A review by sonyaf
Barracuda by Christos Tsiolkas

2.0

I so enjoyed reading "The Slap" and have recommended it to so many people. So when Barracuda came out I couldn't wait to get my hands on it, I knew the style would be as confronting as before and was prepared for that. I also have connections with the competitive swimming community so have some understanding of the character descriptions. Here is the hard part - every summary of this book, including on the back of the book itself, is in fact nothing like what the story is. We are set up to believe that we are arriving in the middle of Danny's desperate fight for swimming supremacy and that we are going to follow that story with all the layers of characters that come with it. The actual story couldn't be further from the truth as it is apparent very early on that he has failed completely. From that point on I felt cheated out of the story I thought I was getting. That is why it gets 2 stars - summarise the story for what it really is please. If I knew I was getting a book about the aftermath of failure my star rating might have been different.