THE SECOND LIFE OF SNAP

THE SECOND LIFE OF SNAP

by: Erin Endrada Kelly

“The Second Life of Snap” is a typical Kelly flavor book. We read this dystopian-set story on the #ppspdspot chat on Twitter/X during the month of June. The weekly reading for discussion was 7 chapters. This book was published in May 2026 for 8-12 year-olds. It is a short book of 164 pages. The rating on Amazon was 4.2 and on GoodReads was 4.1. I usually don’t go by those ratings, but I do find them interesting.

Most of the readers on our chat finished this book early (before the 4 weeks). I usually try not to finish early. But this time, I finished prior to the week 3 discussion. I finished because it was an easy read and because I was still waiting for something big to happen. I’m still thinking about that. Was it when Laiken cut her leg? Was it when Zuzu and Elias lost not only Elias’s battery, but also Costello’s bike? Was it the storm? 

Other things I found difficult were thinking about the characters and world. Zuzu and Snap were well developed. But I kept wondering, who exactly is the main character? The other characters were interesting, but not particularly endearing or connectible for me. I got a good sense of the “World” and how Zuzu and her friends lived. Though there is some change in their world by the end of the book, it left me with a negative feeling for the future of Zuzu and her friends. The book didn’t seem long enough.

Middle grade books are middle grade books. I read them as an adult. So I understand my interpretation of them. This said, I think kids will like this book. It’s short and has a reasonable adventure. It also sounds cool to have your own robot, guardian or not. And the short adventure that Zuzu gets to experience the rebooted version of Snap is interesting. Will it be one of those books that sticks in a kid's head for a long time? Probably not.