Us Against You

Us Against You

Us Against You brings us back to Beartown, the town where Backman's previous novel of the same name is set. Beartown is a hockey town. Hockey means everything, but it also means different things to the various residents of Beartown: the past, the future, identity, escape, belonging. Now, in the aftermath of a rape committed by its star player and a defection by the majority of the team to neighboring Hed, it also means divisiveness. And violence.

As the rivalry grows more intense, Beartown fights to keep its team alive and the face-offs happen both on and off the ice.

While some stories have an easy villain, this isn't one of them. While Backman builds the tension, he also shows the humanity behind every person involved. I'm a sucker for this type of thing, so it worked for me--I love getting small insights into tertiary characters.

Even so, there were moments where the "showing the good side" of every character felt a little overdone. This and the many nameless characters who nonetheless kept showing up (which felt like it conflicted with Backman's impulse to give stories to side characters) were my only complaints about Us Against You.

Beartown is not a place where I would want to live, but Backman infuses it with such soul that I will always want to visit. If he returns to it, so will I.

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Where the Crawdads Sing

Where the Crawdads Sing

For Kya, the marsh is everything: her home, her family, her safety. Abandoned at a young age, she survives alone, aided only by a poor black couple and a boy who teaches her to read and gives her hope for the future. Over the years, she becomes a local legend--the eccentric "Marsh Girl" who refuses to attend school and avoids most people. Lonely, uneducated, and left behind, she finds respite in her emotional and scientific connection with the wilds of the marsh. But her ties to the marsh, her fear of abandonment, and her inability to connect with people are her undoing. Long-held suspicions find their target when a former high school sports hero is found dead and Kya is named as the prime suspect.

While the marsh setting was not appealing to me at first, Owens (who is a nature writer) brought it to life through Kya's eyes. She made me care deeply about both Kya--a resourceful survivor who also feels endlessly vulnerable--and the marsh as her sacred refuge. This character-driven survival story checked a number of boxes for me and will likely be one of the best books of 2018.

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The Great Believers

The Great Believers

Set in two time periods, the first in 1980s Chicago and the second in 2015 Paris, The Great Believers throws readers into the thick of–and the aftermath of–the 1980s AIDS crisis. From a group of young men in Chicago's gay community to the people they left behind, mourning the loss of so many, this is grief on a large scale.

Makkai masterfully juxtaposes the AIDS crisis with several other tragic events, including world wars and terrorist attacks. These, as well as a thread about historical art, are brilliantly woven together to highlight the generations of people and talents lost to these devastations.

For more on this book, check out 11 Things to Know About The Great Believers: The Story of the Story

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