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3genres's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
For a thriller-type book it was pretty good. (I tend to find those shallow.) There wasn't really character development because it was short in both in length and time frame. I got a good feel for the frustration of each of the main characters, whose situations were different but similar. There are two more books in the trilogy and I'm fine with stopping where I am now.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism and Physical abuse
Moderate: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, and Dementia
abbie_'s review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
2.5
I’m making a fun challenge for myself where all the books I read for the StoryGraph’d 2024 Genre Challenge have to also be queer 🌈 So I found this one for ‘a crime or thriller novel in translation’. Snare follows Sonja, a newly single woman fighting for custody of her son while being entangled in a drug smuggling operation, plus a messy affair with a woman who is in denial about her sexuality.
If I can just talk about Agla for a minute - I was in the closet as a lesbian until I was 26 (though out as ‘bisexual’ before then) so I get the denial. Being out can be hard. But Agla is so deep in denial it was painful - and I couldn’t help but wonder why Sonja continued to put up with it. It must be so difficult to be with someone who clearly loves you, yet refuses to acknowledge a core part of herself.
Onto the drugs and smuggling and the like - this part did keep me guessing until a giant clue near the end and I was actually able to sort of work out who the kingpin was! I *mostly* enjoyed Sonja’s methods for smuggling until she poisoned two sniffer dogs. That was awful. I know she was pushed to the edge but I really had a bad taste in my mouth after that. It also felt a bit iffy that the only characters of colour that appear in the story are all drug dealers.
Probably the most compelling part of this book was Bragi’s storyline! A customs officer being pushed out of work due to his age, he’s desperate for a way to help his wife who has been placed in a subpar care-home due to severe dementia. Finding out what happens to those two would be my main motivation to pick up the sequel.
The narrator, Suzannah Hampton, does a decent job, but I do wish publishers would make an effort to find narrators who at least speak the language a book was translated from, if not someone from that country altogether. Can’t help but think the Icelandic names were often butchered.
Overall, I probably won’t be in a hurry to continue with the series, if I do at all.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Drug use, Violence, and Dementia
tlaynejones's review against another edition
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Homophobia, Violence, Trafficking, and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual assault, Dementia, and Kidnapping
Minor: Domestic abuse, Infidelity, and Gaslighting