Snap - Belinda Bauer

"Snap" is turning out to be a first-rate thriller.

 

I still don't really know what's going on, even though, almost at the half-way point, the two storylines have finally collided in a completely surprising and deeply intriguing way.

 

Yet NOT knowing but REALLY WANTING to know and being confident that you will eventually find out and when you do it will be something surprising but that feels true and finally makes sense of all of the angst and pain, is the essence of what makes a thriller a thriller.

 

This isn't one of those one-shot, I-didn't-see-THAT-coming trickster thrillers that were once fun and now feel so me-too that I eschew them. This is a thriller that is deeply rooted in the characters of the people entangled in the events: their faults, their fears, their deepest desires. This is about the impact of abandonment, the need for hope and the power of a constantly refilled cistern of anger that HAS to escape somehow.

 

It has best-seller written all over it.

 

I wonder, if it wins that Man Booker, will it sell fewer copies than if it had been given the usual "this is Gillian Flynn on steroids" hype?