A review by pixie23
The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner

3.0

First of all, I'd like to thank Goodreads for the lovely hardback copy of The Serpent King that I received as a prize from a giveaway. I was very excited to read this book!
And now, for a review: I liked this book. I genuinely thought the characters and the setting were likeable, and some passages were poetic and nicely-written. However, it felt like something was missing throughout most of the book; in the beginnings of books, it's natural to have this "calm before the storm" feeling. In The Serpent King, I felt that something in the story was lacking even after

Spoiler

Travis was murdered and Dill and Lydia go through their teenage soul-searching/ tragic aftermath

. I didn't feel fulfilled. I thought that several moments throughout the book seemed undeveloped and as if they were forced into the story. It felt very checklist-y, like the author had thought he needed to fulfill certain requirements for this to be an original story. The concept of the story was very cool and original, but I think that even with that, I will only remember this book as another young adult tearjerker.