands the final chapters would have been too saccharine to read but as it was I cried over and over as some characters were lost and others were given a chance to redeem themselves. My only criticism is that this is probably the last time I’ll be meeting the people of Beartown.

A couple days ago, I received a surprise in my email box that made me squeal with delight. An advance copy of a book that I’ve been dying to read since January but didn’t think I would get the chance to until October, landed unexpectedly in my inbox and my first reaction was to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming (I wasn’t). My second reaction (after I stopped screaming of course, lol), was trying to decide whether to forego all upcoming reads that I had lined up (including anything I was currently reading) so I could jump on this one right away — which is exactly what I ended up doing. The book I’m referring to is Fredrik Backman’s The Winners, which is the third (and final) book in the Beartown series. I read Beartown and its sequel Us Against You for the first time back in January and fell absolutely head over heels in love with the story as well as the characters. I loved both books and when I heard that the last book in the series would come out in the fall of this year, I was agonizingly counting down the days until I could get my hands on a copy (given this context, it probably makes sense now why I was so delighted to have received an ARC so many months in advance of publication)! As is usually the case when I pick up one of Backman’s novels (not to mention this one being Beartown-related), I knew I would be so absorbed in the story that I wouldn’t be able to tear myself away, so I decided to start this on a Saturday, which would give me the entire weekend to read non-stop if it came down to that (a sensible decision, especially when I saw that this book clocks in at nearly 700 pages!). In the end, I finished this one in a matter of hours, which is nothing short of a miracle for me (though worth every single minute I spent on it).

The story opens 2 years after the last events in Us Against You where, in addition to being reunited with all the beloved characters from the first 2 books, we are also introduced to a few new ones who, by the end of the book, still managed to find a place in my heart despite their relatively brief appearances. Going into this third book, I was already expecting it to be an emotionally charged read for me, just like the previous 2 books were, but what I wasn’t expecting was the extent of the emotional impact — perhaps because, not long after the story opens, it hits me that this will actually be my last opportunity to spend time with these characters that I had grown to love so much, or perhaps because I already had an idea of the tragedy that would occur at the conclusion of the story (even though the previous 2 books had already dropped hints as to what the fates would be of certain characters and so I had time to brace for impact, it didn’t make the moment, when it occurred, any less heart wrenching). Perhaps it was also my mindset going into this, knowing it was going to be the final chapter to a beloved series, it made each moment — whether happy, sad, sweet, upsetting — feel much more pronounced and poignant. I was actually quite conflicted while reading this because on the one hand, I didn’t want to let these characters go, so part of me wanted to read slowly and prolong my time with them, but then on the other hand, I was eager to find out what was going to happen and whether they would be okay in the end.

I am going to keep this review deliberately short, as it is incredibly difficult to talk about any of the plot points that occur without giving away too much of the story (especially if you haven’t yet read the previous 2 books in the series). To be honest, I feel that the blurb describing the book already reveals too much — if you decide to pick this one up, especially if you’ve already read the first 2 books and are as big a fan of the series as I am, I would recommend not even reading the blurb and going straight into the book itself (I know for me, the mere fact of this being “Beartown #3” was enough for me to dive right in, lol). And if it so happens that you haven’t read the first 2 books yet (I only just read them earlier this year myself, even though both books have been out for quite some time already), definitely read those 2 first before attempting his one, as being able to see all the characters grow and evolve throughout all 3 books makes the reading experience so much more special. Also, if you do decide to pick this one up, just make sure you have some tissues handy because while the events that happened in this one were a fitting conclusion to the entire series (I loved how Backman brilliantly and masterfully brought the story arc full circle), it was also sad and bittersweet.

It’s not often that I rate all the books in a series 5 stars, but this one absolutely deserves it! I’m not much of a re-reader nowadays, as I already don’t have a whole lot of time to read in general due to work and family priorities, so I prefer to spend that time chipping away at my ridiculously huge TBR of first time reads, but this is a series that I can totally see myself re-reading at some point, which says a lot about how much I loved the entire series.

Received ARC from Atria Books via NetGalley.

It took me a while to catch my breath in the end, to absorb all that happened in this third and final book of the Beartown series. If you are a fan of the first two books, I suspect you will want to know what happened now that two years have passed since what happened to Maya, what happened in this town, to these families, to these characters - Benji, Ana, Ramona, Maya, Bobo, Peter, Amat, Sune and others and you will welcome the new characters. I had to know and for me this is the best of the three.

I lived in the Swedish forest towns of Beartown and Hed once again. These are hockey towns and I’m not even a hockey fan, but these stories are about so much more than hockey . These stories are about family, friendships, community, about people’s flaws and strengths. They are about tragedies, about loss, about the ties that bind people during hard times, about tough politics, about some bad actors, too . They are a slice of life in small Swedish towns, near the forest, where hockey reigns and shapes daily life. But the things that happen here can happen anywhere - drugs, alcohol , deaths, rape and sexual violence, dysfunctional families, troubled marriages. This is not an easy book to read. I was gutted at times. Thankfully, there are genuine friendships, and love and even though that doesn’t erase the pain, it somehow makes it a little easier to bear.

I can’t say that the book was perfect. The parts about the corruption, the politics, the sponsors, the schemes to save the teams, the towns was a bit much at times and honestly confusing. Having said that, the strength of this story lies in Backman’s keen observation of human nature, his empathy for the human condition and in creating characters that I loved. I didn’t realize how much I missed these characters until I started reading this book . Now that the Beartown trilogy has ended I miss them even more. It’s hard to say goodbye to characters that you love, but it won’t be goodbye because these characters will be with me for a long time. That in itself is worthy of all the stars.

I received an advanced copy of this book from Atria Books through NetGalley.

I have not read a book this profoundly beautiful, heart wrenching in … well, probably since I finished Us Against You. At over 650 pages, I expected this book to take me a while, once I got to the halfway point, I wanted it to take me a while - I was not remotely prepared to say farewell to my friends in Beartown, but I couldn’t stop, page after page I made it to the end, a sobbing mess of tears and a heart so full, I said goodbye to this cast of characters who have leaped off the page since book 1 … Benji, Maya, Ana, Peter, Kira … just to name a few. A perfect end to this must read, thought provoking trilogy.

Always so excited to receive an early copy of a Fredrik Backman book! He is one of my all time favorite authors and his latest, The Winners, does not disappoint. Backman has such a way with words that make me think long after I turn the last page and keep me interested from the very start. Highly recommend The Winners and will likely read it again.
Thank you to net galley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I didn't realize we needed a third Beartown book, but it turns out we did. Sometimes it takes me a while to warm up to Fredrik Backman books but like always, I came around at the end.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

“The Winners” completes the 3-book Beartown series.

I read “Beartown” in 2017 —
“Us Against You” in 2018 —
…..and now…..the conclusion —
“The Winners” in 2022.

In “The Winners”….
“Two years have passed since the event that no one wants to think about. Everyone has tried to move on, but there’s something about this place that prevents it. The residents continue to grapple with life‘s big questions: What is a family? What is a community? And what, if anything, are we willing to sacrifice in order to protect them?

It’s been five years since I first read “Beartown”……..
I thought it was brilliant— totally PHENOMENAL [ambitious, complex, substantial depth, and wonderful characters].
I thought - at the time - it was a stand alone book.

I was very surprised when Book 2, “Us Against You” came out. It was ‘good’…..better than ‘average-good’....but not phenomenal. I remember being frustrated with the heavy repetition for the first 3/4 of the book — much too much rehashing from book 1….
I still enjoyed the characters from, “Beartown”, that returned: Maya, Ana, Benji and others from the first book……
But…..
I wasn’t crazy about the new characters, the hoodlums, the violence, and the crazy tragic-twisty events.
I felt the overall story lost some of its original ‘Wow-Ness’…..it lacked a depth of real emotion (something that was organically real in Book 1).

“The Winners”……was good. “IT STARTED WITH A STORM”……
I especially enjoyed re-connecting with the original characters from book 1: “Beartown”…..
And…..
I ‘did’ feel the ‘organic’ emotions were back - which were missing for me in book 2.
But….. where there was a little bit too much violence, corruption, and criminality in Book 2….
In Book 3, there were pages among pages about the ongoing dealings of …..
corruption, embezzlement, conjuring tricks, dirty money, taxpayers’ money of small crimes, sustainability issues, endless arguments about resources, parents trying to influence team picks, coaches whose ideas were grinding, unspecified costs, hypocrisy, a pyramid scheme: unethical business that wasn’t visible….
every decision, every contract, slipped closer and closer to being a criminal act:
”the club has debts and asks the council for more money, but the council is concerned about what voters will think. So instead the club finds a new sponsor, a consultancy firm registered abroad, which for some mysterious reason agrees to pay off all the debts. The consultancy firm is owned by a local construction company in Beartown, whose largest client by far just happens to be the council”…..

Yep…..it started with a storm…..
Backman is a terrific storyteller but it took some patience to read through club-run-business dwellings.
I can’t imagine that every reader wouldn’t also begin to think that some of the details were tedious. …..(no matter how much one loves Backman and or hockey)…

About 60% into the book….I just wanted to know the ending already…..(the climatic events closer to and including the ending ‘WERE RIVETING’) > our emotions catch fire!!!….
but the journey to resolution could have been tighter…..

The story held my interest most when I experienced intimacy ‘while’ addressing issues that our society and humanity deals with….
But….
After awhile …..I admit to feeling ‘Beartown-Fatigue-Burnout’.

That said…..
Backman’s great gift — for me — are those times he pulls at my heart strings….with warmth, sadness, humor, and love……
[hint: Go Girls, Go Elizabeth Zackell]….
and by getting to the heart of the matter….punching those intelligent-moral-powerful daggers at us…..and giving us a little victory.
“Everyone needs to feel that they won something”.:


A few small excerpts…..
“Do you want to understand people? Really understand them? Then you need to know all the best that we are capable of”.

“Home. There really ought to be more words for that. One to cover the people we have there, another with room for those we have lost”.

“The hardest thing in hockey is to change your perception. The hardest thing to change your perception about is yourself”.

Overall ….I’d rate “The Winners” …..the trilogy-conclusion-series about a 3.7 rating. Rating up: 4 stars.

What a stunning and gut-wrenching ending to the trilogy. It showcases Backman's brilliant storytelling and unique writing that is engaging from the first page to the last.