Review: Us Against You (by Fredrik Backman)

My Rating: 5 stars

I read Beartown for the first time this weekend (I know, I’m late to the party, as usual) and was absolutely blown away by it.  I loved everything about that book — from the writing to the story to the realistically-rendered characters — to the point that I didn’t want it to end.  So of course, I was glad that I already had the sequel, Us Against You, on my shelf ready to pick up. 

I will be honest and say that, in general, I’m not a fan of sequels, especially when it comes to a work (be it a book, movie, or TV series) that I absolutely adored.  This is because, from past experience, many sequels I’ve encountered often end up falling short of the original work, with a few extreme instances where the sequel actually ruined the original for me (this is also a reason why I’m not a fan of retellings either, but I digress…).  This is why, despite how much I LOVED the characters in Beartown and wanted nothing more than to keep remaining in their company for as long as possible, a small part of me was apprehensive going into this sequel. For me, Beartown was too wonderful, magical, and beyond exceptional to the point that I couldn’t help wondering:  will the sequel live up to the original?  Or am I setting myself up to be disappointed?

Well, I shouldn’t have worried because the sequel was absolutely fantastic!!!  Without a doubt, the sequel not only lived up to the original, it actually surpassed it in some aspects (specifically with the characters).  I rated Beartown a solid 5 stars…for Us Against You, let’s just say definitely more than 5 stars if I could!!

The story in this second book picks up pretty much where the first one left off, with the same beloved characters — Benji, Amat, Bobo, Ramona, Sune, Maya, Ana, Kira, etc. — who stole my heart the first time around now embedding themselves permanently into my soul.   In fact, I loved these characters so much and resonated with them so deeply that, once again, I found myself on a roller coaster ride of emotions (from laughter to sadness to anger and everything in between).  I cared about what happened to these characters so much that, when Fredrik Backman wrote in the first few pages of the book that “someone we love” will die by the end of the story, I felt an immediate ache in my heart (and even though, in the end, the person who died wasn’t who I thought it would be, I still couldn’t help bawling like a baby when the scene happened). Even the new characters introduced in the sequel — despite the fact that we didn’t get to spend as much time with them as those from the first book — managed to still find a place in my heart by the end of the story.  

It’s rare for me to be so emotionally invested in a story and it’s characters to this degree, but so far, with each of Backman’s novels that I’ve read, this has been my experience.  No one writes about the human condition as realistically as Backman is able to do in his fiction.  He also has the unique ability to write his characters as real people, human beings who look and feel and experience the way you and I do — flawed creatures who make mistakes, who have good days and bad, who say things we don’t mean and mean things we don’t say, who can be cruel and lash out when we’re scared or hurting, but yet also be compassionate and kind in moments when it’s needed most (I’m just scratching the surface, as there’s no way to relay the wide range of themes and emotions that this story explores).

I actually read this book all in one sitting, which is definitely a first for me (especially considering this book is 400+ pages)!  Without a doubt, this was worth every minute of my time and if I didn’t already have a boatload of books that I still need to get to, I would happily re-read both Beartownand this one in a heartbeat.  The third (and last) book in the series is supposed to come out later this year and needless to say, I can’t wait to read it (though I’m praying that the publication date for the English version doesn’t get pushed back because if it does, so help me God, I will find a way to read the Swedish version if I have to!).