Us Against You by Fredrik BackmanMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Let me start by saying that the earlier installment, "Beartown" was magnificent. This book has almost all of the same characters, and is written in the author's engaging style which makes me want to keep reading "just five more pages" until it's the middle of the night and I'm half way through. He makes you care about this little town and its hockey club.
BUT.
Backman does something in this book that he did not do in the first one. He keeps breaking the fourth wall. He does this often, and in two main ways. The first way is by stepping outside the story to deliver little homilies about people and life. Let the story tell it, like in the first book! The second way is by constantly saying what kind of story this is. Just tell the story and let your reader decide. I had one other gripe with this book. Red herrings. I know, it's done all the time, but at some point I felt like I was just being manipulated and messed with. I could almost feel a grinning Backman sitting at his keyboard saying, "Watch this!" as he pulls the (carefully laid) rug out. Plot twists are one thing. Heavy-handed set-ups are another. Backman is plenty skilled enough to make a reader invest their heart in his story, but apparently not restrained enough to stop screwing with same readers.
I would give 3.5 stars if I could. I rounded up on the strength of the two books together. Recommended, but with reservations, and strong advice to read "Beartwown" first, not because you won;t understand the second book if you don't, but simply because the first book is better.
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Lots of good information on the science of writing here, as well as the usual professional job on the review. I hate the breaking of the fourth wall--it requires a very light and deft hand to succeed, and few authors can avoid the ham and the homilies you describe. I enjoy reading series, but too many of them are shoddy, so if the second book is worse than the first, I'm done.
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