Us Against You

Written by Fredrik Backman

Narrated by Marin Ireland

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove and Beartown returns with an unforgettable novel “about people—about strength and tribal loyalty and what we unwittingly do when trying to show our boys how to be men” (Jojo Moyes).

Have you ever seen a town fall? Ours did.
Have you ever seen a town rise? Ours did that, too.

A small community tucked deep in the forest, Beartown is home to tough, hardworking people who don’t expect life to be easy or fair. No matter how difficult times get, they’ve always been able to take pride in their local ice hockey team. So it’s a cruel blow when they hear that Beartown ice hockey might soon be disbanded. What makes it worse is the obvious satisfaction that all the former Beartown players, who now play for a rival team in the neighboring town of Hed, take in that fact. As the tension mounts between the two adversaries, a newcomer arrives who gives Beartown hockey a surprising new coach and a chance at a comeback.

Soon a team starts to take shape around Amat, the fastest player you’ll ever see; Benji, the intense lone wolf; always dutiful and eager-to-please Bobo; and Vidar, a born-to-be-bad troublemaker. But bringing this team together proves to be a challenge as old bonds are broken, new ones are formed, and the town’s enmity with Hed grows more and more acute.

As the big game approaches, the not-so-innocent pranks and incidents between the communities pile up and their mutual contempt intensifies. By the time the last goal is scored, a resident of Beartown will be dead, and the people of both towns will be forced to wonder if, after everything, the game they love can ever return to something as simple and innocent as a field of ice, two nets, and two teams. Us against you.

Here is a declaration of love for all the big and small, bright and dark stories that give form and color to our communities. With immense compassion and insight, Fredrik Backman—“the Dickens of our age” (Green Valley News)—reveals how loyalty, friendship, and kindness can carry a town through its most challenging days.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Release date: Jun 5, 2018
• ISBN: 9781508252252

Fredrik Backman

Fredrik Backman is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, Britt-Marie Was Here, Beartown, Us Against You, and Anxious People, as well as two novellas and one work of nonfiction. His books are published in more than forty countries. He lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with his wife and two children. Connect with him on Facebook and Twitter @BackmanLand and on Instagram @Backmansk.

Reviews for Us Against You

[debbie13410 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Someone recommended the book to me and it wasn't until I started reading that I realized it was part 2 of a series. The first part of the book seems to be an epilogue of the previous book. Once the epilogue ended and it got into the current Beartown story I really got into it. There were many good parts but then there were the tangents into life lessons that gets to be to much sometimes.

For some reason I didn't like that it was in third person past tense.

[IngridKronborgArchambault · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent story! Love how he explores the depths of his characters. I highly recommend it.

[celia · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Loved this book and the importance of hockey simply put It is just a game?

[mcelhra · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Us Against You is the second novel in Fredrik Backman’s Beartown trilogy. You definitely need to read Beartown first and this review will have spoilers for Beartown.Us Against You picks up just a few months after Kevin assaulted Maya. He and his family moved away, leaving Beartown divided and in shambles. Most of Beartown’s hockey players left Beartown’s team to play for the rival team in Hed. People in Beartown are taking sides and the violence has only gotten worse.Us Against You was okay but I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I liked Beartown. Beartown was a pretty somber book but Us Against You is next level. Almost no one has any joy about anything. And the heavy-handed, melodramatic foreshadowing made the pacing way too slow. There was too much repeating and summarizing in an effort to build suspense so the suspense felt forced. I listened to the book and I think that added to the dramatic atmosphere, which in this case was not necessarily a good thing.I do still care about (most of) the people of Beartown so I will read the third and final book, Winners, which just came out a few weeks ago. I hope at least some of the people will have a happy ending when all is said and done!

[msf59 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

We return to the same Canadian town, where, like football in Texas, hockey is everything. Two seasons- summer and hockey. It has only been a short time since the last dramatic events occurred in the first book, Beartown. This time the local team may have to be shut down, due to various internal and external forces. How this effects a wide variety of characters is the focus of this novel. How Backman juggles all these storylines is admirable but he has a tendency to be heavy-handed at times, laying the desperation and angst on thick. I didn’t like this one as much as Beartown, but well enough to want to read the final book in the trilogy.

[paulagalvan-323293 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Us Against You continues the story of Beartown. Hockey is again the story's center, but it's the characters that make this story special. With his unique insight into life and gifted storytelling, Fredrik Backman continues the story of the Beartown Ice Hockey team and their excruciating rivalry with the nearby town of Hed. Yet, there's much more at stake now than winning a hockey game. Maya has to find a way to heal while the rest of the town comes to terms with Kevin's betrayal. Violence does come to Beartown, but so does acceptance and sometimes forgiveness. Hearts are broken by hatred, then made whole again by love. I found myself cheering and sobbing at the same time. I loved this book and can't wait for the next one.

[creighley_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Sequel to Beartown. Beartown is home to hard-working, tough people who take great pride in their local hockey club. Rumor has it that their club is closing and many of their best players are playing with their rivals. Backman is a master at bringing characters to life as the competition between two rival communities reach a tumultuous climax and leaves one of the small community’s players dead. Memorable…

[snash_44 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A broad story about a game, a town, and the people in it. At first I had some trouble keeping track of so many characters, but in the end, I was fully immersed in the town and the struggles of each character and how they impacted each other.

[iudita_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

When I pick up a Fredrik Backman book I never know if it will be a 5 star read or end up in the ditch pile. I loved Beartown but this felt like a long drawn out extension of the same story. Same town, same litany of social issues. For the most part I found it monotonous, but in classic Backman style it was sprinkled throughout with powerful or beautiful quotable statements on being human. On a more positive note, Backman is an insightful master at character. In all his books, he consistently comes up with thoughtful, nuanced and complicated characters from all walks of life. I always enjoy that aspect of his books.

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Us Against You by Fredrik Backman is a story of sadness, distress and healing as he returns to the small rural town of Beartown that lies deep in the Swedish Forest. This is a continuation of the novel Beartown in which he first introduced his characters and their beloved local hockey team. In the aftermath of the rape of the daughter of the manager of the hockey club by the team’s star player, the town has taken sides and the hockey club has fallen apart. Many of the players have left the team and now play for a rival team in Hed, a slightly larger town a few miles up the road.Tensions between hockey clubs, towns and individuals are mounting and it is pretty obvious that all this strain is leading to a violent outcome. As a reader all one can do is hope that your own personal favourites come through somewhat unscathed.Both these books are gut-wrenching page turners but I have to admit that the first book held my attention more fully. I found myself tiring of the author’s unique writing style about halfway through the book. At times it feels like the narrator is telling a fairy tale, and at other times I felt rather talked down to. But overall I would say Us Against You was a thought-provoking and heart-felt read about a dark tragedy and the many after effects this event caused.

[carriewuj · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

4.5 -- but a worthy sequel. At first the title sounded lame to me, but it is right on the money for the mentality of rivals who let allegiances trump logic. For the most part, it applies to Beatown’s outlook toward Hed, but it often could be easily switched. I love how the narrator has retained that omniscience and also the first-person plural voice (We) making us all culpable for the worst of our human nature (and sometimes the better). There are also those occasional flash forwards to let the reader know how things turn out, but also to take the “long road” approach to really hard times. Many of the favorites are back: Peter, Kira Maya, Benji, Amat, Bobo, Ramona; some of the minors get more developed: Ana, Leo, members of the Pack (there is no Pack); and some new characters get billing: Teemu Rinnius, one of the hooligans (with a heart), his younger brother Vidar, and Richard Theo, a local amoral politician is like a master puppeteer, pulling strings here and there to make things happen (in a way that will ultimately benefit him), there is a new hockey coach in town and 4 year-old Alicia has the passion for the sport that some of the boys did. Some have moved on to Hed, but the underdogs remain in Beartown and with a little bit of soul-selling, (Peter) and string pulling (Theo) the hockey club is revived. However, there is not a game played until page 300-something! “Deep down inside most of us would like all stories to be simple, because we want real life to be like that too. But communities are like ice, not water. They don’t suddenly flow in new directions because you ask them to, they change inch by inch, like glaciers. Sometimes they don’t move at all.” Pg. 371 Much more about rivalry build-up, facing failure, re-building lives and all the emotional ways we are tied to those we love closely and those we should love who are more of a challenge. Kira and Peter’s marriage is fragile after what happened to Maya. Leo has become a 12 year old ball of anger and guilt; Maya still faces hatred from the town and trauma from her experience. Other families are under strain too and Kevin has left the area completely. William Lyt steps up to fill the jerk role nicely, but as was the case in the first book, it is so hard to completely categorize anyone as good or evil; they are just human. Benji assumes the leader role in Beartown, but he is a reluctant hero. My guess is there will be a #3. There’s always some blanks to fill in.

[varwenea · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Trigger Warnings when reading this book: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Rape), Bullying, Childhood Traumas, Domestic Abuse, Alcoholism, HomophobiaI highly recommend reading “Us Against You” immediately after “Beartown”. It’s a continuation of the same story, same cast, with added characters. Given the relatively large set of characters, the two books are best processed and “absorbed” as a set. The story in Beartown continues, now in the aftermath of “The Rape” (of Maya), turning victim and victim’s family into the villains, and the perpetuator conveniently discarded by the town folks who no longer recognize his existence in their past. Now the town has become a playground for a conniving politician, Theo as the puppeteer, pulling the strings that will trick everyone in town into behaving as he desires. His theory is why be a small fish in a big town when he can be a big fish in a small town that has influence and control over the entire town. In the end, there is someone who will fall on Theo’s sword, but is that person really a ‘victim’? You decide.This book flowed more benignly than “Beartown”; don’t worry though, he still gives you some whammies. Given the familiar setting and continuation of the story, the ‘new content’ is the politician’s manipulations amongst town members for funding the hockey team, the discovery of a homosexual amongst themselves (and the subsequent homophobia fever), and the aftermath of the rape, including how everyone reacts to it, especially Maya’s family. (You’ll be furious at the villainization of victims.) Once again, Backman’s writing is strongest when it comes to human relationships – the angst, the loyalty, the fears, the depth of individuals and what they are capable of, the good and the bad. There’s less of the “bang, bang, bang” that peppered the first book, but there’s a heavier vibe of the foretelling style that became excessive. This book is a solid 4 Stars if you have read “Beartown”, but it’s more of 3 or 3.5 Stars if you’re reading it as a standalone.Some Quotes:On a marriage – in-sync and not:“A long marriage consists of such small things that when they get lost we don’t even know where to start looking for them. The way she usually touches him, as if she didn’t mean to, when he’s washing up and she’s making coffee and her little finger overlaps his when they put their hands down on the kitchen counter together. His lips brush her hair fleetingly as he passes her at the kitchen table, the two of them looking different ways. Two people who have loved each other for long enough eventually seem to stop touching each other consciously, it becomes something instinctive; when they meet between the hall and kitchen, their bodies somehow find each other. When they walk through a door, her hand ends up in his as if by accident. Tiny collisions, every day, all the time. Impossible to construct. So when they disappear, no one knows why, but suddenly two people are living parallel lives instead of together. On morning they don’t make eye contact, their fingers land a few inches farther apart along the counter. They pass each other in a hallway. They no longer bump into each other. On men – there’s some truth to this:“Kira’s colleague makes her laugh, a lot. Like the time a man in a suit sneezed in the middle of a meeting, deafeningly and shamelessly, without making any attempt to cover his mouth, and her colleague exclaimed, ‘Men! Imagine if you had periods! You’re incapable of keeping a single bodily fluid inside you in public.’”On fear – men vs. women:“They run only where there are lights. They don’t say anything but are both thinking the same thing: guys never think about light, it just isn’t a problem in their lives. When guys are scare of the dark, they’re scared of ghosts and monsters, but when girls are scare of the dark, they're scared of guys.”On career moms:“Maya puts her spoon down at that. Leans across the table, ‘Stop it, Mom. You know, I’m so damn proud of your career! Everyone else had a normal mom, but I had a role model. All the other moms have to say to their kids that they can be whatever they want when they’re older, but you don’t have to say that, because you’re demonstrating it every day.’”On being a rape victim:“The boy in the cafeteria line just brushed against her; it meant nothing to him but flared like fire for her. She held the panic attack inside her like a bomb.When people talk about rape, they always do so in the past tense. She ‘was.’ She ‘suffered.’ She ‘went through.’But she didn’t go through it, she’s still going through it. She wasn’t raped, she’s still being raped. For Kevin it lasted a matter of minutes, but for her it never ends. It feels as though she’s going to dream about that running track every night of her life. And she kills him there, every time. And wakes up with her nails dug into her hands and a scream in her mouth. Anxiety. It’s an invisible ruler.”On blame and victimizing – this feels like the crux of today’s society sometimes:“Maya doesn’t let her finish; she just shakes her head and spits on the ground between herself and her best friend, and then she isn’t that anymore. ‘You’re just like everyone else in this town, Ana. As soon as you don’t get what you want, you think you have the right to hurt other people.’”

[shazjhb · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not sure needed sequel.

[jrlibrary · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It’s not very often that a sequel to a sensational book ends up being as great as the first book but such is the case with Us Against You, the sequel to Beartown. I shouldn’t be surprised; the writing is exceptional, the plot full of heart-wrenching, gut-tugging surprises and once again the book is about so much more than hockey. I can’t begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this tale and I don’t want to ruin the gift of discovery for you so let me just say that this is one of those stories that will stay with you long after you e turned the last page.

[nwieme-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

AMAZING. Fredrik Backman has a way of telling a story and teaching a lesson about people that few authors can.
Beautiful sequel that keeps you on the edge of your seat and sanity. Hockey and politics do not mix. OR... maybe it's simply humanity and politics that don't.

LOVED the characters in both this and Beartown (and ALL OF HIS BOOKS!)

Now, we sit and wait for another.

[bookappeal · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I really like some of Backman's other books but the Beartown titles feel like they're written by a completely different author. Repetitive with false foreshadowing and a pervasive melodramatic tone.

[janismack · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a sequel from the book Beartown. This one is as strong as Beartown, endearing characters, hateful characters, sad characters. There are all of them and I liked them all. This is the continuation of the people of Beartown after the horrible events of the previous book. So many things happen, you get close to them and you want to know what happens next. Recommended.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a sequel to Beartown which I read for my book club earlier this year. I thought it was a really powerful book that was about so much more than hockey. I was interested to see where the story took us so I downloaded this audiobook.This book is set in Beartown in the fall of the same year as the events of the spring portrayed by the book named after the town. The Beartown hockey team is struggling without its star hockey players and many of its corporate sponsors. Then a local politician is instrumental in attracting an English company to buy the local mill and sponsor the hockey team. He has some conditions for his support and those bring Peter (the GM) into conflict with the Pack who supported his leadership of the team back in the spring. He also has to put his faith into a woman to coach the senior team. Peter is caught up in the struggle to preserve the team and his marriage is suffering. His wife wants to further her own career but knows that Peter won’t agree to any changes as long as the Beartown team is struggling. His daughter is still trying to recover from the rape that lead to the issues in the spring and his son has started to follow the Pack which could lead him to a life of crime and violence.I don’t think this book was as powerful as Beartown but it did tie up events for the major characters in a satisfactory way.

[cecilturtle · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It took me a long time to get into this book, The lulling rhythm of the sentences are both a strength and a weakness, sometimes dragging the story, sometimes building it. Backman uses what-ifs to show the complexity of emotion and while it is an extremely efficient stratagem to depict the characters and their ambiguities it also creates long passages that can be tough to wade through. It's a book to sit down with, to invest in and o completely be absorbed by. If you can make the time, you will be rewarded.

[robertalea-223265 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I liked "Beartown" better.

[hemlokgang · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Loved this book! Whether you read it as a sequel to "Beartown", Book 1 or you read it as a stand alone book, this is a tremendous story. I laughed and I cried. I became attached to the array of characters. The writing is wonderful! Themes include: love, hatred, vengefulness, identity, loss, loyalty, tenderness, and above all how people live together! Can't speak highly enough about this story. Can hardly wait for the 3rd book in the trilogy to come out.

[flourgirl49 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Well, I am definitely in the minority here, because I found this sequel to "Beartown" far less interesting and, in fact, rather boring. Beartown, being as consumed by hockey as it is, seems like a very depressing place to live. And I still don't like Backman's writing style, where he opines philosophically about the events taking place. Who is this narrator supposed to be anyway? He never identifies him. I found it extremely annoying, and it took me forever to finish this book.

[lisa5127 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Goodness is this a perfect follow-up to Beartown! I could not put Beartown down and this was just as good. I have two friends who read it, one loved it and the other not as much. This could not be more relevant to our society right now. What happens when a boy rapes a girl and gets away with it? Does the boy really "get away" with it? Can the girl really get over it? How about the town? They all picked a side, how do they manage to get along again? What is worth fighting for? What are you able to forgive? I can't say enough about this book. I really wish every person in D.C. would be required to read these two books and then think about their actions, what they cover up and how it effects everyone else.

[nancyjcbs · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I was very happy to return to Beartown. Beartown was by far my favorite book of 2017. I love the sense of community, the allowances its citizens make for each other, the love/hate relationships amongst its citizens, and the family connections.Us Against You was an excellent book. But...I wasn't as consumed by this story. It felt like I didn't go deep into many of the characters' lives. The focus was on Benji and I do like him. "The Pack" was also much more deeply presented. I guess I mostly missed Amat's story. He was a background player in this novel.I do recommend this book to all readers of Beartown. I have read that Beartown is a trilogy and am sure to read the next in the series.1 like

[bookconcierge · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Book on CD narrated by Marin Ireland3.5***Backman returns to Beartown to explore what happens in the aftermath of the first book’s stunning events. I think that readers who have not experienced Beartown could still read and enjoy this book on its own, but it will definitely make more sense if you’ve read the first book before delving into this one.On the plus side, I love the way that Backman writes these characters, how he reveals them through their actions and reactions to one another. People react without much thought, other times they are deliberate and careful. Sometimes they cling to old loyalties blindly. Other times they switch allegiance on a whim. Some are lost in their troubles and stuck in old ways. Others forge ahead blindly, refusing to dwell on the past or even really consider the consequences. I also love the way Backman follows the story arc. He moves back and forth between characters’ points of view as he tells the story of the town. Yet the story is always moving forward, keeping me enthralled and interested.What I didn’t like so much … the constant “telling.” Backman can’t resist telling me what people feel, how they think, why this or that is important or critical, what might happen. Trust your readers; if you present the characters, flaws and strengths alike, the reader will understand how they feel, why they behave as they do. You don’t have to spell it out. Marin Ireland does an excellent job of narrating the audiobook. She has a lot of characters to handle: men, women, teens, elderly, officious jerks and tender hearts. She brings all of them to life and clearly differentiates them.

[carlathelibrarian · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The backdrop of the story is hockey, but there is so much more to it than that. This is the second book in the Beartown series and it is best that you read the first one as everything that happens in this book is a result of the actions taken in the first one. Beartown is a small town in the forest. The factory is laying people off, many are unemployed, there are drugs, lots of alcoholics and hockey. Many of the players from Beartown hockey, switched to the team in Hed, Beartown's hated rivals, after the rape that occurred in the last book. In the sequel to Beartown, Fredrik Backman explores what happens as a consequence of this unspeakable act, how everyone involved tries to pick up the pieces of their lives: the boy, the girl, her family and the town. In this book, a sneaky, local politician, Richard Theo, has dreams of bigger and better things for his political career. He starts calling in favours to rebuild the team and buy the factory to bring back jobs. He brings in a female coach, spreads rumors to manipulate people, gets everyone upset with everyone else. The team pulls together, but will this save the town.

I was emotionally moved while reading this story. There were family dramas, bullying, small town politics, gangs, homosexuality and its effects on self and others, dealing with loss, friendship and so much more. The characters or Benji, Bobo, Amat, Maya, Ana, Leo and even Teemu are very well developed. We find out more about their past and what makes them tick. The paths they take as they deal with what life has thrown at them and how they help one another are a major part of the story. The others in their families, Benji's sisters and Bobo's father are wonderfully supportive family members that are also dealing with major upheaval in their lives. When the hockey rivalry is racheted up a notch the book takes on a life of its own. I do not want to give away the plot so will not describe any more than I have, but take my word for it.

Fredrik Backman has become one of my favourite authors. He shows his amazing talent as he moves from one character to the next, as he creates a suspense and drama, which has the reader waiting for something awful to happen. As we get to know the thoughts and feelings of the many characters, and listen to their simple phrases that depict their thoughts on unconditional parental love, the depth of friendship, marriage and ambition, expectations, rivalry, loyalty, love and hate it makes the reader think deeply. There are so many wonderful quotes that I love in this book, but I will leave you with this one: "It’s so easy to get people to hate each other. That’s what makes love so impossible to understand. Hate is so simple that it always ought to win. It’s an uneven fight.” The publisher generously provided me with a copy of this book via Netgalley.

[rmarcin-630843 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I struggled with 4 or 5 stars for this one, but I decided to give it 5 stars because of its powerful story. At times, I thought that the story was taking a long time, but it is such a powerful message of love and hate, of losing our way and then finding out who we are, of love lost and found, of being a survivor, of what we are willing to give, and at what cost. I think I will be thinking about this book for a very long time.
Us Against You is the sequel to Beartown, and it is a very worthy sequel!

[sheila1957 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What a sequel! It is just as intense and good as Beartown. Us Against You picks up after Beartown ends with the summer before the next hockey season. We find out what happens to the characters from Beartown. The rivalry between Beartown and Hed grows as the first game approaches. Leaders emerge while those who want to be leaders don't have the necessary qualities to become leaders. One politician gets very involved in the hockey club and plays everyone against the other. We see others with new eyes and we meet new members of the community. I loved this series. I would like to see these people in 10 years time and see what happened to them. I know I kept saying not this one or that one when it looked as if something bad was going to happen. Not every life is successful. Some lose what they worked so hard for. Some find acceptance while others find more alienation. There was a lot of truth in this book. Sune was right when he said, "We are the community." Never were truer words spoken. Everything that happens, every word spoken, every thought good or bad is in our communities and it is what we foster in words and action that determine what the community is. Us Against You is a mirror that reflects back what we all are. Excellent!

[courtneygiraldo · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Us Against You brings us back to Beartown. (Didn’t catch that review, find it here!) The Beartown hockey club is all but dead loosing most of the team to Hed, and along with it, the sponsors. With some sly maneuvering from a local politician involving a new sponsorship, a new coach, and the recruitment of a questionable talent, Peter Anderson just might be able to save hockey in Beartown. Building the team around Amat, Benji, Bobo, and the new recruit, Vidar, it looks like Beartown stands a fighting chance against Hed this year. Tensions mount between the two teams, and as a result, the two towns. Escalating violence goes from nuisance to deadly leaving the two towns wondering when hockey got so complicated and if can ever be the same again. Blown away by Backman, the man can write! Another deeply moving novel that gives an introspective look into a proud hockey town. While Beartown focused more on the story of Maya, Us Against You gives us a more in depth look at Benji and The Pack. Each and every character was so expertly developed that they felt like actual people, people that I felt I knew deeply and wholly. I was once again awed by how Backman can not only capture his characters personalities with such a nuanced depth but how each of those characters fits in with the whole; The whole of their family units and the even the broader scope of within the town. Good characterization builds not only a complete picture of a person but how that person interacts with everything/everyone within its setting, and Backman is a master of it. This book had far more twists and turns than I was anticipating and I found myself flying through the pages like a madwoman long past my bedtime. Add this on your must read ASAP- it’s one that will stick with you, I promise.

[eduscapes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Story began in the novel, Beartown. Accused rapist and hockey star has left the area with his family. His victim, daughter of the hockey club manager, struggles with being bullied and deserted by friends. Key team members and one coach jump ship to join the rival club. A hockey story that is a tale about adversity, sexism, sexuality, gender roles, loyalty and more.