Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - A Snake Falls To Earth

On Earth, Nina is translating a story her great-grandmother told her, hoping it will contain the secret to keeping her grandmother in good health, while also dealing with a neighbour encroaching on her grandmother’s land. Oli is coming of age in the Reflecting World when his friend’s life is imperilled and he must round up his other friends to save him. Gradually you see where their stories overlap. The narrative was definitely more character driven in the first half, but the plot becomes active in the second half too. I personally clicked with the slower pace as it allowed me to settle in with Nina and Oli as characters and understand their situations, making the second half of the novel feel like a natural coming-together.

I loved the ecological theme, specifically how it addressed extinction and how this tied into the plot and world-building, but also how it showed that flora and fauna flourish under indigenous stewardship.

The world-building of the Reflecting World was fantastic. I was particularly interested in how Earth objects lasted, how animal people aged, and how the status of Earth species affected corresponding animal people. The abilities of the animal people were also intriguing.

There was incredible character development in the two MCs. Nina gets to discover her family history, and her faith in her family’s stories is restored. I loved that she was able to connect with this part of herself as well as find a type of storytelling that fit her. Ollie starts off as a timid snake but evolves into one willing to lose his life if it’ll help his friend. He becomes so courageous, and we also see him begin to choose things for himself rather than going with what other people tell him to do.

Darcie Little Badger is an auto-buy author for me for good reason!

Rep: asexual Lipan-Apache MC

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scmiller's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

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throwback682's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful inspiring reflective

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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turtlebrainlibrarian's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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nytephoenyx's review against another edition

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hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I came into A Snake Falls to Earth with absolutely no expectations. I stumbled upon it when I opened Libby and found it was recommended reading for the month of November. Other books by Darcy Little Badger are on my TBR, so of course I jumped on it! It’s an enjoyable story that’s accessible for teens and adults. It is a story filled with hope, and I think we all need to be reminded that there are good things in the world.

My favorite thing about A Snake Falls to Earth is that every character in this book was lovely. Other than the antagonist obviously, but the supporting characters and the protagonists all were good-hearted, and in that way it was an uplifting book. The design of the characters and my feelings about them have nothing to do with the plot or the purpose of the book, but every once in a while it is just nice to read a book where people aren’t deeply flawed and complicated. They are simply good. It’s refreshing.

There are a few intertwining stories within this book. From the Reflected World, we have Oli and friends who travel to the human world to try and save an endangered species of toad. In the human world, we have Nina, whose grandmother is in danger as a hurricane approaches her home. The two work together with help of their family and friends to save the people they love most.

It’s a story about risking everything to protect one another. It is a reminder of the damage that happens to the earth - by natural disasters but also by human hands. It is a reminder we all have a place in the great cycle of things... and I really appreciated that.

I feel ike Darcie Little Badger really set up the ending to have the possibility of sequels. I'm hoping to read more about Ollie's adventures!

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foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

For the majority of this book, there were two parallel stories and I loved to see how they converged as you went along. Told in dual POVs and multiple timelines, I ended up feeling more partial to Cottonmouth and friends’ stories. As my friend Colleen pointed out, that could be because Cottonmouth was written in first person, whereas Nina was written in third person. All in all, while I didn’t connect to this one as much as I did to Elatsoe, this was a whimisical summer read filled to the brim with fun and adventure.

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booksthatburn's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

The worldbuilding is wonderful, explaining a lot of things without feeling like it’s infodumping. Oli has a lot of fascinating anecdotes and animal facts, while Nina tends to provide more of the details about environmental concerns on Earth, though that rough division blurs later on. It did throw me a little that Oli’s sections are narrated in first person and Nina’s are narrated in third, since they’re both crucial for the story.

I like the audiobook narrators, they did a good job overall. The story starts slowly, spending a long time with both main characters before they meet late in the book. Oli leaves home and meets the people who become his friends, then goes through a lot to help them. Nina is worried about her home on both a local and global level, and is growing in her awareness of how she can take action to protect it in big and small ways. The pacing feels deliberate, treating their meeting as an important thing that happens, but not a goal. They have lives before and after their brief intersection.

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