Us Against You

“He's twelve years old, and this summer he learns that people will always choose a simple lie over a complicated truth, because the lie has one unbeatable advantage: the truth always has to stick to what actually happened, whereas the lie just has to be easy to believe.”

An apt sequel. I enjoyed getting back to the inhabitants of Beartown and it was a satisfactory wrap-up to the story.

I'm sad to say that this was lacking the magic that Beartown had, but I really can't put my finger on a major reason why. I think it showed a realistic view of the continued aftermath of the events in Beartown, and I appreciated the new characters. Sure, I would have liked a deeper dive into a couple of them, but they felt very realistic and were interesting overall. For some reason, I just didn't feel for them most of the time. That's not to say I didn't cry, cause boy did I! Despite feeling a lack of emotional connection most of the time, Backman still managed to suck me in occasionally and broke me. But then there were times when certain relationships didn't make any sense to me. We were told about a powerful love that honestly wasn't shown on the page, so I wasn't able to connect with it at all nor feel the heartbreak that came with it. Most of the stuff I wanted to see happened off the page, was glossed over, or was told about after the fact.

Perhaps, for me, this book suffered slightly from feeling too much like one of those late 90s, early 2000s small town sports movies. Beartown was not about hockey, but Us Against You felt very hockey-centric. As always with Backman's books, the characters and events felt very true to life. I liked following some of my favorites from Beartown regardless of the story. I found Benji's story to be incredibly well done and feel so many things for that boy.

What I wasn't a fan of was the repeated bait-and-switch. It was like those cheap reality tv shows that leave off on a cliffhanger, where it seems like something big is about to go down, but when you return it's literally nothing. It's just smart editing that engages the viewer by promising a big scene then doesn't deliver. Us Against You didn't feel cheap, but I stopped believing that certain things were actually happening. And rightfully so. If Backman had followed through on any of these moments, I think it could have changed a lot of my current overall feelings.

The story felt a little bit less focused than what I expected from Backman. There wasn't necessarily a central plot that you could easily pick out. I'd say that's similar to Backman's other books, but there was even less of a theme tying everything together. I'd call it truly slice-of-life, since real life doesn't follow your standard plot structure.

I honestly can't decide if I'm disappointed enough to rate this 3 stars or if I still liked the writing and characters enough to warrant 4 stars. I'm going to have to think about it for a bit. I liked it more than the other books I've read so far this year but had such high hopes that weren't met at all.

3.5 rounded upwards

a grand portrayal of a small town, a bit of a mess yet so sincere and so committed to the stories it tells. for every questionable or unnecessary bit of writing (or lack of writing - seriously, why was there so little focus on amat?) there's two moments that flat out made me want to cry. very clearly the middle child of a trilogy, there's a lot of set-up that is never acted upon which is quite clearly intended for book 3 (leo, alicia, etc etc). and for how blunt the metaphors and foreshadowing can be, i also find them incredibly effective. there's a certain implication about benji's fate, for example, that's been frequently set-up from book one and it still hits hard.

in short: some things could be chopped off or toned down a bit, yet it's ultimately a very cohesive and poignant piece of fiction. maybe the sort of thing that i won't love in a few years, yet for the time being it's really clicked.