For this week’s book-cast we are joined by Sadie Jones to share her brilliant, tense & twisting book, ‘The Snakes’.
We begin the book-cast with Sadie reading the jarring moment in the book when a young man who grew up in relative poverty begins to realise the sheer mass of wealth his wife’s family has. All the while, his wife rejects the money from her family & they live a simple but somewhat difficult existence in London. In this moment read by Sadie, he realises that his wife’s family has four houses & her father used to have a private jet, making their lives seem a little less fortunate.
“Because of her, his future is in cold storage & had dried up & gone. She talked about believing in him, but all the time she held him back.”
Sadie Jones, ‘The Snakes’
The book, ‘The Snakes’ is a thriller that covers the more intense, darker facets of life: addiction, grief, money & pain. Get ready for a honest reflection from Sadie on writing a thriller, dysfunctional families & the trail of destruction caused by huge wealth & power.
In this Book-Cast, we talk:
- Sadie on writing a thriller: “Grief is a cliffhanger” a non-linear experience that makes you feel like you’re on a “knifes edge”.
- The depth of the characters in the book, who’s lives revolve around money & power. “His greed is material. Her greed is emotional & narcissistic”. Outward greed & inward hunger that makes people destructive.
- Sadie’s love letter to France & Burgundy in ‘The Snakes’ as the backdrop of the book.
- Sadie’s experience writing the book during Brexit. “A farewell to old Europe”, and examining the political & social changes of the hyper-rich, capitalism & greed.
- On dysfunctional families: “I’m yet to meet a family that isn’t dysfunctional.” We all have our issues.
- Sadie’s process on creating characters.
- “I find the plot & story incredibly hard” says Sadie on building a great story. The greatest stories always include a strong storyline & plot that you can retell
- ‘The Snakes’ has a very shocking ending (don’t worry we won’t spoil it!), Sadie shares how the ending is the most important early steps in creating a novel.
- The enjoyable process Sadie found jumping in between characters & creating a dialogue that is somewhat grotesque between some characters.
- Sadie’s positive ‘golden centre’ to lockdown: “in my selfish little world I’m enjoying it”. “As soon as your kids are fit to live with, they leave”.
- Plus, Sadie’s new book that’s in the pipeline.
Buy ‘The Snakes’ in Paperback from your local Bookseller:
Great interview.