The Serpent King

by Jeff Zentner

Michael Crouch (Narrator), Ariadne Meyers (Narrator), and Ethan Sawyer (Narrator)

Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal
Winner of the American Library Association Morris Award for best debut YA
Winner of the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Book Award for Young Adult Fiction
A Buzzfeed Best of 2016 book
Goodreads Choice Awards finalist
A Barnes & Noble Best Book of 2016
Publishers Weekly Best of 2016

Dill is a misfit in his small, religious Tennessee town. His dad is in prison for a shocking crime, and his mom is struggling to make ends meet. The only things getting Dill through senior year are his guitar and his fellow outcasts, Travis and Lydia.

Travis is an oddball who finds comfort from his violent home life in an epic fantasy book series. And Lydia is like no one else: fast-talking, creative and fiercely protective. Dill fears his heart will break when she escapes to a better life elsewhere. What Dill needs now is some bravery to tell Lydia how he feels, to go somewhere with his music - and to face the hardest test of all when tragedy strikes.

• ISBN10: 0147521335
• ISBN13: 9780147521330
• Publish Date: 8 March 2016 (first published 3 March 2016)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Imprint: Listening Library
• Format: Audiobook (CD)
• Duration: 9 hours and 8 minutes
• Language: English

Reviews

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

The Serpent King is a story about young love, about loss, and about growing up and finding your path in the world. It's a novel that has received a lot of love and a lot of hype. I can see why people love it so much - it has that same tragic feel that John Green excels at. I can definitely see where this book would have a place in peoples' hearts, even if it was just a so/so read for me.

One of my biggest issues with this one is the plot - or, rather, the scattered around lack of one. I never quite knew where we were going as I listened, and I felt like I was always waiting for the next turn to see if that pointed me in the right direction. There were a lot of little subplots - two romances, a death, emotional and physical abuse in families. Zentner took on a lot all at once with The Serpent King, and as a result, we are all over the place. It feels like a year in the life of these characters, where we start on the first day of school, finish on summer vacation, and only one of them has grown a little.

The characters are well enough written. I liked Travis a lot - he reminded me of an ex I'm still fond of - and I think that the variety in personalities was well-done. Outside of the POV characters, subcharacters started to blend together. Lydia's New York friends jus felt like annoying interruptions, and the miscellany of mothers blurred.

The writing style itself was slow and steady, and there's nothing wrong with that. I think that Zentner did a good job capturing his voices and offered the right amount of suspense, detail, and surprise. I have no complaints about his delivery, per se, just about the lack of clear direction and that unsatisfied feeling at the end.

I would continue to recommend The Serpent King to people - in fact, I think my brother would like it - but it's not the sort of novel I am going to personally add to myself. I think it's worth a read, though, and it's a short enough book to be an easy weekend read from the library.

3.5 stars

[liz089]

Woow.. this novel was something else !! I was completely taken in by this one and finished it the same day. I LOVED IT.

It was a very emotional read for me, my mood changed with the MC's. When they were down, I was down, when they were happy, I was happy. And yes, I cried, MULTIPLE TIMES.
This novel has a bit of a dark ambiance that put me in a sad mood.. But it was totally worth it.

All three of the MC's had their own problems, but they made each other stronger and relied on one other. They had such a strong friendship, even though they were very different, they fit perfect in their imperfection, like a little band of misfits.

I have a hard time putting down in words what this book did to me.. but it was such a strong and powerful novel. It had an impact. I would recommend this book to everyone, it is really worth taking your time for.

[Stephanie]

The writing is solid, the characters are interesting, but I felt like I was meandering through this book of repetitious conversations about Dill being upset about Lydia leaving for college. I kind of wanted more of Dill's relationship with his dad, tbqh.

[anne]

good book for seniors making future choices

[Bianca]

You are you and you are magnificent and brilliant and talented. You’re not your grandfather. You’re not your father. Their serpents are not your serpents. Their poison is not your poison. Their darkness is not your darkness. Not even their name is your name.

— About how we should not let our limitations dictate how our lives would play out. First half was mehhh, but the second half's heartbreakingly good.

[Leah]

SO this was an interesting read- I didn't love it, love it, but I didn't hate it, either. It was perhaps a bit too religious for me, though it wasn't exactly Christian fiction, but it does seem to run through the book, and as someone who doesn't really have an opinion either way, I generally prefer my fiction without it.

However I did really like the friendship between Dill, Lydia and Travis. Travis, in particular, warmed my little heart, the way he lost himself in his fantasy world. He was someone after my very own heart, because there is nothing better than losing yourself in a book (or a really, really good series).

There was a bit of a twist towards the end that genuinely left me surprised and mildly annoyed, because I didn't see it coming, and I hate not seeing things coming, and there were definitely a few tears in that last third of the book.

It was also nice to see loving, caring parents, in the shape of Lydia's mom and dad. How refreshing for a YA novel. I'm definitely undecided on this one. There were bits I liked, and there were bits I didn't.

[girlinthepages]

My first Emery Lord read was When We Collided, so the bar for not only expectations, but for creativity and eccentricity as well, was set extremely high. You can imagine my shock when I then immediately after read The Start of Me and You, which while a cute contemporary, felt almost as though it was written by a completely different author. The...tameness...of it compared to When We Collided was shocking. While a romance, the novel focused heavily on female friendships (to varying degrees of success...some of them were great, and some of the girls felt a bit like stereotypes). While fluffy, the undercurrent of the story hinged on a rather morbid, traumatic experience, with Paige having experienced a loss in her past that has overshadowed her high school social and emotional growth. However, though it felt a little young to me, The Start of Me and You did have some sweet moments with depth and had a warm, feel good conclusion that provided the perfect amount of closure for Paige's story.

Overall: A sweet, quick read that has a some swoon-worthy moments over a refreshingly realistic love interest. This review was originally posted on Girl in the Pages

[Sam@WLABB]

I've made books my life because they let me escape this world of cruelty and savagery.

This is one of those books. It is just one of those books, that hits every emotion, and does it in the best way possible. I will not lie, I have tears in my eyes as I type this review, but I forgive Zentner for many reasons.

And if you're going to live, you might as well do painful, brave, and beautiful things.

1. Our MCs all had some sort of baggage. Physical abuse, mental abuse, poverty, social ostracism -- things were tough, especially for Dill and Travis, but Zentner gave them this beautiful friendship. He gave them some wonderful experiences, that would become wonderful memories. He gave them some successes to counter balance their failures, and with that, he gave me hope for these characters.

Now his life had the sun and the soil to keep growing.

2. Each MC is so special. They were so well developed, and I loved each one of them. I soared when they succeeded, and my heart ached when they suffered a loss.

I am tired of watching the world grind up gentle people.

3. I can forgive the "big event", because I knew it was necessary for this story.

4. There is drama, but there is lots of humor. I laughed and smiled quite often. I cried too, but I cried for both the losses suffered and the successes celebrated.

You can't live with your heart locked up in a safe.

There is something really special about this book that cannot be properly expressed with words. The story, the characters, the dialog -- I just loved it all.

[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight
Trying to find words is hard. Because really, I want you to just be on your way and go fall in love with it yourself. I had read positive reviews, but when I tell you that nothing can properly explain my feelings about this book, I mean it. Clearly I do not possess the eloquence that the book does, so how about a GIF? I possess the ability to search for GIFs, if nothing else.

See, this kid is excited, and he also doesn't know how to process his emotions. Just like me!
So okay, a few thoughts on things I loved. Let's do this.

The Characters, I Adore

There are three main characters in the book: Dill, Lydia, and Travis. Let's start with Dill, because he is the main main character. Dill is a dude with a really shitty home life. Dill is lost, he's confused, he doesn't know who to give his loyalties to. He's questioning basically everything he has ever known about his family, his faith, his friends, his life path. He's not charming and witty like Lydia, or endearing like Travis. But he is the one I think people will relate to the most. Who among us hasn't lost our way in some aspect? Dill is just going through a lot of it, and at a really pivotal point in his life. Which is why he needs Lydia and Travis so badly.

You might want to slap Lydia a few times, but it's okay, because she's also freaking fabulous. She is just one of "those people"- you know, the kind who people gravitate toward? She has a presence that is undeniable. She's a blogger too, so there's points right off the bat. She comes from a much better family and home life than both Dill and Travis, but her parents... I am in love with them. Their relationship feels so honest to me, and I loved how caring and involved her parents were. But Lydia won me over with her character growth and her wit and snark, which made me smile.

"Lydia appeared to be pondering. 'Back to the snakes. Do you think that's what Jesus really meant? Maybe he was like 'And theoretically, you could probably pick up the snakes,' and Mark's over there writing and he's like 'You should literally pick up snakes. Cool, Jesus, got it!'. And Jesus is going 'Well, calm down with the snake business. Don't be weird; just be a decent person. It's really more of a metaphor'.  And Mark is writing, 'Definitely pick up actual literal snakes and drink actual real poison like rotten grape juice or other Bible-y poison.'"

I mean, I was cracking up. And yes, there is a religious element, I will get to that. Later. Anyway. So she's super fun, but she hasn't always been/isn't always the best friend to Dill and Travis. She's worried about her online image, and her future in college, and she has a lot of growing to do, changes and decisions to make, about the kind of person she wants to be.

Travis is just... you want to give him the biggest hug and never let go. He's extremely quirky, and has had arguably the hardest home life of them all, and yet he is still so good. His father is abusive, his mother is passive, and his brother is dead. And yet Travis still has a heart of gold, despite it all. He loves books and games, and is so delightfully nerdy, but would do anything for his friends.

There's also an author in the book, one who Travis is obsessed with, and when I tell you, this man is absolute #AuthorGoals. He is hilarious, and down to earth, and I don't want to give anything away, so I will leave you with this, which speaks to me on a spiritual level (from one weird ass Polish name to another):

"My real name is Gary Mark Kozlowski, but who wants to read a fantasy novel by a Polish serial killer, right?"

Goodness, there is so much more to these characters, but alas, we must move on.

The Other Stuff

And here's where I am going to be extra vague. There are a lot of topics discussed in this book- I mentioned before religion, abuse, death, just to name a few- but it's more how the characters handle these things that makes the book so poignant.

I think the big thing most people will be iffy about is the religion. As someone who absolutely loathes religion in books generally, I promise this is not a problem. It's not preachy, and it isn't telling anyone what to believe. It's handled very well, and even though I personally am not religious, I know many people are, which is why it's even more important to have this kind of thing discussed. Dill is absolutely questioning his religious upbringing when his father, a former pastor, commits (and is jailed for) an atrocious crime. And I think that has to be something that tons of young adults go through- the questioning, not necessarily the incarcerated pastor father thing. It's like any other topic in a young person's life that is written about, and it's done very well, with thoughtful discussions by both young people and the older generation.

The story is intense, and there are feelings. So many of them. But it's written in a way that even during the darkest times, there is hope. The characters may not always know it, but there's a feel about this book that is never devoid of hope, even when I didn't think my own heart could even handle it.

Bottom Line: I simply can't praise it enough to do it justice. This book blew me away. Completely consumed, all in, The Serpent King stole my heart. 

*Quotes taken from uncorrected proof, subject to change.
**Copy provided by publisher for review.