“The Girl Who Drank the Moon” vs. “Serpent King”

Our group unanimously put forward “The Girl Who Drank the Moon” by Kelly Barnhill.  No arguments were had, not smacking was needed.  Reading these two was like watching a one-sided boxing match:  one threw all the punches and the other just stood there.  No contest.  No discussion.  Clear victory.

Here are a few thoughts from the group:

Lynette

I thought the  "Serpent King" started out with some interesting characters but the whole storyline was fairly weak and I thought the ending was a little predictable and sappy. The characters could have been more developed and the writing style didn't was not super engaging.

In comparison, I normally do not like fantasy but the multiple storylines made the book much more intriguing than the first one (The Serpent King). Perhaps a little on the complex side for younger teens but the appeal of the characters and the desire to find out how their stories are all connected, makes you want to read on.  

Hayley

I found Serpent King to be incredibly disappointing.  I felt like Zentner really struggled to let his characters each have their own voice, and I found his enthusiastic use of a thesaurus to be distracting at best and confusing at its worst.

The main conflict, if you can call it that, seems to be whether Dill will leave town when he graduates. But it's hard to tell initially if that's the central plot at all because Dill doesn't want to leave town and the stakes for this choice are so low that his bestie is the only person who cares about it for 3/4 of the novel.

I was sorely disappointed by the only female main character in the novel, Lydia. Overall I think my biggest frustration - besides the manic pixie dream girl stereotype - is that Lydia's loopy curiosity is used to deliver a lot of exposition about Dill in a way that makes her seem to not know him at all, despite being his self-professed best friend for all of highschool. In her interior monologue she is the best possible friend for Dill, but in reality she's shallow and deeply unlikeable because her existence as a character seems not to be thought out beyond 'she's cool and Dill will like her'.

On the other hand, I really enjoyed the characters of Travis and Dillard. I found Dill's religious interior monologue to be fascinating and authentic feeling, and I loved Travis' gentleness and willingness to walk his own path. I think that if the book had centered around these boys, rather than Lydia's distractions, even with the tragedy that twists the story near the end Dill's character change would have been far more believable and heartbreaking.

Lots of potential in these characters' lives, but I didn't find it a particularly well-told story.

I really loved a lot about “The Girl Who Drank the Moon”, which is surprising considering I typically dislike Fantasy books. I found the structure of the book very engaging - I enjoyed the switch in narration from chapter to chapter and particularly liked the intermittent chapters written from the voice of a parent/grandparent telling tales of the swamp to a child.   I loved that The Girl Who Drank the Moon was written with tongue-in-cheek humor and was very aware of its own existence as a fairytale story. One of the most successful elements of this book, I think, was the dramatic irony that held readers in tension throughout the rising action of the story.   Something else that really touched me was the character of Glerk - I loved the existential idea that he was a Swamp Monster and the poet and the bog all at once. The closing vignette with Xan and Glerk in the bog had me in tears!

In fact, there were so many great characters in this book, with lots of opportunities to discuss and evaluate character choices and motives with students. I think it would be really cool to read aloud to a class and definitely want a copy for my classroom library.

Tristin & Lindsay

The beauty of “The Girl Who Drank the Moon” was in the whimsical storytelling.  The cover and age were a bit off-putting, but when the first few lines, we were spellbound.  

“Yes. There is a witch in the woods. There has always been a witch. Will you stop your fidgeting for once? My stars! I have never seen such a fidgety child. No, sweetheart, I have not seen her. No one has. Not for ages. We've taken steps so that we will never see her. Terrible steps. Don't make me say it.”  

The book reminded Tristin of “Stardust” by Neil Gaiman.  There were many characters all on their own journeys that would eventually converge.  Kelly Barnhill unravelled slowly; giving enough to entertain and leaving out enough to keep you flipping pages.

“Serpent King” seemed like a cliche teen angst story.  You have the classic three misfits who are on the verge of graduating, which will take them away from each other.  There's a little love story, some family turmoil and questions of faith.  We wouldn't say it was a difficult read to get through, but it was not engaging.  Maybe it's from inhaling way too many teen fiction novels, but “Serpent King” seemed like a poor attempt at a John Green novel.  The only unique aspect of the novel was the idea of faith.  Serpents proving your belief and readiness to take the Lord into your hear?  It was an interesting twist but lacked development to the point that it seemed ridiculous.  There were glimmers of hope in the book.  Many lines were swiped for sentence studies with our students, but the book came up short.  Would we recommend either book to our high school students?  Of course!  But we don’t see either book being in the finale, smacking it out for the win.