In THE SNAKES, by Sadie Jones, Dan and Bea are looking for a life reboot and they figure the best way is to leave their London flat for a few months and travel around Europe in hopes of reinvigorating their lives and their marriage. They visit Bea's brother, Alex, in Burgundy. Alex lives in and runs a rundown and inactive hotel. When Bea and Alex's parents show up, Bea is immediately on guard and only over time does Dan begin to learn why. Tragedy hits the family and the repercussions of that awful event will change the family dynamic forever.
Immediately Jones' ability to create a stunning visual images with her words is impressive. The reader is whisked away to the busy lifestyle of London and the beautiful landscapes of France. Bea and Dan are fascinating spirits who are still working out what their place in the world is and the reader is captivated with that ongoing search. The family dynamic is a constant challenge that seems to hover around the story and haunts Bea and Dan every step of the way. The middle of the book seemed to slow down a lot, but once the end is in sight, the pace of the story takes off and I was completely engrossed into finding out what will happen to everyone.
There are some light moments, but also some really heavy moments throughout the book that are moving and will stick with the reader. THE SNAKES is a book I won't soon forget and I'm still contemplating the stunning ending and how it impacted me. A very good read!
I received this book as part of the Goodreads Giveaway program. ( )

The Snakes is a controversial book, mostly because people felt let down by its seemingly anti-climactic and unconventional ending. It's this ending that, from browsing the reviews, is the reason for the novel's slightly low ratings by readers, yet I would argue that Jones's conclusion is a refreshing reminder of a few key things about life and how literature reflects on human existence.

On the surface, The Snakes is about inequality and the injustice that proceeds from the growing gap between rich and poor. At its center is a couple, Beatrice Adamson, a struggling psychotherapist, and Dan Durrant, a would-be artist who is moonlighting as a real-estate agent. Tired of struggling through their lives in London, they decide to use their meager savings to take a holiday in Europe. They buy a beat-up old car and head to France, where Bea's brother Alex supposedly runs a hotel that his parents bought for him.

When Bea and Dan arrive at the hotel, however, there are no guests, and the place is in a parlous state. Alex, who has long struggled with substance and alcohol problems, is finding it difficult just to stay afloat. There are snakes living in the roof of the hotel, a symbol that ultimately seems to be a bit of a red herring.

Things start to heat up when Griff and Liv Adamson, Bea and Alex's parents, arrive on the scene. It turns out that they are not just rich - they are super-rich billionaires who made their money in real estate, often exploiting society's most vulnerable to make their fortune. For this reason, Bea has little to do with them and refuses to take any money from them. On top of that, there is the disturbing revelation that Alex was sexually abused by his mother. By contrast, Dan, who grew up black and dirt-poor, is surprised and upset when he realizes what opportunities Bea has given up, especially in light of his failure to launch his artistic career.

Things get complicated when Alex is sent by father on an errand and ends up dying in mysterious circumstances. The thriller aspect of this novel really kicks into gear at this point. What was Alex doing? How is it connected to the Swiss German family next door? Is their campaign against the Adamsons because of their wealth? Why are the French police so racially abusive toward Dan? All of these issues revolve around inequality, and Jones skillfully draws the reader into the drama.

As it turns out, Alex's death is somehow related to the money his father has been smuggling in cash from his old Swiss bank accounts. The novel's final twist occurs when a man named Russ Bannam turns up at the hotel. He claims to be Alex's friend, but in reality he is a random man that Alex met in a bar and told about his father's illegal cash: Russ has come to steal the money. As such, he murders Dan, takes the bag of money, attacks Bea, and the novel closes with him preparing to bury her.

I can see why some, even many readers don't understand or like this ending. It goes against our expectations, which is that justice will be done and everything will be made right in the Adamson universe. Yet such a conventional ending would be a betrayal of the novel's penetrating examination of inequality and injustice. It would wrongly affirm that we can simply will those we like into being rewarded for their goodness, or at least for being sympathetic.

What Jones does instead, I would argue, is to show how the randomness of the tragic blow is a democratic force, that it cuts forcefully through the bluster and nonsense of modern inequality. All the characters, including Bea, are in bad faith about their relationship to money and the power it brings, and the visceral ending of the novel reminds the honest reader that not only are such things grounded in an illusion of power, but that there is more to life, much more, than the game of accumulation. ( )

The Snakes (Chatto & Windus) is my first Sadie Jones book and it won’t be my last. A creeping suspense novel that blends the corruption and distortion of the rich, the seduction that wealth brings and the suspicion of those who don’t have it. All wrapped up in a genuine thriller - A Year in Provence meets Deliverance. ( )

I'd heard quite a bit about The Snakes before I decided to read it, so much so that I was really intrigued to see what I thought of it myself.

It's a fairly simple story on the face of it, but with so much going on underneath the surface, like a writhing ball of snakes I guess. Bea and Dan are living, not quite hand to mouth but not far off, in London. I loved the first chapter as they decide, quite rashly actually, to spend the summer travelling using their 'Cushion' of money. Their first stop is the hotel in France run by Bea's chaotic brother, Alex. The short time the three of them spend together is pleasant enough but all that changes when their parents, Griff and Liv, arrive. Suddenly the atmosphere is tense and conflict abounds.

Having read another of this author's books I was expecting challenging and often unpleasant characters. No surprises here then that there isn't a single character who I could like in this book. Bea is probably the most likeable but even then I wouldn't go so far as to say that I actually did like her. However, I don't need to like the characters to enjoy a story and for the most part I found this an utterly fascinating look at family dynamics, how you cannot escape your past, and the effect of growing up around rich, domineering and powerful men. It's a messed up story in many ways, uncomfortable to read at times, at others quite perplexing as to where the story was going. Ultimately I look upon The Snakes as a slice of life story, albeit rather a distressing slice of life, one which brings to a head matters that have been bubbling away for a while.

Sadie Jones is a talented writer. She is able to burrow down into the heart of feelings and yet does so in a matter of fact way. The ending shocked me. I knew it would as I'd heard other people say it, but I didn't expect that! The book is full of a sense of foreboding and honestly, it's left me feeling quite unsettled. It's the sort of read I could spend ages thinking about what lies beneath the story of greed, wealth, jealousy and flawed family relationships. ( )

The Snakes by author Sadie Jones starts like literary fiction, the story of a dysfunctional family. Bea and Dan are a young married couple. She's a social worker, he's an artist. She's from a wealthy family but has rejected their money, he's mixed race from a very poor single mother family. Due to expenses, Dan is forced to take a job as an estate agent and is dissatisfied. Bea suggests that they take a vacation in Europe. He reluctantly agrees. She suggests that they stop at her brother's hotel in France. Again, he reluctantly agrees. It becomes clear that her brother, Alex is a bit of a screw up and the hotel has never opened. What's worse, the attic is full of snakes. Dan wants to leave but Bea wants to stay to help her brother especially when she learns that their parents are coming because she knows Alex' secret and she wants to protect him. I can't say that all of this kept me glued to the page but it was definitely interesting and made me want to see where it was going.

However, half way through it becomes a psychological thriller, the pace picked up significantly and I couldn't put it down. And then the ending happened. Suddenly, what started out compelling just seemed to go completely off the tracks. It was like the author was trying to tell two different stories and, in the attempt, lost the plot.

Still, it's well-written and, if you ignore the ending and just read it for it's depiction of how money can hide some very dark secrets, it's worth a read. I'd give most of the book 4 stars and the ending 2 so, overall, it gets 3 stars from me.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review ( )