The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner
4/5 Stars
Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers
Released: March 8th, 2016
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 384
“If you're going to live, you might as well do painful, brave, and beautiful things.”
In the story, we have our three main characters: Dill, Lydia, and Travis, who are a close-knit band of friends. Dill is the son of an incarcerated preacher, who has a passion for music. Lydia is a sassy, goal oriented blogger who dreams of bigger things. And Travis who is a big dude with a love of fantasy novels, and the outsider of his stereotypical southern family.
This is not the type of book I normally would pick up. Truthfully, if I hadn’t been given this book, I probably would never have read it. That being said, this book surprised me. I went into this book knowing nothing (except that there was something about snakes and religion). And when I found out I was getting the book, I actively avoided reading anything about it (I didn’t even read the summary).
At first, I almost DNF’d this book. Why? Because I’m not that big into YA contemporary stories. But, The Serpent King definitely isn't your typical YA Contemporary novel. It is a mix of everything you wish a YA Contemporary could be, and it wasn't totally cliche. I’m so glad I continued with this book. This book emotionally destroyed me in all the right ways. It’s the first book to make me cry (I’m talking gross, uncontrollable sobbing) in a very long time. (I think the last book to do that was The Fault in Our Stars back in 2012). And I wasn’t expecting it. I wasn't prepared for it to shatter my heart into a million pieces. Throughout reading the first half of this book I didn’t think it would hit me so hard. It really started as a 3 star read and ended as a solid, 4 star read.
This is a very character driven novel and each character felt very real. The characters in this book are all incredibly unique and easily relatable. Seriously, there is something in every character that you can easily relate to. The characters are really what make this story. Even the plot is somewhat unique, and what I loved about this book is that didn't even make the characters attending classes a major focus. This is a well-crafted, beautiful story about three teenagers finding themselves.
This book is the perfect blend of comedy, romance and drama that all fit perfectly together into one beautiful puzzle. The writing is compelling, original and in some places so intense you cannot help but continue reading, this book had me up all night trying to finish it once I got hooked. Truly, this book is stunning. I can't say enough about it.
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