Carmen Pocania’s Reviews > Beartown > Status Update

“She’s fifteen, above the age of consent, and he’s seventeen, but he’s still ‘the boy’ in every conversation. She’s ’the young woman’. Words are not small things.”

This book is so identically layered it almost feels like an echo?! Maybe I’ve changed. Or maybe I was broken from the start? I miss Backman’s sharp and sassy dialogue, his sarcastic little jabs that makes the characters pop off the page. Not enough. Here, everyone feels muted. Heavy. I get that it’s part of the theme, its own silence, but I wish someone would scream.

Backman really takes his time building the world of Beartown. I appreciate the detail, but I’m this close 🤏 to putting the book down if something doesn’t happen in the next 50 pages. *hoping the slow burn pays off soon*