comment on structure

The novel is divided into 50 chapters, the brevity of which allows the author to move through the action at a brisk pace. As Beartown contains a large cast of characters, some chapters include the perspectives of up to 4-5 different individuals. Many chapters begin with a rhetorical question or statement by the narrator that sets the stage for the events to come, for example, “Why does anyone care about hockey?” or later, “Fighting isn't hard. It's the starting and stopping that are hard” (25, 343). The author also uses the first chapter as a means of getting the reader invested in the story quickly. This chapter consists of just a few sentences where we are told that an unnamed teenager is holding a gun to someone else's head, and that they pull the trigger. Then the novel flashes back to the day before the semifinal game.