See Jane Snap by Bethany Crandell: As Jane struggles to come to terms with her current reality, 
and the fact that she has largely been living a lie for the good part of the last 20 years, life seems to unravel a little further when she follows her husband Dan one night after a business dinner. Breaking down in the car park of a shabby supermarket, she decides to join the second wives club and pop the Zoloft she stole from her friend Heather’s purse. As one thing leads to another, Jane ends up arrested, and as a consequence, has no choice but to attend a narcotics course to keep her on the right path. Initially, Jane is resistant to participating in any element of the course nor sharing any details of her dysfunctional life and yet, as one thing progresses to the other, she realises that snapping a rubber band against her wrist to keep her calm and centred might not be the remedy she needs to fix things and move forward.
Initially, Jane presented as a little Insipid and her range of emotions were fairly limited to rage, anger and frustration. Early on, every other character dominated the discourse, and it was therefore a tad hard to gauge what Jane was actually like other than a little self-absorbed given the bulk of the inner monologue focused on her and how she was feeling about herself. It wasn’t until a quarter of the way through that the novel and character began to take some shape, and as fate would have it, attending her ‘meetings’ in Chicago become the catalyst for her to realise she can no longer keep up the happy wife façade to maintain her financial position and social status.
Whilst there was a pretty cute happily ever after that had some elements of bravery about it, it was by and large based on a set of loose assumptions that were never fully explored. The side characters were constructed well and had some interesting idiosyncrasies that lightened the gloom and provided some levity. The big reveal regarding Jane’s marriage was missing however, and it felt in dire need of a flashback to contextualise the situation she found herself in and it appeared there was some inaccuracies regarding drugs and drug taking which were irksome.
On the whole though, there were some funny moments woven throughout which served to punctuate the frustrations that existed because of the lies her and Dan were presenting. Overall, this is a bit of a mixed bag that had tonnes of potential, but if you want a fairly easy read with some interesting themes, this is definitely a great weekender.
Book Info:
Publication: 7th September 2021 | Montlake |
See Jane smile. Thirty-nine-year-old Jane Osborne appears to the world like she has a charmed life. Her daughter attends private school. Jane chairs the PTA. Even her marriage to Dan, the handsome, prominent surgeon, is blissfully happy. Her universe is stable, and her future is fixed…just like that smile. Because it’s all a ruse. Unbeknownst to anyone, after eighteen years of marriage, Dan’s revealed that he’s been living a double life and is in love with a man. But for the sake of his career, Jane must keep that secret, secret.
See Jane lie. With their livelihood on the line, Jane agrees to maintain appearances. But soon the weight of Dan’s deception and the pain of his betrayal get the better of her. Something’s got to give.
See Jane snap. Quite publicly. And a bit unlawfully. With brutal honesty, Jane must confront her choices head-on and determine—for herself—if the facade of stability she’s been protecting is worth the price of her own sanity and happiness.
