moinho @moinhoo - Tumblr Blog

When Fredrik Backman said, ‘Nothing weighs more than someone else’s belief in you,’ but then also added, ‘The world is full of miracles, but none greater than how far a young person can be carried by someone else’s belief in them.’

jordeclans

thinking abt this again 😣

thebearsfrombeartown

Yeah this one fucking crushed me

benjamin-ovich

the thing that always breaks my heart about benji ovich is just… how good he is. how selfless. how kind. how he helps people without expecting anything in return, without even asking for acknowledgement. he just has such a strong, solid moral streak, far superior to that of his peers and even those of the adults around him.

he stops bobo from attacking amat in his fury after their first training session together, saving amat (whom he just met) from potentially serious injury. he splits with kevin, his best friend and the boy he’s loved for years, for the unforgivable act of hurting an innocent girl. he’s one of the first few people to believe maya and take her side. he wrecks an entire bathroom in school just so she doesn’t get in trouble for smashing the mirror, taking on all the blame for himself. he steps aside in the bathroom as she’s storming out so that she doesn’t physically touch him and relive her trauma. time and time again he throws himself in the line of fire to protect the people around him, even those he barely knows.

and in spite of all that he still truly believes himself to be a monster. he’s convinced that he’s beyond redemption, that something inside him is irreparably damaged. he doesn’t want to be saved because he doesn’t think he deserves it. he gets high and starts fights and shuts people out because he’s afraid of those he loves seeing how gentle and vulnerable he truly is. despite being one of the most self-sacrificing and considerate individuals in beartown, he still makes himself out to be the villain.

it just gets me every time, man.

thebearsfrombeartown

benji fucking wrecks me, fam.

like. I cannot even think about how fucking kind and considerate and sweet and generous and just good he is without wanting to fling myself off a cliff. this boy deserves the best. and yet he genuinely cannot comprehend even being considered a good person, let alone a leader or role model others look up to.

uuuuaahhhh. it hurts. like. what about the time he protected leo in the fight in the woods. and he just refused to let this child be hurt. or when he helped ana with her dad and then comforted her and let her down so so gently and kindly and then he still forgave her for what she did to him and wanted her to be happy and told maya she should forgive ana too. or when he gave maya and ana the island. and he brought the axe for them because he knew they wouldn’t trust him.

oh my god. benji ovich fucking WRECKS me

nazumichi

guy in a fist fight, very clearly winning, but he’s sobbing and wailing the whole time

hewwbwazew

guy visibly getting his ass wrecked in a fist fight but hes talking shit about the other guy like hes winning

thebearsfrombeartown

Oh yes @teanotcoffee4me this absolutely has Lyt v. Benji vibes 100%

That fight. Holy fuck. That was so emo (for them and for me lol)

maqqyy

spiceberrie

Fredrik Backman - Exclusive Author Notes & Highlights for Beartown

cup-noodle

Cannot deal with how the story of Beartown knows itself inside and out and how it tells itself so nonchalantly, spoiling things left and right, and killing our notions of a happy ending before we even get the stupid idea to hope.

"She won't succeed." "It won't be enough." "He will be too late."

But what gets me is how the story also so obviously cares. Cares about the people, about the events that went down, and it knows that the outcome can't be changed but it wishes so damn hard it could be.

"Obviously we still hoped. Dear god, how we hoped." "The people in this town who loved him. There were so many of us."

It's not them, it's us. Almost like the town itself is telling it. Fredrik Backman I am in your walls.

a-rayneart

I JUST FINISHED THE WINNERS AND THERE WILL BE MINOR SPOILERS

when I say just I mean like 15 minutes ago— There are still dry tears on my face.

The way Mr Backman spoils the book for us over and over is flawless at giving individuality to the story as a narrative, giving it its own voice, but it’s also a top notch literary device to cultivate plot twists. I was so preoccupied with him telling us—from the beginning—who was going to die that the things that Bang the dog, Mumble’s ending, and all the other little tragedies we watched happen took shocked me to my core

On the subject of the compassion and hopefulness— I can’t even begin to put into words how I feel about the “Time travel can’t be real” lines and the lines written on all the different tombstones in the story, or Alicia’s story