by Fredrik Backman, Audiobook narrated by Marin Ireland, 2018, Simon & Shuster Audio

This novel is the sequel to Beartown, which is about a small town in Sweden obsessed with their hockey team.  The prior novel focused on what happened to the town and its inhabitants after a player on the rival team raped the daughter of Beartown’s hockey team manager.

Unfortunately, this second novel meanders into the subsequent events in Beartown after the first novel ends.  It goes on and on about the various characters and events.  I found neither the characters or the plot held my interest.

Compounding the basic lack of interest, the book seems to endlessly drive home it’s messages.  The narrator does a good job in reading the book, but she becomes annoying as the book progresses.

The best I can say about the book is that I managed to finish it.  By the time I was halfway through it, I was sick of Beartown, it’s hockey team, the hockey team players, the hockey team coach, the hockey team manager, the other residents of Beartown, the story, the narrator, and whatever else about Beartown that I have failed to mention.

Backman is a good writer and has the talent to observe and write about interesting human behavior.  This book has a lot of those observations but fails to be the least interesting.