Books & Brews Book Club
at Connecticut Valley Brewing Company
11/21/19
6:30 PM
hosted by @JessGReads.
Our November Pick
“The Serpent King” By Jeff Zentner
Reviews and synopsis
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.
The only antidote to all this venom is his friendship with fellow outcasts Travis and Lydia. But as they are starting their senior year, Dill feels the coils of his future tightening around him. The end of high school will lead to new beginnings for Lydia, whose edgy fashion blog is her ticket out of their rural Tennessee town. And Travis is happy wherever he is thanks to his obsession with the epic book series Bloodfall and the fan-girl who may be turning his harsh reality into real-life fantasy. Dill’s only escapes are his music and his secret feelings for Lydia—neither of which he is brave enough to share. Graduation feels more like an ending to Dill than a beginning. But even before then, he must cope with another ending—one that will rock his life to the core.
Debut novelist Jeff Zentner provides an unblinking and at times comic view of the hard realities of growing up in the Bible Belt, and an intimate look at the struggles to find one’s true self in the wreckage of the past.
The Serpent King:
William C. Morris YA Debut Award (2017)
Rhode Island Teen Book Award Nominee (2018)
Evergreen Teen Book Award Nominee (2019)
Milwaukee County Teen Book Award Nominee (2017)
Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Nominee (2017)
Lincoln Award Nominee (2018)
Great Lakes Great Books Award for 9-12 (2018)
Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Debut Goodreads Author & for Young Adult Fiction (2016)
Missouri Gateway Readers Award Nominee (2018)
**Gula Grill food truck will be there that night too 3-9**