The Winners

“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.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.