4,25/5 
 Yes indeed, the high ratings are totally justified. This is really strong and compelling. 
 The reasons I do not give it 5 stars are the following: 
 - maybe because he knows he writes for a wider audience, he sometimes makes it too easy and repeats things, just to make sure everybody is following. I felt that he underestimated us. 
 f.e.: Yes, I get it: hockey is REALLY important in Beartown! 
 - sometimes he tries too hard to sound epic, especially with these stand alone oneliners in between paragraphes 
 - because of the affluent amount of characters I wasn't strongly concerned about every one of them and the unwinding of the story (with that scope) at the end became a bit of a whine. 
 But yeah: You won't be dissapointed with this one