Snake-eater by T. Kingfisher
- t. kingfisher
- fantasy
- 4 stars
- speccy fiction rc
- horror
- book reviews
Title: Snake-eater
Author: T. Kingfisher
Publisher: 47North 2025
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 271
Rating: 4/5 stars
Reading Challenges: Speccy Fiction - Based on myth, folklore
Where I Got It: Library
With only a few dollars to her name and her beloved dog Copper by her side, Selena flees her past in the city to claim her late aunt’s house in the desert town of Quartz Creek. The scorpions and spiders are better than what she left behind.
Because in Quartz Creek, there’s a strange beauty to everything, from the landscape to new friends, and more blue sky than Selena’s ever seen. But something lurks beneath the surface. Like the desert gods and spirits lingering outside Selena’s house at night, keeping watch. Mostly benevolent, says her neighbor Grandma Billy. That doesn’t ease the prickly sense that one of them watches too closely and wants something from Selena she can’t begin to imagine. And when Selena’s search for answers leads her to journal entries that her aunt left behind, she discovers a sinister truth about her new home: It’s the haunting grounds of an ancient god known simply as “Snake-Eater,” who her late aunt made a promise to that remains unfulfilled.
Snake-Eater has taken a liking to Selena, an obsession of sorts that turns sinister. And now that Selena is the new owner of his home, he’s hell-bent on collecting everything he’s owed.
I will pick up anything Kingfisher writes at this point. I love her blend of fantasy and horror. For this one, we are transported into a near future where a woman is searching for her place in the world. I love how we are dumped into this new place along with Selena as she arrives in Quartz Creek. Quickly Selena makes a few connections, but there are so many mysteries. Kingfisher beings to ramp up the tension and the creepy atmosphere as we learn more about exactly how Quartz Creek works. Once the creepy things started happening, the pace ramps up and becomes frenetic until the end. It’s a short book, but I really enjoyed every page of it.
Next up on the TBR pile:
