When a Book Feels Like Home

When Marrisa W. posted this week’s book prompts on Coffee Times I was disappointed because I had just published the article below that would have been perfect for the first one. It was about a book that could have been about me and my friends. I was just a couple of days early.

Luckily, I have been fortunate recently to discover an author who also seems to write about me and my friends: Jeff Zentner.

When The Serpent King was put on the summer reading list for teens at my library I did not read it. I heard the title and assumed it was a teen fantasy book. I was not in the mood to read a teen fantasy book, so I ignored it. I ignored it until someone finally told me it was not a teen fantasy book.

The Serpent King is a realistic fiction book set in rural Tennessee. Dill, Lydia, and Travis are best friends in Forrestville. Dill is a musician who grew up in a Pentecostal snake-handling church. His father, the pastor, has gone to prison for a terrible crime and he and his mother are impoverished, Travis works at his family’s lumberyard and is obsessed with a fantasy book series. Lydia comes from a middle-class family and runs a popular fashion blog.

All three are dealing with what comes after graduation. Lydia’s blog is her ticket out of the small town and to bigger and better things. College and music could be Dill’s ticket out of town, but his mom is pushing him to drop out of school to get a job to help with the bills. Tragedy strikes and leads Dill to a decision about his future.

Zentner included the quote below in an author’s note in the book

“I wanted to write about young people who struggle to live lives of dignity and find beauty in a forgotten and unglamorous place. Who wonder what becomes of dreams once they cross the county line. This book is my love letter to those young people and anyone who has ever felt like them, no matter where they grew up.”

I grew up in a place that could be considered forgotten and unglamorous. A small town in Kentucky where many kids dream of escaping to a bigger and brighter world. A small town where some days it seems like your dreams will die. Many kids have the same dilemma as Dill. College or talent seems to be a way out of town and to a better life, but money issues hold them back. They stay behind when others leave because college is not an option. A thin line separates those who make it out and those who are left behind.

I felt completely connected to the characters and could see a little bit of myself in them. Reading the book felt like going home and made me miss my high school days and my high school friends. Zentner has written three other books. His latest, In the Wild Light, hit me the same. Zentner writes for kids like me. Small town kids with dreams of bigger things, but a fear of what lies beyond the county line.

I will end with a shout-out to Brad and his article below on 10 must-read books. I loved the idea of summarizing them in one sentence to make it a nice, quick, but informative read.