TWO WEEKS until the release of The Snowman movie on October 20, 2017. My husband who reads about three books a year decided to pick this one up, which I was stoked about, so you'll see my review, then a guest review from him.
I chose to read The Snowman after seeing the trailer, witnessing my husband's excitement for it, and knowing we would be going to see it in theaters. I read this book because I don't handle thrillers and gory movies well, so I wanted to "cheat" and know when to look away before sitting in the movie.
I am happy to say that I live in Texas and have never in my lifetime seen enough snow to build a snowman, so I think I'm safe from this particular serial killer.
Internationally acclaimed crime writer Jo Nesbø’s antihero police investigator, Harry Hole, is back: in a bone-chilling thriller that will take Hole to the brink of insanity. Oslo in November. The first snow of the season has fallen. A boy named Jonas wakes in the night to find his mother gone. Out his window, in the cold moonlight, he sees the snowman that inexplicably appeared in the yard earlier in the day. Around its neck is his mother’s pink scarf. Hole suspects a link between a menacing letter he’s received and the disappearance of Jonas’s mother—and of perhaps a dozen other women, all of whom went missing on the day of a first snowfall. As his investigation deepens, something else emerges: he is becoming a pawn in an increasingly terrifying game whose rules are devised—and constantly revised—by the killer. Fiercely suspenseful, its characters brilliantly realized, its atmosphere permeated with evil, The Snowman is the electrifying work of one of the best crime writers of our time.
This is my second Jo Nesbo. My first was given to me by a Norwegian I was working with over two years ago as a gift. He knew I had a blog and wanted to add to my collection of reviews by representing an author from where he was from. It took a bit to get used to the different use of certain words as a body was stashed in the "boot of the car". I had to reread a few lines as I got adjusted to the different dialect. I did appreciate and enjoy the book though. Jo Nesbo has some extremely well developed plot lines that are thick and hearty. When I usually read a good twist in a book, it's more like a tablecloth getting pulled quickly from a table. The glassware is rattled a little, but it was so fast it was meant to shock and awe as a quick trick. The Snowman held slow, methodical twists. He deceived and took his time twisting you so tight that you were desperate to breath and find out the truth. There are multiple suspects that portrayed the perfect amount of distance and quirks that I thought I had narrowed it down through my own detective work. I was proven wrong and I do love a good suspense that falls so perfectly together, and holds me clueless till the end. I am wondering when this book goes more widely public to the movie screen if a rift will happen with feminists wondering why the man isn't called out in affairs and should not be as equally to blame. I don't have to be a feminist to think it not fair that the woman continues to get killed and called a whore for finding satisfaction is whomever she feels like it. I understand the motive and the reason in this particular story as to why the woman is targeted, but I'm wondering if people will use this movie as a platform to project their opinions on the topic. - Kelli
The Snowman is a well crafted book in the Harry Hole detective series created by Jo Nesbo. From start to finish, the book maintains its mysterious persona of The Snowman by giving you enough information to know that the person is still active, but that no one is any wiser about how to stop them. I very much enjoyed the constant twisting and turning style that Nesbo utilizes in his writing, giving the piece an abstract feel by allowing the readers to see vast amounts of directions and information from the story and then coming to their own conclusions of what is going to happen.
On top of the abstract feeling I get when I read his books, the jaw-dropping moment when it is finally revealed who the snowman was, was extremely well placed and completely unsuspected. I probably had roughly two to three different guesses as to who the snowman could be and why they enjoyed playing in the snow and tormenting the poor citizens of Oslo. When the fog finally settled and the truth was revealed, my assumptions were shown to be way off and to rub more salt in the wound, Nesbo not only showcased the killer but connected other characters in the book that left me relatively speechless.
Overall, The Snowman is a great read if you like detective mysteries. Jo Nesbo does a great job of humanizing the characters in his novel as well as painting a very vivid description of the city of Oslo. - Shannon