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A review by kovost
The Little Snake by A.L. Kennedy
4.0
I have many feelings and not enough words to actually express them after reading this. Which is kind of amazing considering it wasn’t even a full 200 pages of a story.
The story follows a girl named Mary, but also a snake named Lanmo that wanders the world and does not have a heart until one day, it beats because he realizes and understands that what he feels in him for Mary is love, but he has to continue doing what he does because that has always been his lot in life.
It doesn’t make much sense when you realize that I’m talking about an actual talking golden snake that visits an imaginative child one day in her small garden, but it also does in that death comes in a lot of different forms.
The prose is beautiful and mesmerizing, holding a consistent tone of storytelling very reminiscent of Leigh Bardugo’s style, especially The Language of Thorns. It reads very similarly and considering TLoT has been one of my favorite reads this year and I would lay down my whole heart for Leigh Bardugo’s writing, it carries weight to me when I say that this is just as beautiful and elegant and immersing.
But as well as eloquent storytelling, the actual depth of the story makes my whole heart ache. I went into this with the vague idea that it wouldn’t be entirely a story about happiness and mythical creatures, but I also didn’t expect the onslaught of emotions that came with it either. It’s a deeply emotional and moving story in a lot of ways, from the childlike innocence of Mary even as she grows older and the heartbreaking love Lanmo grows to have for Mary and the things she loves, too. It shows a lot of complex facets to humankind that are ugly when analyzed and distressing at every glance because it’s also about a city that loses its life and richness as years pass, which leaves once happy people struggling and tired and broken.
There’s a lot of elements to this story and like I said, it’s almost amazing that so much emotional depth could be fit into a story that consists of less than 200 pages, but Kennedy did it and quite effortlessly at that. It’s a beautiful and magical book that’s not only about the imagination, but also the simple cycle of life and death and all the things in between and how human it is to love and be loved.
It is absolutely worth a read and I’m very, very happy that Netgalley let me have it.
She did this because she realized that her parents might well wave their arms about and scream a lot if she said out loud, ‘Oh, I have a beautiful snake called Lanmo under my napkin. He has come back to see me again and so maybe he is going to be my friend.’
The story follows a girl named Mary, but also a snake named Lanmo that wanders the world and does not have a heart until one day, it beats because he realizes and understands that what he feels in him for Mary is love, but he has to continue doing what he does because that has always been his lot in life.
It doesn’t make much sense when you realize that I’m talking about an actual talking golden snake that visits an imaginative child one day in her small garden, but it also does in that death comes in a lot of different forms.
The prose is beautiful and mesmerizing, holding a consistent tone of storytelling very reminiscent of Leigh Bardugo’s style, especially The Language of Thorns. It reads very similarly and considering TLoT has been one of my favorite reads this year and I would lay down my whole heart for Leigh Bardugo’s writing, it carries weight to me when I say that this is just as beautiful and elegant and immersing.
But as well as eloquent storytelling, the actual depth of the story makes my whole heart ache. I went into this with the vague idea that it wouldn’t be entirely a story about happiness and mythical creatures, but I also didn’t expect the onslaught of emotions that came with it either. It’s a deeply emotional and moving story in a lot of ways, from the childlike innocence of Mary even as she grows older and the heartbreaking love Lanmo grows to have for Mary and the things she loves, too. It shows a lot of complex facets to humankind that are ugly when analyzed and distressing at every glance because it’s also about a city that loses its life and richness as years pass, which leaves once happy people struggling and tired and broken.
Lanmo shrank slightly and leaned against Mary’s neck. ‘I do not understand humans. Some of you will steal anything all the time and some of you will steal nothing all the time. Couldn’t all of you steal something some of the time — if you need it?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘But you are hungry and other people have more food than they can eat.’
‘Yes, but that is the way of the world.’
There’s a lot of elements to this story and like I said, it’s almost amazing that so much emotional depth could be fit into a story that consists of less than 200 pages, but Kennedy did it and quite effortlessly at that. It’s a beautiful and magical book that’s not only about the imagination, but also the simple cycle of life and death and all the things in between and how human it is to love and be loved.
It is absolutely worth a read and I’m very, very happy that Netgalley let me have it.
Love truly is a terrible thing. And yet it makes lovers never want to leave each other and hold hands while they look at stars and be happy all the way to their ending. And this is wonderful. Love is strange.