Us Against You is everything I wanted from Backman in the Beartown sequel. I absolutely loved how Backman continued the stories of the characters we got connected to in the first book, and even better were the ways he introduced and elaborated on characters we didn’t have time to get to know before. 

This story was so simple and so complicated at the same time. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it a million times– Backman is an expert when it comes to weaving together people and storylines. 

As someone who played sports for their whole childhood– and as someone who has a lot of emotions tied into playing sports for their whole childhood– I appreciated how Backman stripped down why we love the games we love. Different from the first book of the series, Us Against You spent more time elaborating on the subconscious emotional ties athletes build with their sport through both triumph and failure. There were so many relatable, deeply healing messages in this book about life and sports and all the ways they intertwine. 

I could go on and on about Backman’s writing and world building but at the end of the day all that matters is that he tells the truth. In every book I’ve read of his, I find people I’ve met and stories I’ve heard. There is truly something for everyone when it comes to Backman’s body of work, but I think the Beartown series is especially touching for me.

The only thing that kept this from being 5 stars is the fact that it unfortunately had to follow Beartown. Not much of anything I read could be on the same level as that book. 

Stay tuned for a review of the newest book in the series, The Winners!