Reptile Memoirs by Silje O. Ulstein

When it comes to snakes, I’m like Indiana Jones. Outside of an interest in archeology, it is the only way in which I’m like Indiana Jones. But snakes…there’s a purely atavistic fear there. And so, I can’t possibly understand what sort of a person would want to have one for a pet, and this book certainly makes a strong argument against it. But other than having one’s confirmation bias confirmed, this book didn’t offer much. In fact, it was a mess.
I really did try liking it. Normally, I really like Scandinavian fiction, crime or otherwise. This stood out (or slithered by) as an exception.  
It doesn’t even give you the courtesy of brevity, oh no, this is 400 pages of exhaustively and exhaustingly shifting perspectives all done in first person just to muddle things further. Not only are there enough characters to warrant a personae dramatis, but there are some duplicates i.e. same person different name. Plus, the perspectives don’t just shift from person to person, they also go from past to present and back.
Presumably, the idea here was to make the plot less predictable and more exciting, but instead it just comes across convoluted, not sinister-coiled like a pet python, but contrivedly-twisted like some wire in an abstract art installation. 
Combined that with unlikable and not especially interesting characters and strange if not exactly slow pacing, and the result is confusing jumble of some horrific graphically depicted crimes, and terrible aftermaths. But then again, what’d you expect from people who thought snakes make good pets. Funnily enough, the snake is the only consistent and decent narrator in this entire mess of a story. Because you know, these are reptile memoirs, after all.
And so, while it’s all done in a thematically appropriate serpentine fashion, this book didn’t really work. Or didn’t really work for me, since it seems to have its fans. It had some interesting and even potentially clever twists, but the execution of them left a lot to be desired. User mileage may vary. Thanks Netgalley.