The Serpent King (Crown/Random House) (2016)
Dillard Early Jr., Travis Bohannon, and Lydia Blankenship are three friends who have one thing in common: none of them fit the mold in tiny Forrestville, Tennessee. Dill, a talented musician, grew up in a Pentecostal snakehandling church, playing in the praise band. During his freshman year, his father went to prison for a heinous crime, leaving Dill and his mother impoverished.
Travis is a gentle giant who works at his family’s lumberyard and is obsessed with a Game of Thrones–like fantasy series, much to his abusive, alcoholic father’s displeasure.
Lydia comes from a loving upper-middle-class family and runs a popular fashion blog that’s part Tavi Gevinson, part Angela Chase, and part Dolly Parton. She’s actively plotting her escape from rural Tennessee for bigger and better things, to capitalize on her Internet fame. This will mean leaving behind Dill—whose feelings for her run deep.
But that’s not Dill’s only problem. He has a cursed name. His grandfather, Dillard Early, became consumed with slaughtering snakes in grief and vengeance after one killed his daughter. He wore their skins pinned to his clothes during his descent into darkness. The whispering and staring locals called him “the Serpent King” before he committed suicide by poison. Dill’s father, also named Dillard Early, was the pastor of Dill’s church, whose parishioners handled serpents and drank poison as signs of faith.
Caught between his mother’s pulling him to drop out of school to help pay off the family debts and Lydia’s pushing him to go to college to escape Forrestville’s whispers and stares, Dill is quickly approaching a reckoning. One that will force him to confront the legacy of darkness—serpents and poison and self-destruction—that is his inheritance.
[T]his sepia-toned portrait of small-town life serves as a moving testament to love, loyalty, faith, and reaching through the darkness to find light and hope. Zentner explores difficult themes head on—including the desire to escape the sins of the father and the fragility of happiness—while tempering them with the saving grace of enduring friendship.
–Publishers Weekly (starred)
A touching debut…Characters, incidents, dialogue, the poverty of the rural South, enduring friendship, a desperate clinging to strange faiths, fear of the unknown, and an awareness of the courage it takes to survive, let alone thrive, are among this fine novel’s strengths. Zentner writes with grace and understanding–a new voice to savor.
–Kirkus Reviews (starred)
[T]his novel offers a heartbreaking yet ultimately hopeful portrait of three friends and the love/hate relationship they have with the insular community they grew up in.
–The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred)
Pens would run dry if readers were to underline extraordinary sentences–the kind that are so true, or funny, or beautiful that they clamp hearts…Zentner sings a song of deep pain and harsh reality, but also of fierce love and hope.
–Shelf Awareness (starred)
[A]n ambitious, sui generis genre mash-up…Zentner’s great achievement — particularly impressive for a first novel — is to make us believe three such different people could be friends. He also manages to blend a dank, oppressive, Flannery O’Connor-esque sense of place with humor and optimism…I adored all three of these characters and the way they talked to and loved one another.
–The New York Times
[D]azzingly written…A tale to make you weep, and be glad, about big questions and small joys.
–The Sunday Times (London)
[A] richly textured tale…The universal highs, lows and power shifts in friendship are played out by three compelling characters.
–The Guardian
An intensely moving, enthralling debut.
–Metro UK
“[C]lear eyes, full hearts” Southern earnestness mingled with the eerie creepiness of Winter’s Bone and a tragic turn of events in the final third of the book makes for a totally addictive read. This one’s a real heart worm–it’ll wiggle in deep.
–The Globe and Mail
Thorough characterization and artful prose allow readers to intimately experience the highs and lows of these three friends. VERDICT: Recommended for fans of John Green and Rainbow Rowell.
–School Library Journal (Popular Pick)
A musician himself, Zentner transitions to prose easily in his debut, pulling in complex issues that range from struggles with faith to abuse to grief…A promising new voice in YA.
–Booklist
Zentner combines the melancholy of being 17 with the melancholy present in the best of Southern fiction and gives us a novel that will fill the infinite space that was left in your chest after you finished The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
–Book Riot
Move over, John Green; Zentner is coming for you.
–The New York Public Library
The Serpent King is a book you won’t be able to resist or forget. The Southern boy in me savored every syllable and the reader in me fell in love with every page.
–John Corey Whaley, National Book Award Finalist and Printz Award winner
The Serpent King gripped me in its coils and kept me turning pages late into the night. A triumph of love and dignity.
–Stephanie Perkins, New York Times bestselling author
An American Library Association William C. Morris Award winner
An International Literacy Association Young Adult Book Award winner
An ALAN Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award winner
A Westchester Fiction Award Winner
A New York Times Notable Children’s Book
Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal (UK)
A Southern Book Prize finalist
An Indies Choice Award Finalist
A Publishers Weekly Flying Start
An AML YA Book Award winner
A Whitney Debut YA Award winner
An International Literary Association Young Adults’ Choices pick
A Paste Magazine Best YA Books of the Decade Pick
A Best Book of the Year, Bank Street College of Education & Children’s Book Committee, 2017 Edition
A Michigan Great Lakes Great Books Award winner
A Texas Library Association Top 10 TAYSHA pick
A Volunteer State Book Award Nominee
A Vermont Green Mountain Book Award Masterlist pick
An Oregon Battle of the Books pick
A Louisiana Teen Readers’ Choice nominee
A Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Book Award nominee
An Oklahoma Sequoyah Masterlist pick
A Pennsylvania Keystone to Reading Book Award Masterlist pick
A South Carolina Book Award nominee
An Illinois Lincoln Award nominee
A Florida Teen Reads pick
A Washington State Evergreen Teen Book Award nominee
A Goodreads Choice Award finalist for Debut Author
Shortlisted for the Irish School Library Association’s Great Reads Award
A YALSA Top Ten Book for Young Adults
A YALSA Reluctant Reader Quick Pick
A Cybil Award finalist
A Wilde Award finalist
A Nerdy Book Club Award winner
A Southern Living Best of 2016 pick
A Telegraph Best of 2016 Pick
A Publishers Weekly Best of 2016 Pick
A Kirkus Best of 2016 Pick
A Hudson Booksellers Best of 2016 Pick
A Barnes and Noble Best of 2016 Pick
An Amazon Best of 2016 Pick
A Buzzfeed Best of 2016 pick
A Mashable Best of 2016 pick
A Book Riot Best of 2016 Pick
A Bustle Best of 2016 Pick
A Paste Magazine Best of 2016 Pick
A Shelf Awareness Best of 2016 Pick
A Novel Novice Best of 2016 Pick
A Minnesota Public Radio Best of 2016 Pick
An Indies Introduce Pick
An Indie Next Top Ten Pick
An Amazon Best Book of the Month
A Southern Independent Booksellers Okra Pick
An OwlCrate Pick
Amazon’s July YA Book Club Pick