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I just had the very strange experience of reading Beartown by Fredrik Backman thinking it was based on a real case. I'd seen it referred to in multiple places as based on a real case. I didn't look up info about the book, because I figured if I did then info on the real case would pop up and be spoilers.
Beartown is not based on a true story. As soon as I finished it I went to check. Why is there some idea out there that it's based on a real case?
I don't typically read novels based on actual events / true crime cases. I don't mind shows or movies, but the degree to which novels show people's motivations and thoughts, the few times I've read novels based on actual crime I was creeped out by that. I made an exception because a lot of people seem to be reading it right now and I was curious. The story focused on a series of violent events around a youth hockey league in a small, dying town in Sweden.
The start of the book was compelling, even though the ways in which the author describes things is odd. A lot of the time, when he was going for a really dramatic description of something I was just like 'that doesn't make sense'. Towards the end of the book someone can't light a cigarette because their tears keep extinguishing the lighter. What? I... no...
It still started with really compelling pacing, writing, etc, but towards the end there are more and more fake outs about what happened, how people feel, who said what. Like he's set up a scene implying something horrible about someone, cut to another scene, then another, then come back and reveal additional context about the first scene making it read totally different! There is a Checkov's Gun hanging over the whole story from the opening, and by the end of the book I predicted both what would happen and how the author would try to fake out the reader first.
It's the start of a trilogy and I'll likely give the rest a miss.
Beartown is not based on a true story. As soon as I finished it I went to check. Why is there some idea out there that it's based on a real case?
I don't typically read novels based on actual events / true crime cases. I don't mind shows or movies, but the degree to which novels show people's motivations and thoughts, the few times I've read novels based on actual crime I was creeped out by that. I made an exception because a lot of people seem to be reading it right now and I was curious. The story focused on a series of violent events around a youth hockey league in a small, dying town in Sweden.
The start of the book was compelling, even though the ways in which the author describes things is odd. A lot of the time, when he was going for a really dramatic description of something I was just like 'that doesn't make sense'. Towards the end of the book someone can't light a cigarette because their tears keep extinguishing the lighter. What? I... no...
It still started with really compelling pacing, writing, etc, but towards the end there are more and more fake outs about what happened, how people feel, who said what. Like he's set up a scene implying something horrible about someone, cut to another scene, then another, then come back and reveal additional context about the first scene making it read totally different! There is a Checkov's Gun hanging over the whole story from the opening, and by the end of the book I predicted both what would happen and how the author would try to fake out the reader first.
It's the start of a trilogy and I'll likely give the rest a miss.
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Date: 2026-02-28 11:28 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2026-02-28 11:29 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2026-03-01 05:54 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2026-03-01 03:00 am (UTC)From:I think that the "this scene looked one way, but additional context reveals how very different it actually was" can be very effective... in some cases, and really only if used sparingly. I actually enjoy things that look different once you get context for them, and that's one of the things I really enjoy about rereading things in some cases. But when it's used solely as a tool to fake out the reader, it better be a REALLY good reveal for me not to be annoyed by it, ha.
I have heard the title, though didn't have any idea what it was about... but I feel like whatever list I saw it on also referred to it as "true crime." I wonder where that perception comes from?
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Date: 2026-03-01 09:19 am (UTC)From:Yeah like, I saw it referred to as true crime so many places I didn't even think about it. WTF, there is enough bad shit that is a result of hockey culture, we don't need to add some really dark fiction into it!
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Date: 2026-03-01 05:56 am (UTC)From:I don't remember his writing being like that in the dramadies I read by him, but maybe he was trying something new?
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Date: 2026-03-01 09:20 am (UTC)From: