* * 3/4
As the son of a former professional athlete, Quinton knows the good, the bad, and the ugly about football. He's worked his entire life to gain recognition in the sport, and now that he has it, he’s not about to waste his chance to change the league for better. Not even the brilliant but infuriating Elliot, who the Mustangs assign to manage him, will get Quinton back in line.
A rocky initial meeting only leads to more tension between Quinton and Elliot. But as her new job forces them to spend time together, she realizes they may have more in common than she could've ever imagined. With her job and his integrity on the line, this is one coin toss that nobody can win.
Source: advance copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review
Elliot (Elle) is still new at her dream job doing PR for the Denver Mustangs when she's called into the owner's office and given her first major assignment: work with their newest Mustang, Quinton Howard Jr who's created a a PR nightmare for his team by covering up the NFL logo on his uniform and kneeling during the anthem. It's subtly implied that her job is on the line therefore she has to minimize whatever damage has been done and keep him from creating any more distractions. Elliot and Quinton don't quite hit it off upon their first meeting but come to some sort of weird truce to get the job done. In the meantime, the Mustangs owner recruits her to help him with a secret event. This is a potentially big career move so she agrees to it despite any reservation she might have about the owner's agenda.
It's a daunting task to address the issues of racism, Black Lives Matter, and unfair treatment of retired NFL players suffering from CTE in one book. It comes with heavy expectations. I think Snapped struggled here in three parts.
Firstly, it seemed to only graze the surface of the topic of race. For example, Elliot never specifically asks Quinton why he knelt during the anthem. Instead of trying to understand the motive behind his very public action, she views him as just an assignment, and his protest as a threat to her dream job. He's simply another one of those spoiled rich athletes that must be dealt with swiftly to please her boss. Her solution is to give Quinton an image makeover and steer the conversation away from his kneeling to his philanthropy work. That's a decent gesture but I didn't get the point of introducing his peaceful protest only to not really discuss its intent and ramifications.
There is plenty of emphasis on Elliot being biracial and how she's learned to internalize things or see past them. Having been raised by her white father, whom she loved and adored, she grew up looking past color. While she looks black, she's never ever wanted to be categorized as either black or white. She wants to be judged as a person. She comes to a startling realization about herself by the end of the book which majorly shifts her worldview. This is Elliot's experience and upbringing specific to her, and even though I'm not biracial I felt a certain kinship with her because of my own upbringing and experiences.
Secondly, there were too many subplots at the expense of a focused plotline. Aside from social justice issues, there's Quinton's fight for adequate compensation and care for older retired players who have been diagnosed with CTE. Then there's Elliot's immediate acceptance and friendships with the Lady Mustangs, and in particular, her involvement with one of the characters whose has marital problems. With several things happening simultaneously it became pure overload. I think removing some of those subplots would've streamlined the story and allowed for better exploration of the other topics. The marital problems and/or the instant friendships with the Lady Mustangs, for example could've been a separate book or novella.
The romance was fine, though I couldn't quite understand their emotional connection when Elliot never truly understands what currently matters to Quinton. I also felt she was keeping herself at a bit of a distance, too. It didn't help that he was being kind of cagey as well.
I was thrown off by the ending because it felt like suddenly everyone, including Quinton's teammates were on board with the kneeling, and that in turn inspires the entire stadium to do so. It's sudden and resolves everything with a neat little bow leading me to my third point: the story would've benefited from including Quinton's POV throughout and not just in the prologue. I think it would've enhanced his message exponentially to know his thoughts, see first-hand how his kneeling was impacting the team and his relationships with the other players. Whether those hard but frank conversations took place between Elliot and Quinton or Quinton and his teammates, it would've been insightful to have his perspective as a black man with a massive platform who wants to facilitate reform. I also think it would've given more meaning to the ending. Anyway, I understand the author has since revised it. (I can't speak to any changes since I have the original advance copy but I'll update my review in the future if I get the chance to revisit it again.)
I loved the previous books in the series so naturally I looked forward to Snapped. I struggled with this review because I wanted to be able to clearly identify what was off for me - the plot layout which didn't provide a wide enough space for the major topics while it gave away space to distracting subplots. It's because the main issues were either unexplored or underdeveloped that Snapped left me wanting.
~ Bel
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