Book guide
The Winners
In a hockey-obsessed small town, old rivalries flare into violence as returning friends and a grieving boy force Beartown to confront what winning really costs.
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About The Winners
Over the course of two weeks, everything in Beartown will change. Maya Andersson and Benji Ovich, two young people who left in search of a life far from the forest town, come home and joyfully reunite with their closest childhood friends. There is a sense of optimism and purpose in the town, embodied in the impressive new ice rink that has been built down by the lake. Seemingly overnight, the destruction caused by a ferocious late-summer storm re-ignites the old rivalry between Beartown and the neighboring town of Hed, a rivalry that has always been fought through their ice hockey teams. Simmering tensions between the towns turn into acts of intimidation and then violence. All the while, a fourteen-year-old boy grows increasingly alienated from this hockey-obsessed community, and he becomes determined to take revenge on the people he holds responsible for a family tragedy. As it beautifully captures all the complexities of daily life and explores questions of friendship, loyalty, loss, and identity, this emotion-packed novel asks us to reconsider what it means to win, what it means to lose, and what it means to forgive.
Reading signals
- Spice
- None
- Darkness
- Dark
- Pacing
- Slow
Series
Beartown · Book 3 of 3
Content warnings
- sexual assault
- rape
- sexual coercion
- drug abuse
- suicidal ideation
- animal cruelty
- gun violence
- death
- grief
- murder
- homophobia
- alcoholism
- child neglect
- child abuse
- suicide
