Wednesday, February 3, 2016

The Serpent King By Jeff Zentner

Hey readers and TBF Fans, I hope the New Year has been treating you well! Although break has ended, I’ve still been reading and I’ve got a fantastic book for you today!

Dillard Early has had a rough life in the tiny town of Forrestville, Tennessee ever since his father, a pastor at the local church who encouraged his followers to handle snakes and drink poison, was arrested. Amongst the whispers and constant ridicule of the town around him, only his friends, and fellow misfits, really understand him. Dill’s two friends, Travis and Lydia, are his escapes from his chaotic life, but they have plans and futures of their own. As Dill’s senior year draws closer to an end, he has to try and unlock new doors and say some painful goodbyes. After a tragedy that affects them all, it seems only music and his promises to Lydia can save him now.

A wise author once told me that he thinks books should be written to be remembered. He told me that readers are going to remember the book that made them upset. By this I think he was saying that some of the best books worth reading aren’t the ones that make you feel happy and satisfied the whole way. They carry a message, a truth that needs to be noticed and remembered. The Serpent King was like that for me. In all honesty I didn't like it at first. It was outside my normal genre and I wasn't sure where the plot was taking me. I’m happy to report that my first impression of this book was so wrong. You know the author is doing something very right when you care enough about the characters to really feel for them. The trio of Dill, Lydia, and Travis was a fantastic oddball mix of personalities. Dill is understandably melancholy but always there for his friends, Lydia is bright, brave, and downright amazing, and Travis is the leveler who brought the two closer but still added his own spice to the story. I found the themes in this book to be thought provoking and even sometimes tear-jerking. Jeff Zentner does an absolutely fantastic job with this book. Would I recommend it to fellow teen readers? Oh yes, I would. Over and over again. I don’t regret a single minute of those twenty-four hours straight I spent reading it and I hope that neither will you.     

That's all for today!

~Theresa

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