2018 Booker Prize Longlist: Snap by Belinda Bauer

This thread is for discussion of Snap by Belinda Bauer. No unhidden spoiler comments, please.

Going through the supposedly "easier" ones first this year with my reading time very limited. Started this last night, so far (20%) I don't like it much. Reminds me a bit of Cement Garden from the setting, but not as well written. Finding it very hard to believe that no-one would ever check on those kids.

It ended up being a solid thriller and pageturner, something I wouldn't normally read as they get me too worked up and cause nightmares. Some interesting though not likeable characters, some inconsistencies towards the ending. Some things just fizzled out. 3.3 stars from me.

This is my third read from the 2018 Booker Long List and, in my opinion, this crime/mystery novel is a sub-par entry into a field which is usually innovative, thought provoking and diverse. Instead, I found the story line a bit far fetched, senseless, unrealistic with much going unexplained. I agree with Nathalie, Snap fizzles.

This surely was one of the best thrillers I have read lately. Jack is a 14-year old, looking for his mother’s murderer. Fast paced and with good and unexpected twists the story made for some well spent hours.

In its genre it is a four stars read for me, but man, this is the Booker longlist! Call me a snob, but I don’t see its literary merites. Maybe it’s me and it’s just good that Booker broadens its horizon and that the longlist now includes a crime thriller beside a graphic novel and an almost poetry one. Maybe it just takes some getting used to....