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The Snakes: A Novel
Author:
Jones, Sadie
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Class:
Fiction
Age: Adult
Language: English
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LC: PR6110.O
Print Run: 75000
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ISBN-13: 9780062897022
LCCN: 2019456362
Imprint: Harper
Publisher: HarperCollins
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Pub Date: 06/25/2019
Availability: Out of Stock Indefinitely
List: $26.99
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Hardcover
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Physical Description:
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439 pages ; 24 cm
H 9",
W 6",
D 1.37",
1.34 lbs.
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LC Series:
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Brodart Sources:
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Brodart's Insight Catalog: Adult
Brodart's TOP Adult Titles
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Bibliographies:
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Awards:
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Library Journal Starred Reviews
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Starred Reviews:
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Library Journal
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TIPS Subjects:
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Domestic Fiction
Suspense/Thriller
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BISAC Subjects: |
FICTION / Horror
FICTION / Literary
FICTION / Thrillers / Suspense
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LC Subjects:
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Brothers and sisters
Brothers and sisters, Fiction
Domestic fiction
FICTION / Horror
FICTION / Literary
FICTION / Thrillers / Suspense
Families
Families, Fiction
Family secrets, Fiction
Fiction
France
France, Fiction
Hotelkeepers
Hotelkeepers, Fiction
Married people, Fiction
Novels
Secrecy
Secrecy, Fiction
Suspense fiction
Thrillers (Fiction)
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SEARS Subjects: |
Adventure fiction
Burgundy (France), Fiction
Child abuse, Fiction
Horror fiction
Marriage, Fiction
Mystery fiction
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Reading Programs: |
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| Annotations |
| Brodart's TOP Adult Titles | 02/01/2019 |
| Publisher Annotation: Recently married, psychologist Bea and Dan, a mixed-race artist, rent out their tiny flat to escape London for a few precious months. Driving through France they visit Bea's dropout brother Alex at the hotel he runs in Burgundy. Disturbingly, they find him all alone and the ramshackle hotel deserted, apart from the nest of snakes in the attic. When Alex and Bea's parents make a surprise visit, Dan can't understand why Bea is so appalled, or why she's never wanted him to know them; Liv and Griff Adamson are charming and rich. They are the richest people he has ever met. Maybe Bea's ashamed of him, or maybe she regrets the secrets she's been keeping. Tragedy strikes suddenly, brutally, and in its aftermath the family is stripped back to its heart, and then its rotten core, and even Bea with all her strength and goodness can't escape. 448pp., 75K |
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| Starred Reviews: |
| Library Journal | 04/01/2019 |
| Bea and Dan, young married Londoners, are taking a three-month break from their work lives. While Bea loves her job as a psychotherapist, she's supportive of would-be artist Dan, who's been miserable working in real estate. En route to Spain and Italy, they detour through Burgundy to visit Bea's brother, Alex, who is supposed to be renovating a derelict hotel. Purchased by their wealthy parents as a postrehab project for Alex, the hotel has no staff or guests. Snakes are only the beginning of what's rotten about the place. Intending only a short stopover, Bea and Dan are delayed at first by a needy Alex and then by the arrival of the parents from whom Bea has long been estranged. Corrosive secrets are slowly revealed as the story comes to a heart-pounding conclusion. VERDICT Don't be misled by this book's title. Although a few creepy reptiles make an appearance, the real snakes in this twisty story are human ones. Another memorable novel from the versatile Jones (The Uninvited Guests). [See Prepub Alert, 12/3/18.]. Barbara Love, formerly with Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ont. 448p. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2019. |
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| Journal Reviews |
| Booklist | 05/01/2019 |
| All families are dysfunctional in some way, but some, like Bea's family, ratchet dysfunction to dizzying heights. Bea rejected her parents' lifestyle of obscene wealth years ago, but maintains a relationship with her brother Alex. Restless in their London work-a-day lives, Bea and her husband, Dan, decide to take a sabbatical, even though it means pinching pennies and spending their "cushion." They set off first to see shiftless Alex in rural France. The hotel he's supposedly running is, in fact, a guestless, crumbling wreck, and there are snakes in the attic. The distance Bea had long kept between Dan and her parents is soon breached with Alex's sudden death. Bea's father impresses Dan with his wealth and self-possession; Bea's mother dazzles, but in time, Dan sees the writhing underbelly of their lives and understands what drove Bea away. Dan doesn't even know the worst of it, because Bea keeps the secret of Alex's abuse unspoken. Jones (Fallout, 2014) unfurls an understated, yet page-turning story. The last chapters, however, reveal a graphic and jarring ending. Joan Curbow. 448p. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2019. |
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| Kirkus Reviews | 03/15/2019 |
| Snakes as temptation, snakes as untrustworthy people, snakes as dangerous reptiles--all present and accounted for in this suspenseful drama of an ultrarich, dysfunctional British family. After growing up among private jets and criminally narcissistic parents, Bea Adamson has cut herself off from her family and their money and has never been open with her biracial husband, Dan, who has only been introduced once, about the extent of their wealth. The couple lives close to the bone in London off their earnings as a psychotherapist and real estate agent. When they decide to take a break and drive an old Peugeot around the continent, their first stop is to see Bea's ne'er-do-well brother, Alex, who has been set up by their father with a hotel outside Beaune, a town not far from the Swiss border. When they arrive at the Hotel Paligny, they are surprised to find a defunct operation which hasn't seen guests in quite some time. "There are loads of snakes," Alex warns when taking them up to the attic. "Mostly they're just grass snakes. They're sort of company....It's the vipers I don't like." Soon after, the hotel gates swing open and more snakes arrive--Adamson pere et mere. As horrified as she is by the appearance of Griff and Liv, Bea has no idea how bad things can get. The most impressive accomplishment of Jones' (Fallout, 2014, etc.) fifth novel--her first with a contemporary setting--is the seemingly straightforward, actually rather complicated nature of the relationship between Bea and Dan. The depiction of the frustrations of dealing with the French bureaucracy is also on the money. However, the rich parents are two-dimensional in their utter repulsiveness, and the violent closing section of the book does not quite fulfill the potential of what precedes it. A well-executed, character-driven cross between domestic drama and crime thriller. 448pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2019. |
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| Library Journal Prepub Alert | 12/03/2018 |
| Leaving London for a long escape to France, white psychologist Bea and new husband Dan, a mixed-race artist, stop at a hotel run by Bea's brother Alex. They find the hotel guestless, Alex a wreck, and snakes in the attic. Next to arrive are Bea and Alex's wealthy, amiable parents, whom Dan has never met, and sudden tragedy reveals dark secrets at the core of this family. From the author of the author of The Outcast, a Costa First Novel Award winner, and the best-selling The Uninvited Guests. With a 75,000-copy first printing. Barbara Hoffert. 448p. LJ Prepub Alert Online Review. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2018. |
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| Publishers Weekly | 04/22/2019 |
| Jones's propulsive yet thoughtful fifth novel (after Fallout) grips readers from the first page. Bea Adamson is a 30-year-old psychotherapist living in a modest one-bedroom in London with her real estate agent husband, Dan Durrant, despite her moneyed background. Dan, who is of a much humbler background, dreams of becoming an artist. When Bea and Dan take three months off to travel, their first stop is France, where Bea's older brother, Alex, runs a hotel. When they arrive, they're greeted by a hotel devoid of guests other than the snake infestation in the attic and an erratic, newly sober Alex. When Alex and Bea's extremely wealthy parents, Griff and Liv, unexpectedly arrive at the hotel, Bea, who has long cut financial and personal ties with her severe father and cloying mother, resigns herself to making nice. And with Griff and Liv's arrival, Dan begins to understand just how well-off Bea is, no matter how much she wants to forsake her upbringing. However, when Alex goes out one night and doesn't return, the Adamson family is upturned, and their secrets and twisted relationships with each other are brought to light. The campy ending doesn't quite live up to the rest of the book-but what precedes is a tightly crafted, deeply moving, and thrilling story about how money corrupts and all the myriad ways members of a family can ruin each other. Agent: Stephanie Cabot, the Gernert Company. (June). 448p. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2019. |
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9780062897022,dl.it[0].title
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