The Serpent King

Three high school friends all deal with their own issues in a small Tennessee town: Lydia has a fashion blog that she hopes will be her ticket out of a town in which she has never felt she belonged; Travis escapes into a fantasy series fandom to get away from his abusive father; but Dill struggles to find a way out from under the stigma of a disgraced and imprisoned evangelical preacher of a father, a mother who can’t hear anything over her own bible thumping, and a family history of violence and self-harm that he fears he can’t escape. When tragedy hits their friendship, will they find a way to help each other leave their pasts behind and start fresh away from it all?

This one packs a punch, folks. The writing is good, the show more characters’ voices all ring fairly true, and the story does the emotional rollercoaster trick well without dipping into the melodramatic. Definitely recommended. show less

You have to read this book, okay?

(Full disclosure: I received a free electronic ARC for review through NetGalley. Trigger warning for offensive language, child abuse, and domestic violence.)

"I ain’t never seen anything like the way grief rotted that man from the inside out. Chewed him up. That’s when folks started calling him the Serpent King. They wasn’t trying to be ugly or funny. They was just trying to make some sense of it, I guess. Folks do that when they scared. Folks is afraid of grief. Think it’s catching, like a disease."

"He looked up, straight into Lydia’s eyes. Her eyes were filled with … what? A new something he had never seen before in her. He couldn’t name it, but it made him strong. It swept the black-red show more from the margins of his eyes and turned the contemptuous crowd beneath him into a faceless blob. It made his heart beat a different rhythm."

"He shone bright, as if burned clean by fire."

I started The Serpent King at 4PM on a Thursday afternoon. That night, I stayed up until nearly 2AM to finish it. I didn't mean to - it just kind of happened, against my better judgment. (I was a bit of a wreck the next day, in every way possible.) Afterwards I lay awake for several hours, my nightly dose of melatonin doing little to calm my racing thoughts. Once I finally drifted off, it worked its way into my dreams. My two living girls (Rennie and Mags; they're rat terriers, yo!) were there, and it was beautiful. And upon waking, Travis and Lydia and Dill were the first thing thing to break through the haze. Their story brought tears to my eyes. Again. This is one amazing book, y'all.

The story centers on three best friends who are about to start their senior year of high school. Forrestville High, located in Forrestville, Tennessee, so named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, founder of the KKK. To say that they're the high school misfits doesn't quite do it justice. Or at least, not in Dill's case.

Dillard Wayne Early Jr. is the son of Pastor Early of the Church of Christ’s Disciples with Signs of Belief. His father's church is known for incorporating snake handling and the drinking of strychnine and other poisons into its services. (The speaking of tongues? That's a little more mundane 'round these parts.) Several years ago, Dill Sr. was tried and convicted of possession of child pornography - pornography that his lawyers unsuccessfully argued belonged to twelve-year-old Dill. While the jurors believed Dill's testimony that he had nothing to do with it, the stink never quite washed off. Whether people (including his own mother) believe that Dill's a pervert or just the son of one, he's a social pariah either way.

Dill's secretly in love with his best friend Lydia Blankenship. He also not-so-secretly resents her because she's about to leave him behind. Lydia's more of a misfit by choice - but a misfit with long-term vision. Her fashion and pop culture blog, Dollywould (started at the tender of of thirteen), is her ticket out of Forrestville - and hopefully into NYU. It's easy to see why Dill adores Lydia so: she's whip-smart, brimming with witty rejoinders, and hip AF. Plus she cares about Dill, and pushes him to care about himself - and his future.

Whereas Dill's mom Crystal would rather he drop out of school and go full-time at Floyd's grocery to help pay off "the family's" debts, Lydia won't stop hounding him about college. Of course it's easy for her to talk; the daughter of a dentist and real estate agent, Lydia doesn't have to worry about money - or the crushing blow of low expectations. (She's even got three whole bedrooms to herself: one for sleeping, one for dressing, and a third for sewing!) But Lydia sees potential in Dill, and she is a girl with a plan.

Rounding out the trio is the red-headed, gentle giant (all 6'6", 250 pounds of him) Travis Bohannon. He works in his dad's lumberyard and is more or less content with his path in life. He enjoys using his hands to fix things, but Travis's real delight is in books. Specifically, fantasy. The Bloodfall series in particular.

Travis's dad is pretty much the worst: a mean drunk; a sexist, racist, homophobic bully; and a verbally and physically abusive father and husband. He loathes everything about his son: his affable demeanor; the soft spot he has for his mother; his all-black wardrobe; his cheesy dragon necklace and wizard staff; his love of books (especially those about 'wizards and shit'); his friends (perverts and "dykes"); his disinterest in sports; and his lack of success with the ladies. Dill can relate, since his parents have seemingly also made crushing his spirit their number one priority.

What first piqued my interest in The Serpent King was the snake handling. Ever since my freshman year course on the Anthropology of Religion, I've been fascinated by fringe religions and cults. (Dennis Covington's Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia was on the syllabus; from what I remember of it, it's a great read.) In reality, the snakes are more of a metaphor: for the potentially poisonous nature of grief and depression, especially when allowed to go untreated or even unaddressed.

While Pastor Early was the first in his family to take up snake handling, his is not the first life touched by serpents. After his sister Ruth died of a snakebite, his father Dillard Wayne Early Sr., mad with grief, went on a snake-killing spree, earning him the nickname "The Serpent King." Pastor Early's obsession with creepy-crawlies clearly took a different path: whereas his father saw evil in their eyes, Pastor Early sees salvation. Dill, on the other hand? He wants nothing to do with them - or his father's scary-weird church - yet he feels fated by his family's bloodline just the same.

Anyway, while religion is clearly a minor theme of the book, The Serpent King is about so much more than snake handling and speaking in tongues. It's about standing up to bullies - even those with whom you happen to share a last name. About taking and making family where you can find it. Forging your own path in life, even (especially) if it scares the hell out of you. The shackles of low expectations - and the importance of having at least one caring adult who sees you for you, and believes that you can make a difference in the world. The escapism offered by books - and, conversely, the transformative power wielded by the extra-special ones (wherein "special" is in the eye of the beholder). Knowing when to back down, and when to walk away.

Zentner's writing is poetry in motion; a quiet kind of music that dances off the page and right into your heart. He has an uncanny knack for characterization; I really feel as though I know Travis, Lydia, and Dill, but would love to get to know them even better. Like, IRL friends. Lydia in particular is just the best. Though I didn't think I'd find much to relate to in a fashion blogger, some of her lines are among my favorites. To wit:

“We need some clothes-trying-on-montage music—‘Let’s Hear It for the Boy’ or something. And at one point you come out of the dressing room wearing a gorilla costume or something, and I shake my head immediately.”

“Oh come on, Travis. You have a beautiful body. Dill, tell Travis he has a beautiful body.”

“I think Travis has Bloodfallen for this girl. See what I did there?”

“Oh, and the best part is that because I’m not an awful, gross dude, the keyboard is one hundred percent semen free.”

I just want to go for a ride in Al Gore and let Lydia dress me in some cute vintage clothes. Says the girl whose fashion sense is more Travis than anything else.

The Serpent King is light and laughter and love...and also tears and tragedy and heartbreak. This book will tear your heart into one thousand and one pieces and then slowly and methodically stitch it back together, leaving an even stronger, shinier, fuller muscle beating in your chest cavity.

My all-time favorites list is dominated by SF/F and dystopias - Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials; Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy; Kindred and the Parables duology by Octavia Butler - but The Serpent King might just be the first/only contemporary YA book to break into the top twenty. If there's an ounce of fairness in the world, it will become a classic. It's that good.

Like, already-time-for-a-re-read-because-I-devoured-it-too-quickly-the-first-time good.

Still-gonna-be-thinking-about-it-years-from-now good.

Would-share-it-with-my-kids-if-I-had-any good.

Best-kind-of-hurt-good.

10/5 stars good.

So, so freaking good.

In summary, I feel richer for having read it. How often can you say that?

http://www.easyvegan.info/2016/03/09/the-serpent-king-by-jeff-zentner/ show less

This is a perfect example why you should not allow labels like YA deter you from reading any book.

Dillard Early, Travis Bohannon, and their snarky sweet friend Lydia Blankenship have been friends for years. The book begins just before the beginning of their senior year of high school. These three are are not members of the so called "IN" crowd, or any clique aside from their own. They are all more mature than their fellow classmates for various reasons.

Lydia writes a blog called Dollywould and has a lot of followers there as well as on other social media. She is quirky and kind. Dillard, called Dill in the story is the son of a preacher. Not your typical preacher, but he's one of the ones you hear about who handle snakes and speak in show more tongues. Dill does not follow in his fathers footsteps, which is just as well. His father is in prison. And Travis is a sweet guy who finds escape in fantasy novels, particularly those of a particular author. He imagines himself in that world, to cope with his dysfunctional family

What happens during their senior year, will make you smile, it will make you cheer and it may even make you cry. But whether you cry from joy or sadness is what you will find out in this extraordinary story of three friends who have each others backs. They embody the meaning of friendship. We could learn a lot from them. I cannot imagine anyone not loving these young people, or reretting the time spent reading this book. It will be on my re-read shelf for sure.

Recommended. show less

First-time author Jeff Zentner's YA novel THE SERPENT KING follows Dill and his friends Travis and Lydia through their final year of high school and explores their struggles to break free of heredity and inheritance. It's a typical problem novel, and this trio faces a pile of problems indeed. But of course, because the book is intended for "children", it must somehow end happily.

Dill is the central character. Dill and Travis have hard lives, while Lydia's is privileged, apart from the "hardship" of growing up in a small Southern town. Numerous forces — such as poverty, abusive fathers, school bullying, small-minded religiosity, and a general nastiness — may keep the friends from achieving their dreams. The plot, told in their show more alternating voices, describes what happens and how it affects them.

I read A LOT of YA books and understand why many adults dislike the genre. Problem fiction always risks overdoing the drama; mishandled, problem novels turn into miserablism for teens. That's how this novel reads. Every plot point feels heavy and overdetermined — but perhaps that's what a reader should expect when the novelist sets his story in a town named after a founder of the Ku Klux Klan. (The author's comments suggest that he based the book on his own experiences of growing up in the American South.)

Novels like this often receive heaps of praise for being sensitive, gritty, and realistic, and certainly this novel is realistic. Many teens do struggle with serious problems, and the political and social fracturing of communities — particularly between urban and small-town rural and between haves and have-nots — amplifies the already significant challenge of growing up. But writing about individuals' problems does not necessarily make a great book. Perhaps for people who don't read much YA literature, this book feels fresh and aware because of the ground it covers; for anyone immersed in the genre, however, it feels overburdened with types and tropes (not to mention a heavy-handed attempt to update the character of Atticus Finch in the form of Lydia's dad). The dread-filled atmosphere was so thoroughgoing and unrelieved that I found the book a challenge to grind through. And the conclusion, when everything is set as right as it can be, was far too long. I stopped caring about the characters and their futures — that's not a good sign for any book.

If you're a straight white Christian boy growing up in a small Southern town, THE SERPENT KING confirms that "it gets better" when you grow up and leave. Such a conclusion frankly makes me wonder what small-town America will be in another decade — but perhaps current US politics already tells *that* story.

THE SERPENT KING is a fine book, but just that: fine. I am not the audience for this novel and didn't care for it. show less

Dill is no stranger to hardship. He's dirt poor, financially supporting his mother, and seems to have zero future prospects. His father, a snake-handling preacher, is in prison; many of his former parishioners blame Dill. Yet Dill has two things that keep him getting up in the morning - his friends Travis and Lydia. The three are strikingly different but are pushed together by their mutual status as social outcasts.

This is a story about friendship, futures, and fighting. It's the first book in a long time that's made me just start bawling - I'm generally avoid crying if I can, but this book deserved a good cry. It was that moving. I didn't just feel for Dill and his friends, I felt with them - which is saying a lot since I personally show more have not experienced most of the hardships that Dill and his friends were going through.

The characterization and mood of this book were what made it amazing. The characters were real. They were flawed. They got angry for stupid reasons or were sometimes bossy and blind to the needs of others. Yet they were perfect. They were just what good friends should be. They knew how to love, how to inspire, how to live. The mood of the book was remarkably well-kept. It somehow mixed the darkness of hardship with the light of an amazing friendship.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anybody who likes gritty teen realism. Personally, I volunteer for a texting crisis hotline for teenagers, and I find reading books like these helps me to better relate to the teens that text in. I am currently collecting books that I think would either be good to recommend to troubled teens, or help others in the crisis center to empathize with teens in crisis. I consider this an important collection, and carefully think about each book that I include. This one is a definite yes. Issues that I consider important in this book - religious extremism (and how it impacts youths), family members in prison, bullying, grief, mental illness, and coping mechanisms. show less

The Serpent King is a beautifully written and touching YA tale by author Jeff Zentner. It is the story of three young misfits in Forrestville, Tennessee, a town named after a Confederate general. Dill Early Jr is the son of a Pentecostal preacher who drank poison, handled poisonous snakes, and is now in prison for child pornography, a crime many including his mother believe is really Dill’s. Dill has always been afraid of the snakes, something his father has used to humiliate him. He is also a talented musician although very few outside the church know this. Travis is a gentle giant of a boy, abused by his father and grieving the death of his older brother. He finds solace in a series of fantasy books, wears a tacky dragon pendant, show more and carries a staff, all of which help to make him an outcast at school. He spends much of his time online discussing the books he loves and has developed an online relationship with another fan. Lydia is smart, witty, already making a name for herself as a fashion blogger. She uses her wit to fight back against the bigotry and small cruelties of her classmates. Of the three, she is the only one who is an outsider by choice. They are in their last year of high school and all three want to escape the confines of the town but Lydia, thanks in great part to her supportive parents, is the only one who has the opportunity and has already made plans. She is determined, however, to push the other two and offers them both options, Dill through his music and Travis through writing.

The story is told in the third person and alternates between the three giving the reader an intimate look at their thoughts, feelings, and dreams. Dill feels the most trapped and Travis, despite his father, is the most hopeful. Lydia is the least likable of the three often seeming unable or perhaps refusing to see her advantages and pushing the other two to change their futures without looking at the reasons why they feel unable to. On the other hand, without her, they would have no hopes of a better life even if the ones she offers seem impossible.

It is impossible not to root for the three even Lydia or shed a tear when tragedy strikes. Often using short, active sentences, Zentner’s writing perfectly brings to life the poverty of the South, a religion foreign to most of us, the small and large cruelties of many people including some parents, the difficulty of fitting in to this kind of lifestyle for many teens, and the difficulties of escaping. He tells the story with clarity, empathy, and hope and he makes the reader care for his characters in a way few writers can. That it is his debut novel makes it even more impressive.

I received this book from the Early Reviewers Program on Librarything in exchange for an honest review show less

By and large, this is a competently told, feeling account of the senior year of three close friends who are otherwise misfits. The outspoken Lydia, a fashion blogger with loving, supportive parents; Travis, whose abusive father has fallen further into alcoholism following the death of Travis's older brother; and the central Dill, son of a preacher father imprisoned for having child pornography and a mother who sees only the narrowest possible godly path for her son in accepting the hardships under which they live and appreciating Jesus' sacrifice. That Dill's father tried to shift the blame for the pornography onto Dill and his mother and several of the ex-congregation believed him is just one added burden he feels he will bear his show more whole life in a town of less than 5000 people.
What didn't quite work for me was the assumption that such disparate and, in two cases, troubled teens would bond so easily and completely, mostly because they are community outliers. It would be great if that were the case, but even intelligence and good will seldom dent adolescent self-absorption. Second was killing off Travis in an arbitrary incident to force a path for Dill to change. I find that is, in some ways, an easy route to force choices and resolutions on other characters. show less