Book 2: Us Against You by Fredrik Backman
As someone who has read Backman’s entire oeuvre, I found this book underwhelming and lacklustre. At 448 pages, this is a long novel, even longer than its page count. The second instalment in the Beartown series, this book follows the story of Beartown’s hockey club and its various teenage characters. It covers themes of toxic masculinity among young boys, the PTSD of rape survivors, the revelatory functioning of politics, and as always, love and familial bonds between humans despite pain as is the signature of all Backman writing.
If not for its easy-going narration and familiarity from Book 1 (Beartown), I would have abandoned this book halfway into the story. There is a lot of tell and very little show. The omniscient narrator of the story tends to go into moralistic and philosophical digressions time and time again. It tends to keep explaining hockey and why people love it, the pain of losing loved ones, and the interiority of its characters. After a point, one would expect a good editor to come in and delete these superfluous lines. It would make for a taut novel about, well, toxic masculinity among young boys, the PTSD of rape survivors, the revelatory functioning of politics, and as always, love and familial bonds between humans despite pain.
Backman also covers the very relevant theme of how politicians pit small differences against people and use them for their benefit. The title of the book gives it away — this book is a mirror to us about how we tend to let fear of the unknown and everyday hate ruin peaceful living conditions between human beings, and how we ought to do better before it is too late.
There’s a third book in the Beartown series titled Winners, but it is even longer than Us Against You. I am not certain if I will pick it up given how tedious Us Against You felt while reading. However, Backman is a fantastic writer, and this one book cannot take away from his entire body of work.
🌟 2.5/5
amarllyis 
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