Snowdrops - do I prepare to be completely underwhelmed????

[AnonymousBird]

I'm aware this was Jan's book of the month - sorry - I have only just got around to it! Didn't want to read that thread too closely though as I didn't want any spoilers (assuming I carry on with it!)

Man Booker Prize Nominee to me smacks of "worth reading" ie. packs a punch, leaves an impression.

I'm 80 pages in and god, what tedium. Boooooooring so far. Does it improve? Do I stick with it (I cannot stand not finishing a book even when crap - I even finished One Day!) and hope for better things around the corner? I am a huge fan of thriller type books, of those with overseas interest and background, this should be ticking all my boxes..... praying that it ups tempo a bit and we get some twists and turns.

FIL did warn me that it was a bit "light" - I spotted it on his shelf and made the MN connection so asked if I could borrow it....
TIA

Boring. I don't understand why certain books get such hype--good PR, I guess. I did finish it, though, in the hope that something earth shattering would happen. It didn't. Sorry.

we read it for our RL book group in December. I wasn't totally enamoured, but it did provoke a very good discussion. I'd stick with it.

it's not a 'thriller'... if you keep that in mind then it's not bad.

Sorry - I didn't mean "thriller" IYSWIM - poor choice of word, but I was expecting a kind of book that moves and intrigues - the fact it is described as "gripping and dazzling and electrifying" suggests that something happens...... I can only assume we are doing a lot of scene setting and we will get there eventually!

Will probably stick with. It's dull at the moment, but very fast to read (not exactly challenging) and I can read it whilst talking to DC/preparing their food/doing pretty much anything else as only part of my brain is required at this stage....

Actually be interested to read the book club thread once I'm done, see what people asked the author and what he had to say for himself!

Well, I got there, finished it yesterday. It was a page turner in that I was keen to find out whether anything nothing unexpected was going to happen. That is what I found a bit odd about it. It was obvious within a few pages what was going to happen, even just roughly what was going to happen. The whole book had a rather limp inevitability to it. It was just like it was diary "this is what happened when i lived in Moscow". May be it was, I suppose he was just coming clean and explaining his past life to his future wife so it is a kind of diary, albeit rather mundane? But not exactly riveting or inspiring or thought provoking. What was he really confessing to? Being a bit wet and shallow?

He knew he was being shafted, and didn't care... possibly because he thought that in itself would make life exciting. Which is ironic really, since the book was so incredibly unexciting.

It's whole style was just one of montone.

It was disappointing, and I am very disappointed.

Still at Man Booker nominee!!!!

Boring. The problem is that it was marketed as a thriller. It is most definitely not. Not entirely unpleasant though.

I was looking forward to a good murder mystery - who was the body in the snow and who killed them and why? etc. I got to p.187 and NOTHING had happened. Endless descriptions of Russian weather, corrupt people, poor people and oh did I mention the weather? Tedious. I hate not finishing books but I couldn't even be bothered to struggle through. Great potential, very poor execution.

Stop reading now. There is nothing thrilling at all about this book. I chose it for my book club as I thought it would be a good read. I was wrong!!

No, there are no surprises. I thought that there was going to be some kind of moral wrangling, or that Nick was going to be forced to do something he had no control over. But in the end it was just about someone trying to justify the unjustifiable.