What do You think about Snatched (2006)?
Not one of my favorites. I felt that the mystery itself was less intricate then it could have been and actually easy to figure out. What frustrated me about the book is that the protagonists are teens but the book itself reads like a Middle Grade novel. The underlying plot line also deals with heavy issues that are essentially never addressed until the end pages, and I feel that the issue itself is one that needs to be addressed--at least in some sort of discussion.However, 'm curious to read the two follow-up mysteries just to see if the plotting gets stronger.Originally published on the Hopeful Heroine
—Caitlin
I loved Hautman's Godless, but Snatched isn't one of my favorite things. First, Godless hits its late-teenager audience right in the center, but Snatched is extremely juvenile. The main issue - how a child who is being abused deals with the consequences of her abuse - floats around in the ether, then is dealt with in one short scene. The plot afforded loads of room for all kinds of interesting complications, but none of them showed up. I can only surmise that Hautman's co-writer, Mary Logue, writes for a much younger audience. Second, the characters stayed amazingly flat, even though they had lots of potential. The two teenaged main characters have interesting parents and unusual proclivities, but the most interesting thing about them is their names (PQ Delicata and Brian Bain). Unfortunately, the name thing goes on and on a bit, as several of the other characters have weird names, too. PQ (who, for some unexplained reason, is called Roni)wears strange clothes and is called fat a couple of times, but she never really addresses her weight issues - or even really thinks about them much, though they appear to be something others notice about her straight away. Brian is adopted (from Korea) and skipped a grade, so he could have loads of issues, too, but seems to float through the story without suffering. In fact, that could be the thing that bothers me the most: I don't like protagonists who slide through their lives, unfazed by visits to the pricipal's office (both PQ and Brian are there often) and car wrecks.Overall, though, the story hangs together. Mysteries are plotted very differently from other fiction, and this one is plotted very tightly. Snatched's biggest problem is that its audience is probably at 5th grade level, but its main characters are 13 and 16.
—Sara
SnatchedMysteryPages: 176The book snatched is about a boy and a girl who just meet waiting by the principles office to be called in.The boys name was Brian and he was in for setting off a stink bomb and the girl was roni and she was in because she got in a fight with a girl who she was interviewing for a story on the blood water pump( there school newspaper). But soon the girl she got in a fight with or angelica went missing. Soon Brian and roni divided they were on the case . So they interviewed everyone who was close to the victim and went from there. Soon they got caught up in a whole big mess and they were tolhe only ones who could solve the crime of who was hurting angelica and who kidnaped here.I like this book a lot and gave it 5 stars because I found it very interesting and a real page turner. I also liked this book because it had a lot of humor and was just right for middle schooled and I would definitely recommend it.
—Tanner.m
