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.

 

The Serpent King is one of those books that seemed to be released quietly, and yet is taking everyone by surprise. I had heard about this book and thought it sounded somewhat interesting but probably not one I would buy for myself, so when it came in my very first Owlcrate I was pretty excited! There are so many 5-star reviews for this book and almost everyone is raving about it so I immediately bumped it up on my TBR list.

Unfortunately I seem to be in the minority because to me this book was just okay. It is well written and the topics are real and relatable, but I just felt like something was missing. There are a few “big moments” scattered throughout but the rest of the book was a little boring.

This book covers some tough subjects, my eyes even watered a few times, but for some reason it just didn’t blow me away like it seemed to do to everyone else. I felt that though it was a quick enough read, if I were to put it down and walk away I probably wouldn’t have felt that bad about it.

I follow Zentner on social media now and he seems like a really great guy.  I will most likely check out whatever he puts out next, but I don’t think I’ll end up rereading this one any time soon.

 

Have you read this book? What did you think?