Hype or Like Friday – January 27th, 2017

Just another Hype or Like Friday! This meme and Goodreads group were created by myself, Jill @ Rant and Rave Books, and Britt @ Geronimo Reads. To join our group and find out more information about what it’s all about, please go to our Goodreads page HERE.

The January BOTM is The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner.

Also, the February BOTM is going to be Truthwitch by Susan Dennard!

RULES:

• Answer the weekly discussion topic.
• Optional: Discuss your chosen hyped book of the week.
• Optional: Talk about your progress on the BOTM.

TOPIC OF THE WEEK:  The Serpent King book review!

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. 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.

The Good

I’m just going to be straight up honest right now on how I felt about this novel… It was simply amazing. EVERYTHING WAS AMAZING. Y’all know that I’m not the biggest fan of contemporary. I hardly ever pick them up because they just don’t interest me a whole lot. I like to truly lose myself in a story and contemporaries usually just don’t have that ability to draw me in that way. However, if you want to know just how deeply absorbed in this story I was, then you should know that I read it within 24 hours. It’s true! The writing was beautiful, the storyline was flawless, and the characters truly feel alive. I loved them all, including snobbish Lydia. But I have to admit that sweet Travis was my absolute favorite, just because he’s such a cute little cupcake.

Seriously though, I cannot recommend this book enough. It will make you laugh, cry, and break your heart then put it back together again. I promise that you won’t regret picking up this award-winning novel!

The Bad

There’s really nothing bad about this book for me. I would have enjoyed getting to see more of Dill’s relationship with his family, but in the end it wasn’t enough to detract my overall enjoyment of the story.

Have you read The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner? What did you think of it? Leave a link to your own Hype or Like Friday post in the comments below!