Genre: Contemporary Fiction

I am grateful to have been asked to read and review the ARC of Elizabeth Staple’s The Snap. Set in the world of professional football management, I’m not sure I would have had the good sense to choose it otherwise. Poppy has worked hard to break ground as a female media director for a professional football team. She is in a firestorm, when the team’s coach unexpectedly dies - could it be murder? Through the current struggles, Poppy reflects on her time as an intern within the same organization. Many secrets are revealed along with the cut throat nature of the business.

To be honest, Poppy was difficult for me to wrap my head around. Her world was vastly different from mine. Staple does a remarkable job of illustrating that world - that I found somewhat horrifying - in a way that the outsider can understand it. Within that world, I can better understand Poppy and her choices. Poppy is driven; she works incredibly long hours to reach her goals. WhileI can relate to that fairly easily, her setting requires a different set of parameters to reach that success. I’d love to clutch my pearls and say, “Well, I would never…” But part of the success of this novel is that Staple so clearly illustrates a toxic workplace that is especially damaging to women, I could see why she did what she did. Another very difficult character for me was the coach. I struggled as a teacher with being sometimes asked to believe that excellent athletes walked in rarified air. His character, for me, was the culmination of that attitude over years. The subtlety with which Staple developed him worked so well in this novel. In terms of plot, the murder mystery works well with the characters and setting to further illustrate the world of sports, big business, privilege, and intrigue created here. For me the ending isn’t tied up into a neat bow that makes it all “0k” for me, but, folks, isn’t that life?

I love being challenged by a book different from the norm for me. The Snap by Elizabeth Staple did so. I served as a teacher my entire career, a traditionally woman’s field. I welcome learning what other women experience in the world through reading. Packaged with a suspenseful mystery, this is an excellent read on a number of levels. Thanks to Penguin Random House and Netgalley for asking me to review this work.