Read this as a buddy read with Jerry and Poonam. 
 May contain mild spoilers 
 I am apprehensive writing a review for this book. But 1) I hope I will be able to do justice to it and 2)I hope I will be able to capture all that this book made me feel. There were times that I felt I could not go on and had to keep the book down. You know that feeling when you know something bad is going to happen and you want to just push the inevitable. But in the end I loved the story. 
 This book is about friendship and loyalty. "Because friendship is complicated and not complicated at all 
 About parenting and coaching. "When I was little, my dad used to hit me if I spilled milk. That didn't teach me not to spill things. It just made me scared of milk" 
 About politics and the truth. About finding hope and the strength to go on. 
 And all this set in a town.... Beartown. A town as fierce as the name sounds. A town of grown men and women that has its hopes pinned on a group of 17 and 15 year old's!!!. This angered me to no end. A town that lives and breathes hockey after all "Beartown is a hockey town". 
 The author weaves this amazing story through complex characters revealed one layer at a time with hockey in the back ground. I love the hockey matches described by the author. I felt I was right there cheering the team on. 
 What one learns from the characters: (view spoiler)[bravery from Amat, strength from Maya, Kira and Ramona (loved these strong women in this book), about friendship from Anna and Bobo, about standing by one's principles even if it costs you everything from Benji, and leadership from Sune and David. (hide spoiler)] Each character conveys so much. 
 I went through a number of emotions: curiosity (view spoiler)[I went through the whole book trying to guess the shooter and the victim and after Maya lets Kevin go I had to go back to the first chapter and re-read it twice!! (hide spoiler)], apprehension, sadness, anger, frustration, and funnily enough I found hope, peace and happiness in the end. 
 A sense of justice prevails does prevail but justice means different things to different people. (view spoiler)[ Maya finds success, Kevin is no longer associated with hockey, hoping that Benji and Amat find success and Bobo becomes a dad. This almost seemed like a happy ending and considering how the book was going the author did not have to end it like this. (hide spoiler)]. I do wonder though if the author had given a different ending maybe I would not have felt this satisfaction at the end. 
 I could go on and on :) but I will stop here. 
 Kudos to the author. Looking forward to more books by Backman.