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A review by beckimoody29
The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner
5.0
I loved this -- the characters, the tone, the storyline -- so much so that I finished it in one day. The story focuses on three friends from a small town in Tennessee. They are not the most popular so a lot of their daily energy is spent surviving their senior year of high school. Lydia is the leader, an internet influencer (with a small i) but she has plans to turn her interest in fashion into something bigger. She is frustrated that the boys don't seem to share her ambition. Travis escapes his dad's drunken fury by immersing himself in medieval fantasy novels.
Dill is the main character (although the story is told in alternating first-person chapters). He has grown up in the shadow of his father, a snake-handling preacher. the shadow looms even larger and darker after his father is sent to prison. Tasked with supporting the family, Dill struggles with both his religious faith, and the knowledge that he will never earn the approval of his parents. Secretly infatuated with Lydia, he doesn't know how he can survive when she leaves, but feels powerless to change what he feels is preordained for him.
This novel eloquently captures the small-town feel and the inertia that can set in when it seems like there are no realistic alternatives. One of my favorite parts of the book is the visit to a college campus where Dill sees a world that is so different from anything he had imagined. There are good adults in the story, a problem in many YA novels. Lydia's dad is a perfect TV father, supportive but not saccharine. Dill's boss is helpful, as well as some of the townspeople. But it is the teens who will touch your heart and they perfectly capture that mixture of innocence and jadedness of adolescence.
Dill is the main character (although the story is told in alternating first-person chapters). He has grown up in the shadow of his father, a snake-handling preacher. the shadow looms even larger and darker after his father is sent to prison. Tasked with supporting the family, Dill struggles with both his religious faith, and the knowledge that he will never earn the approval of his parents. Secretly infatuated with Lydia, he doesn't know how he can survive when she leaves, but feels powerless to change what he feels is preordained for him.
This novel eloquently captures the small-town feel and the inertia that can set in when it seems like there are no realistic alternatives. One of my favorite parts of the book is the visit to a college campus where Dill sees a world that is so different from anything he had imagined. There are good adults in the story, a problem in many YA novels. Lydia's dad is a perfect TV father, supportive but not saccharine. Dill's boss is helpful, as well as some of the townspeople. But it is the teens who will touch your heart and they perfectly capture that mixture of innocence and jadedness of adolescence.