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[Snap] by Belinda Bauer
4 ★
On a stifling summer's day, eleven-year-old Jack and his two sisters sit in their broken-down car, waiting for their mother to come back and rescue them. Jack's in charge, she said. I won't be long. But she doesn't come back. She never comes back. And life as the children know it is changed for ever.
Three years later, mum-to-be Catherine wakes to find a knife beside her bed, and a note that says: I could have killed you. Meanwhile Jack is still in charge - of his sisters, of supporting them all, of making sure nobody knows they're alone in the house, and - quite suddenly - of finding out the truth about what happened to his mother. But the truth can be a dangerous thing.It seemed unbelievable that in a civilized country with laws... and in a good neighborhood with nosy neighbors... that three children, all under the age of 12...could exist alone for 3 years with no one questioning it or calling the authorities. In retrospect Belinda Bauer has created a set of simply terrifying events and she did it without firing a shot or throwing a knife. I have to say the entire idea is very cleverly done.
