I feel a bit late to the party with this one. It was published a few years ago, and all this time I’ve been hearing ravings about it from my friends and fellow book bloggers. It was on my TBR for quite a while and I’ve finally gotten around to reading it a few weeks ago. We have 5 read-alikes for Beartown, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.

One evening in late March, a teenager walks into the forest, puts a shotgun to another teenager’s forehead, and pulls the trigger. Sadly, not everyone survives in this novel of high-stakes competition, and others fall in less deadly, yet still consequential, ways. The game is no less significant in this sequel, and those who remain at the end must solider on as they’ve always done.Surrounded by impenetrable forests, it recreates the stifling atmosphere of a dying community. This is a mature, compassionate novel. Sunday Times The "ceaselessly brilliant" story of one man who banishes himself to a solitary life in the Arctic Circle, and is saved by good friends, a loyal dog, and a surprise visit that changes everything (Adam Johnson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Orphan Master's Son). Now, I knew before reading it what the book was all about. And ever since I started reading it, all I could think was – I really, really don’t want it to happen. I’ve grown attached to the characters faster that I could imagine. Knowing what was coming almost made me put down the book.

The town has so much riding on this. They are hoping that if they win the championship, the government will decide to build their new national training center in Beartown. Along with the training center would come more shopping, restaurants, commerce and JOBS. They NEED this. This is their time. The undefeated junior team just needs to make it through two more games. Beartown is a remote and isolated town that is both overlooked and forgotten, but the only thing on any of the townspeople’s minds is the semi-finals.The party at Kevin’s house is filled with drunken teenagers. Maya soon gets drunk with Kevin, and Kevin quietly makes a bet with his friend Lyt that he’ll be able to sleep with the General Manager’s daughter. Maya accompanies Kevin to his bedroom and kisses him, but he rapes her a short time later. Amat, meanwhile, has wandered upstairs in search of Maya; hearing sounds of a struggle from Kevin’s room, he opens the door and sees everything, interrupting the assault. Maya flees the party and later destroys all evidence of the rape. I loved the narrative style. It was almost as if the story was being told orally, from the memory of an observer, with little snippets of wisdom and knowledge of future events which the narrator had witnessed. In the end, the events of the subsequent ten years are sketched out. Maya is a popular guitarist and has a chance encounter with Kevin (who is now married). Maya recognizes Kevin and realizes she can expose him in public but chooses not to. When he leaves shaken, his wife asks him who Maya is, and Kevin tells her the whole truth. As the team is preparing for a match, Amat is scouted and added to the team to give them a better chance of winning. The team wins the match based on Amat's newly indoctrinated skills. That night, Kevin hosts a party in celebration of the win at his parent's home. Many teenagers from Beartown are in attendance, and most of them are indulging in underage drinking and smoking. Kevin meets Maya, and they start kissing, which eventually leads to Kevin raping Maya.