Bear Necessity

by James Gould-Bourn

☕︎☕︎☕︎☕︎

Sometimes the most ridiculous things are the only things that make sense."

This is one of the weirdest, funniest books I’ve read in a long time. A recently widowed father, desperate to connect with his grieving son, accidentally becomes a street performer in a bear costume. It is so weird and so cheesy and I loved every single page of it.

Bear Necessity works because Gould-Bourn never winks at the absurdity, he plays it completely straight, which makes the comedy land and the emotional punches hit harder than you'd ever anticipate from a premise this ridiculous. The father-son dynamic is tender without being saccharine. The supporting characters are warm and odd and memorable.

It is not a book that will change your life. It will absolutely make you cry in a coffee shop while also laughing out loud, which is its own kind of magic.

Four cups: wonderfully strange, unashamedly cheesy, and one of the most unexpectedly moving reads I've had in ages.