The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I stayed up until 2 a.m. reading the advanced reader copy of this book. I laughed. I cried. In the end, I breathed a sigh of sadness that it was over, and also, of contentment.
THE SERPENT KING left a lasting impression in my heart. The story was so vivid that at times I reread passages because the writing was just that beautiful. Read this book. READ IT. Savor it. Stay up way too late and regret nothing.
The world is in for a treat this spring …
SYNOPSIS (book jacket):
Dill has had to wrestle with vipers his whole life—at home, as the only son of a Pentecostal minister who urges him to handle poisonous rattlesnakes, and at school, where he faces down bullies who target him for his father’s extreme faith and very public fall from grace.
He and his fellow outcast friends must try to make it through their senior year of high school without letting the small-town culture destroy their creative spirits and sense of self. Graduation will lead to new beginnings for Lydia, whose edgy fashion blog is her ticket out of their rural Tennessee town. And Travis is content where he is thanks to his obsession with an epic book series and the fangirl turning his reality into real-life fantasy.
Their diverging paths could mean the end of their friendship. But not before Dill confronts his dark legacy to attempt to find a way into the light of a future worth living.