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the-eyes-on-you t1_jdr5we5 wrote

Backman is my favourite author, I absolutely love his books but I think the Winners was the first of his books that didn't make me cry. I can't put my finger on why, something about it just felt off to me and I wasn't able to get into it as much as I had the other 2 books in the series and his works in general. I'll gather my thoughts on the specific story and come back to add them in a while!

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the-eyes-on-you t1_jdr6nd9 wrote

I read it a while ago so the details are fuzzy but part of the problem is I thought Matteo and Mumble were the same person, so I was confused at the end when they weren't? Unless I missed something? That happens regularly. 🤣

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cerebellum0 OP t1_jdradt5 wrote

Oh yeah that would be confusing. It was revealed that Mumble was outside the room when Matteo's sister was r worded. But, he was also threatened and manipulated into it by her attacker, so while he didn't speak up and he should have, he was also sort of a victim. He carried tons of guilt about it and ended up walking into the woods at the end of his hockey career and potentially unaliving himself, at least that's what was implied.

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the-eyes-on-you t1_jdrentp wrote

I think I need to re-read it and give it a second chance knowing what I know now. Thanks for clarifying!

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cerebellum0 OP t1_jdrrskf wrote

I think I need to reread the first book. I read it a while ago but enjoyed the second and third book more due to the character development.

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the-eyes-on-you t1_jdrx2jk wrote

That too. I was so excited when this book came out, I thought I could just jump right back in but it became evident pretty quickly that I should have re-read the previous books first, it had been a few years since my last visit.

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